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4. OPERATION AND USAGE
4.1. Start up
Power up the mixer by pushing the POWER (15) switch. The green pilot-light, integrated into the
switch itself, will immediately light up. Although the noise generated by powering up the COMPACT 8 is
reduced to a bare minimum and is nearly null with the OUT (17 and 20) controls down, it is always
advisable not to forget about this power-up sequence: sound sources, mixer, equalizers, active filters
and power amplifiers. Power down the equipment by following the inverse sequence. This way the
peaks or transients produced by powering up / down a device do not affect the following one in the audio
chain and, as a result, they do not reach the loudspeakers, which are the most vulnerable audio
elements in this case.
4.2. Monitoring
The COMPACT 8 is equipped with an acoustical and visual monitoring system, through
headphones and VU METER. When switching ON any of the PFL buttons (7), signal(s) present at the
input(s) will be heard through the headphones and seen on the VU METER. If no switch is at the ON
position, the signal present at the main mix bus is monitored (open faders).
4.3. Channel gain and equalization
These controls allow individual input sensitivity and tone adjustments for each channel.
Thanks to the GAIN (1) control, you can precisely adjust the signal level of an incoming musical
signal to match the level of the music that is playing on air through another channel. This operation may
be performed visually (through the left VU-meter) and acoustically (through the headphones),
successively comparing both signals with the PFL buttons. The Gain knobs offer an adjustment range of
±20dB.
The three band tone controls (6-9-10) affect bass, mid and treble frequencies and offer a ±15dB
variation range. Please be careful when using the tone controls in order not to overload the
loudspeakers.
Furthermore, the mid section features a semiparametric control (8) that allows adjustment of the
center frequency. The frequency adjustment range goes from 300Hz to 6k5Hz.
4.4. Channel indicators
Each of the 8 input channels features two indicators. The green SP LED (4) shows the presence
of signal on the currently selected input. The indicator lights up at a threshold of –40dBV.
The red PEAK LED (3) warns about the risk of saturation, that is exceeding the recommended
signal input level limit. This LED may sporadically flash without risk of damaging the unit, but it should
never stay lit continuously. This indicator lights up at a threshold of 10dBV
4.5. Talkover
This device automatically reduces the signal level of the main output. This happens at the first
voice "hit" of the speaker on the microphone (or line) plugged into channel 8. When the speaker stops
talking, the music level comes up to the initial level. This function is enabled through the TALKOVER
(25) switch, and has efficiency, EFF (26), i.e. main signal level attenuation (between 0 and 30dB) and
recovery time, TIME (14), the time necessary for a progressive come back to the original level (between
0,1 and 3 sec).
The Talkover can be activated by channel 7 if certain internal jumpers for the bus-assignment
are re-soldered. See configuration diagram.
This modification must be performed by an Authorized Technical Service.
