Mixing board analogy for beginners.

SPINSTERWUN

Active member
I thought that I would post this here in this forum, for the people that don't fully understand how a mixer works/routes. [The person asking the question didn't know how his Tascam Portastudio worked ]. The answer that BillyFurnett furnished was explained in "laymans terms". ;)

BillyFurnett said:
Hey Ben,

(Maybe you already know this stuff.. If so please disregard)


See, there are Channels AND there are Tracks..

A Channel is a path the sound/signal takes.

A Track is where the sound/signal is stored for playback.


A "*Mixer" is a unit able to accept several signals from such things as Mic's, Guitars and Keyboards and give them each it's own path.

While each signal is going down its path you can adjust the Volume, EQ, Pan (Left or Right posistion) of each signal...

So basically a 16 CHANNEL mixer has the abilty to accept 16 seperate signals OR give 16 instruments their own paths (Same thing.)

Mixers DO NOT store the sounds, Mixers (Basically) ROUTE the sounds down paths so that you can adjust and blend them together (Mix them), before sending them to the recorder.

If you were using a Mixer with a Portastudio all of the signals would go into the mixer first, get blended, then sent out to the Portastudio to be recorded.

NOTE: There are different types of mixers and ways mixers are used... Some mixers do many other "Side features" that are also useful and making the mixer "Flexible" (See more towards the bottom.)

Here are SOME examples of how/why a mixer might be used with a Portastudio while recording alone OR in a whole band recording situation:

ALONE: You want to have 2 (Or more) Mics picking up the sound of your guitar amp, then blend (Mix) and send them out to one Portastudio track.

BAND: You find yourself recording an orchestra which takes several mics... what do you do? You plug all of the mics into a mixer, where you can adjust them a little, then once blended the sounds go from the mixer out to your Portastudio which records them.

ALONE: Using a keyboard (Or Keyboards).


BAND OR ALONE: You are a drummer and each drum has a mic on it, but you just want 1 drum track on your Portastudio, so you run all the mics through the mixer and maybe adjust some to sound as if they are coming from the left or some from the right (This is PAN) AND/OR if like the bass drum is too loud, you can just turn that mics CHANNEL down (Or up) using the sliding volume lever called a FADER.

BAND: Everyone in the band is all set up and has their sound going through the mixer, but in walks three (Or more!) HOT back up singers that will sound sooooo cool going "Ooo" and "Ahh" in a song... What do you do? First you tell the guitar player his car is getting towed so he runs out the door, then YOU get their phone numbers... After that you plug in three (Or more) mics (One for each of them) into three (or more.. as many as you need) empty mixer channels and adjust the volume so it sounds good blended with the rest of the band.

It's always good to have more CHANNELS on a mixer than Tracks on the recorder AND/OR More Channels than instuments.

A mixer may have several alternative paths in and out for different reasons (For different tasks you might encounter.)

MOST Mixers have a stereo Left and Right out, but in some (if not all cases) you wouldn't connect the mixer to a multitrack machine like that (unless you wanted to)...

(This is PART of what confused the heck out of me for a long time!)
Usually each Track will be given it's own Channel..
That is to say the signal (Guitar, Mic, Keyboard ect.) goes
down the path of mixers Channel #1 and out of the mixer to Track #1 of a Multitrack machine.
This is done when a mixer has a "Direct Out" for each channel... So the sound goes into channel 1 and down the path (Where you adjust it), then it goes DIRECTLY OUT of the mixer into Track 1 of a multitrack machine to be recorded... Channel #2 goes to Track #2, Channel #3 goes to Track #3 and so on.

You with me so far???

OK..

(Now this was where I was sooooooo lost, so since you are new lets make sure you aren't lost too!)

Now lets use the first example I gave above about you wanting to have two mics on your guitar amp, BUT you want the two blended and sent to just one Track on your Portastudio Ok?
Now if channel #1 goes directly out to Track #1, then how do you use two mics???
Ok, mixers have a feature called a BUSS.
(This term screwed with my head till someone here set me straight.)

The mixer MIGHT be a 16 Channel- 4 Buss configuration.
(The amount of Channels and number of Busses varys from mixer to mixer depending on what you buy.)

SO...
If we think of a single mixer Channel as a house, we could say the Input (Where you'd plug a mic into) is the front door and the Direct Out is the back door (Where the signal leaves and goes to a single Track on the multitrack machine.)

With that in mind, the Buss can be thought of as windows!

So if the front door already has a signal walking through it, but you need a second signal coming into the house at the same time (Because remember you want to have two mics on your guitar amp?) then you just press a button and it opens a window (The Buss) and lets the second signal come in that way... Then they both go out the back door together and get recorded.... If you need 3 mics you use the front door (Channel Input) and open two windows (Engage two Busses) and all three will go out the back door together and get recorded.

Makes sense? (If not, do yourself a HUGE favor and find out what I mean because although basic, it opens up the world as far as mixers go.)

OK, so IF you understand that, then lets think about a recorder that ISN'T a Portastudio (BTW I love my Porta Two!)

Lets say it's an 8 track recorder...
(I'll keep this short)

You would send all of your instruments and mics signals to the recorder (One at a time if you want)... FOR EXAMPLE: The Guitars are on Track 1 and 2, The bass is on 3, drums are on 4 and 5, vocals are on 6 and 7 and the keyboard is on 8..., THEN you would hook up it up (Sometimes just flip a switch) so that all of the recorded signals come back into the mixer when you hit
'Play' on the multitrack recorder!!

Why on earth do want them back from the recorder after you spent so much time getting them onto it??!!!

Well it's what is called "Mixdown"...

So when you hit 'Play' on the multitrack machine each recorded signal comes back into the mixer (Down it's own path where you can once again adjust it and put EQ on each seperate track and adjust it from left or right ect ect), THEN once all of the 8 tracks are Blended (Mixed), they NOW ALL go out of the mixer via a Left and a Right Stereo output (Just like on your Portastudio) to a Cassette deck or a CD burner or a Compter or Mini Disk or to a Two track deck and basically its finished.
(OR this is where the "Mastering" process takes place.)

Hope this helps.
:)



*You might see a "Mixer" refered to by a few different names such as "Mixing Board" Mixing Console" "Mixing Desk" "Board" "Console" "Desk".
They are the same.

spin
 
Spinster (and readers of this post),

I made a slight mistake (Ok a major one) in this mixer description and would like to point out my stupidity before it gets passed on.

I say that drums would be fully panned (L or R) onto just one track and that isn't truely so. (Oops)

I also left out Samplers, Drum Machines and Turntables as input device choices.


Sorry for the errors
:)
 
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