MG8/2FX
12
Making the Most Of Your Mixer
4-1. Effect Bus For Convenient Effect Control
There are a number of reasons why you might want to “tap” the signal flowing through your mixer at some point before the main
outputs: the two most common being to create a monitor mix and to process the signal via one or more effect units and then bring
it back into the mix. Monitor mixing is not always required in small consoles, but effect processing is important in a wide range
of applications. Your mixer has an effect bus that lets you send the channel signals to the internal effect processor as well as to
external effect gear connected to the EFFECT SEND output. Larger mixing consoles might have 6, 8, or even more auxiliary and
effect buses to handle a variety of signal routing and processing needs.
Using the effect buses and controls on your mixer is pretty straightforward. The more you rotate the EFFECT control on any
channel clockwise, the more signal is sent from that channel to both the internal effect processor and the EFFECT SEND jack.
The effect send is “post-fader,” which means that the signal is taken from a point after the channel fader, so its level will be
affected by both the effect send level control and the channel fader. This is important because it means that once you set the
amount of reverb that you want to add to the channel by using the EFFECT control, for example, you can use the channel fader
to raise or lower the overall channel level while maintaining the balance between the main channel signal and the reverb effect.
4-2. Channel Inserts for Channel-speci
fi
c Processing
Another way to get the mixer’s signal outside the box is to use the channel inserts. The channel inserts are almost always located
before the channel fader and, when used, actually “break” the mixer’s internal signal path. Unlike the EFFECT send and return,
the channel insert only applies to the corresponding channel. Channel inserts are most commonly used for applying a dynamics
processor such as a compressor or limiter to a specific channel—although they can be used with just about any type of in/out
processor.
Channel insert jacks must be used with a special insert cable that has a TRS phone jack on one end and mono phone jacks on the
split “Y” end. One of the mono phone jacks carries the “send” signal to be fed to the input of the external processor, and the
other carries the “return” signal from the output of the processor.
4. Internal and External Effect Mixes
Channel
Fader
When a plug is inserted into the channel insert jack, the inter-
nal signal path is interrupted and sent outside the mixer for
external processing.
Tip
Ring
Sleeve
To the INSERT I/O jack
To the input jack of the
external processor
To the output jack of
the external processor
Tip
Sleeve
