BASIC PRINCIPLES OF RECORDING
The Mixer
The Mixer
As one would expect, the main purpose of the mixer is
to combine sounds, but under precise and smooth
control. This is why long-throw faders are essential on
any professional product. The faders provide you with
total control of the final sound at your finger tips and
like an artist playing an instrument you should listen to
your fader movements, not look at your hands.
Your SPIRIT STUDIO mixer accepts a wide range of in-
put signals via a microphone input, for very low level
signals, or a line input, for higher level signals from, for
instance, tape machines, effects processors, etc.
The mixer is split into two sections. The Inputs receive,
match and process individual source signals, and dis-
tributes them at precise mix levels to a choice of
outputs. The Master and Group sections allow overall
level control of all outputs, and provides monitoring of
the audio signal at many points in the mixer, either on
headphones or meters.
The Equaliser controls are the most flexible and poten-
tially destructive feature of the mixer. They have a
similar effect on the frequency response of the input
channel as the tone controls on a hi-fi system, but with
much greater precision, and allow particular charac-
teristics of the input signal to be emphasised or
reduced. It is very important that you become familiar
with the effect each control has on the sound and this
is best achieved by spending time listening to the effect
of each control on a well-known track played through
the mixer.
The Auxiliary Sends provide a way of routing the input
signals to a number of secondary outputs, for artists
foldback, echo units or additional speaker outputs.
The Pan control adjusts the position of the input signal
within the stereo mix, and can be swept from full left,
through to full right. This allows particular artists to re-
tain their correct spatial position within the mix,
particularly important for stereo recording.
Pre-Fade-Listen(PFL) allows you to monitor the signal
at many points in the mixer. Pressing any PFL switch
places the signal at that particular point onto the control
room outputs (or headphones if plugged in) and the
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