SECTION
2: The Benefits Of Digital Mixing
9
328 FOCUS: QUERY SYSTEM
Because the Spirit Digital 328 is a very flexible and
fully-featured mixer, its simply not possible to
show all desk parameters simultaneously in order
to let you see how everything is routed or switched
that would produce a very confusing front panel,
whereas the 328 design approach has been to cre-
ate an uncluttered, easy-to-navigate interface. On
an analogue desk, you can quite easily check the
desk state at a glance, because theres one con-
trol per function the trade-off is that you can end
up with a huge number of controls on a front
panel. The idea behind the query system on the
Spirit Digital 328 is that it allows the user to ask a
simple question and get a simple answer. The key is
that it uses the same intuitive means to check rout-
ing as to make the routing assignments. To route
channels 3 and 4 to the stereo mix bus, for exam-
ple, you do the following: Press the Select button
for channel 3, and see if the Route To Mix button is
lit. If not, then press the Route To Mix button to
assign the channel to the mix bus; the button lights
up green to indicate that this has been done. Now
press the select button for Channel 4, and repeat
the procedure. If you now want to check which
channels are routed to the Mix bus, press and hold
the Route To Mix button; all channels which are
routed to the mix will be shown by their illumiin-
taed Select buttons, while all channels that are not
will remain dimmed. With this one button push,
you can check all 32 mono channels and tape
returns, both stereo inputs, eight groups and both
FX returns and to make routing assignments eas-
ier still, you can add more channels to those routed
to the mix by hitting their dimmed Select buttons
while you keep the Route To Mix button held down.
328 FOCUS: FADER LAWS
Another aspect of a digital mixers user interface
that can be more easily modified or controlled than
on an analogue console is the fader laws that is,
exactly how your control inputs translate into an
audible effect in the signal. For example, on the
channel, master and group faders of most mixers
including the 328 movements in the top half
of the fader produce less audible change in level
than the same movement lower down, which
means that in the crucial area around 0dB gain,
where you effectively do most of your mixing, you
have most control.
On the 328, the response of all controls is care-
fully tailored to suit the parameter you are chang-
ing. When you adjust the internal FX sends, for
example, you find that the first 180° of travel of
the rotary encoders takes you from -
f
dB to -18dB,
which is quite a jump, whereas the last 180° gives
you a much more sensitive control over the tran-
sition from here to 0dB - appropriate to an effect
send, where you almost invariably want to max-
imise the level going to the effect, to give the best
possible signal-to-noise ratio at the other end.
Although rotary encoders, as used on the 328 and
many other digital mixers, are essentially linear
devices part of their value as controllers is that
they have no centre position part of the secret to
good design in a digital mixers user interface is
makng the controllers feel right.
Another respect in which the feel of the con-
trols has been carefully looked at is the low and
high EQ bands behave when you turn the Shape
knob to take the EQ from parametric to shelving
mode. When you do this, youll find that the
sound changes smoothly, and the centre/cutoff
frequency as displayed on the mixers LCD, does
not change this bends the rules on how the cut-
off frequency of a shelving filter is defined, but it
feels right. And since you should mix with your
ears, not by looking at a display, we think the
world of audio will forgive us
FIG 2.1
E-Strip
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