Should I Zero the Desk Before Mixing?
- Thread starter JRCnorth
- Start date
ashcat_lt
Well-known member
Need and want are two different things. If you've been tracking through the mixer, it's probably not set quite right for your mixdown. It ain't gonna explode, but it might not sound right. So you'll turn the knobs until it does. OTOH - "zeroed" probably won't sound right either, so you'll turn the knobs til it does. So....
miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
I like to always zero the mixer.
Like mixsit said...you get to hear the raw tracks and then adjust them as needed.
Yeah...if you like always track your bass the exact same way, and you always do the exact same things to it at the mixer...it makes you think, why bother zeroing those channels...?...but I find it to be also a mental exercise, a preparation to begin the new mix.
Besides...it's good to exercise those faders and knobs.
Like mixsit said...you get to hear the raw tracks and then adjust them as needed.
Yeah...if you like always track your bass the exact same way, and you always do the exact same things to it at the mixer...it makes you think, why bother zeroing those channels...?...but I find it to be also a mental exercise, a preparation to begin the new mix.
Besides...it's good to exercise those faders and knobs.
bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
When mixing live on an installed system that somebody else will be using I zero the board at the end of the night. Otherwise I pretty much do whatever I feel like doing. When I was providing PA for one band for multiple gigs I'd just switch it off and throw the cover on so it would be 95% ready for the next show.
I'll mix as I go. I have a tascam m520 desk which is an inline console. As in, the tracking channels become the mixing channels with a flick of a switch.
It has a separate 16 channel monitor section.
Once I've done all the basic tracking, I'll monitor all the new tracks in the monitor setting, but previously recorded tracks will be played back thru the mixer section.
This way I'm building a mix as I go.
Just one way of doing it.
But for a mix session from start, I'll start from scratch.
All faders zeroed, all pan pots centered, all eq turned off and centered and all effects sends are zeroed as well.
I want a clean slate with no suprises.
It has a separate 16 channel monitor section.
Once I've done all the basic tracking, I'll monitor all the new tracks in the monitor setting, but previously recorded tracks will be played back thru the mixer section.
This way I'm building a mix as I go.
Just one way of doing it.
But for a mix session from start, I'll start from scratch.
All faders zeroed, all pan pots centered, all eq turned off and centered and all effects sends are zeroed as well.
I want a clean slate with no suprises.