Preamp Gain Sharing

The output of the preamp may be split to feed two or more systems via a digital link such as ACE, EtherSound or MADI interconnected via Port B.

Note - If you are sharing the mic preamps between systems such as FOH, monitor and recording, assign the master MixRack Inputs to the Port B digital mic split using the Surface OUTPUTS screen. Do not use the channel Direct Outputs as these follow the digital trim on the master system.

The GAIN control is part of the front end preamp circuit. Adjusting Gain will affect all systems sharing the preamp.

For this reason iLive adds a wide ranging +/-24dB TRIM control to every channel immediately after the preamp and converter. This gives each system sharing the preamp independent front end 'gain' control.

Option to Show PREAMP or TRIM on Surface

To avoid accidentally adjusting Gain instead of Trim you can choose to present the TRIM instead of GAIN function on the rotary control within the Surface PREAMP section. This choice also affects which is presented on the strip rotaries using the Alt View function. The true Gain control is still available within the PREAMP screen on the master system.

 

To use the Gain Sharing system:

Choose which channels to use Trim instead of Gain. These would be the channels being split between systems. Touch Trim on Surface within each channel PREAMP screen. Touch PreAmp on Surface if you want to restore Surface Gain control.

You can also change this setting globally to affect all channels, then individually change back those where you want to access Gain control. This may be quicker if you are sharing a large number of channels. Do this by setting the option in the Surface MIXRACK / Mixer Pref screen .

Start by setting all Trim controls to 0dB.  You can do this using the RESET key with the SEL button in the PREAMP screen Trim section or Surface PREAMP section if Trim on Surface is set.

A faster way to do this is to COPY just the Trim section of one channel set to 0dB, then PASTE it to the other channels using their strip SEL keys.

Next, set the preamp GAIN controls during sound check. You can do this by carrying out sound check with Gain on Surface option set, or accessing the PREAMP screen Gain control.

Then operate your show with the TRIM controls. These provide +/-24dB range which is plenty to make adjustments during the show. If you need to change GAIN you can still do this from within the PREAMP screen.

Note - The POLARITY control is part of the TRIM section.

 

Note - COPY/PASTE/RESET: