Getting The Right VU Meter Reading

[chrisinumerable]

Well i'm using a Mackie 32x8bus Console and I got protools stereo going out thru two of the channels (panned hard left and hard right). I've just been putting it up to a comfortable amount to listen but then I realized that I haven't been getting the right VU reading. Do i put the faders at 0 (unity gain) and 0 at the master fader? I want to be able to get an accurate reading so it can help me with how louds my mixes should be. Please help

[chrisinumerable]

bump

[iomegaman]

"0" if the signal in is calibrated at .775 volts...

Check your manual.

[chrisinumerable]

i dont have the manual anymore. how can i check that?

[theblue1]

Knock thine self out: Mackie Tech Support - Manuals


Without checking your board I'm assuming it doesn't have a full individual channel meter bridge so you'll presumably have to use buss metering to set the gain structure for an individual channel.

Assign the channel in question to the chosen buss. Set the channel fader to unity gain (0 dB). If the buss meter is post-fader, make sure you set the buss fader to unity, as well.

Now, with the signal going into the channel input, bring up the channel trim pot until your meter is where you want it, something around unity gain, depending on your philosophy (some people like to hit the channel hard for saturation; me, I'm conservative and my board does not have a gentle saturation threshold, anyway).

Your channel trim is now set so that an optimal signal is going into the channel. The normally accepted best practice is then to mix with the slider pots of your channel faders. You will get the best signal to noise ratio by doing this.

However, with elements that will be low in the mix anyway, you may find it more flexible or convenient to lower the channel trim so that when your mix levels are developed, the fader is higher on its throw than it would have been with a fully optimized gain structure. Since that channel is going to be relatively low in the mix, the added noise may be negligible in the finished mix, anyway.

(Also, it's been suggested elsewhere that some lesser or older boards may have had a 'not-so-sweet-spot' at the low end of the slider throw, that at the lower levels, the sound was somehow degraded. If you find yourself on such a board, it seems like it would certainly make sense to lower the channel trim so that you can raise the mix position of the slider out of this apparent not-so-sweet-spot.)

There's a longer thread arguing the merits of various approaches currently in the Low End Theory forum: Mixing Console Gain Structure

It's a little on the chaotic side, but it may be helpful to see how different folks approach the issue and what their thinking is.

[chrisinumerable]

another thing. how do i get a unity gain on the monitors on the 003 rack to the mackie 2 channel stereo?