SOUND By Leah Butterworth

Sound Desk (front)This is the gain. This controls how much sound is sent from the sound device to the desk.

This is the pan this sends sound left or right using stereo inputs so the left speaker is the left pan and the right speaker is the right pan.

Channel ‘on’ button

Distortion and input lights

These are the special effects channels which are really helpful when doing shows.

Faders: control the volume of each channel output. You can pre or post fade. Pre fade is applied before the effect and post fade is after you have given an effect.

This is the main fader which controls the overall volume. This should be set to zero.

This is the gauge, this shows the volume visually. If this is shown red the sound is way to high and the sound will become distorted and bad quality. When setting the gain you should make sure the lights are showing as all green and a little orange.

These are the many different channels on the desk. There are 24 mono channels but only 12 stereo channels. This is because stereo uses two channels for left and right.

EQ: These three knobs are for high, mid and low frequency. They do different things though. The 1st knob cuts and boosts high frequency. The 2nd knob selects a specific frequency. The 3rd knob cuts and boosts the specific frequency you have set. This makes the sound much better.

AUX: you can use this to isolate certain sounds for example the base or the hi/low/mid freq to boost the certain sound

Sound Desk (back)

This is the power button.

This is for the power source to plug into. The desk has 3 outputs.

One mono and one left and one right. These are the male XLR outputs

These are the female XLR inputs.

This is the ¼ inch jack input for the sound source. Usually either used for CD players or IPod or even a PC.

On the desk there are 24 inputs. There are two ¼ inch jack inputs per channel. This will be mono however for stereo you would need a jack per channel.

Input and Output Channels

There are either 6 or 12 input places to plug in your sound devices. There is either mono or stereo sound. You use mono when only plugging in one device for example a guitar only needs one input whereas stereo is when plugging in more than one device for example a drum kit because it has more than one component.

Output channels are the main source of output so the right output connects to right speaker and left output connects to right speaker.

Pre and post fadePre fade: This means that your applying the amount of effect to a channel and that’s set regardless of the volume. If my effect is applied pre fade the amount of effect wont change, never mind how much volume.

Post fade: Amount of effect will change as I increase the volume . So it is not pre set to a certain amount. So as I increase the volume the effect will increase with it. They will work in tandem together.

Scenario: So if I had four vocalists on stage and I want them to all sound the same so it sounds like there all in the same environment (to sound like there in the same size room) you would first select the correct effect on the microphone .But the volumes may be different for example one vocalist is the lead or one vocalist sings much quieter you would wants pre fade so they all have the same effect regardless of what level the channels are on.If what I want is a scene in a cave and I have two actors playing in the cave and two actors out of the cave you are going to want the amount of effect to be relative to there level of sound. So in that situation you would use post fade.

Effects

Delay: Large locations have delay where sound is projected from where the audience hears it. Small locations have very little delay. For example if I was in a music gig in a small place and wanted to make it seem like it was bigger I would give the sound delay.

Reverb: Reverb is an effect that you would put on if you wanted the sound to reverberate and sound like you are in a much bigger space. For example if you were in a small room you can reverb the sound so if a singer would sing in a small room you can make it seem much bigger whereas bigger rooms for example a cathedral natural reverberate.

Active Speaker You have to plug into a power source but it has a

built in amp. Dials in the back allows you to just plug straight in

Scenario:I would choose a passive speaker over a active speaker if the circumstance was that I was travelling to perform at a venue like a school or gig to needed a speaker because it is much more convenient because it is less to carry when travelling because it has a built in amp so I would only need to carry one thing and not loads.

Passive Speaker

A passive speaker doesn’t have a built in amp you have to have a separate one.

Used for more variety

Scenario: I would choose a passive speaker over an active speaker if the circumstance was that I was rigging the speaker to the ceiling in a performance because they are much lighter because they do not have a built in amp so they would be much more lighter to carry up the ladder.

Accessories

Cables XLR: used for desk to speaker Jacks: different size (like the iPod charges) Phono: used for CD players or Wii or video

equipment Speakon: speaker to amps IEC/Kettle lead: equipment to power source Figure 8: plug in radio and CD players