Knowing about and choosing mixing desks is one of the things you will
learn on the course.
Different mixing desks can have different functions. For example, some
machines come without any auxiliaries that allow you to control the effects
routed to the mixing board and this can limit your mixing capabilities.
You don’t have to have a physical mixing desk – some artists
now do their mixing solely using virtual mixing desks (software). Real
desks can have many wires which, if not connected correctly, create noise,
and noise is just what you’re trying to eliminate. On this course,
you’ll have a chance to try both physical and virtual mixing desks.
On the course we use a Mackie 1642 VLZ Pro (pictured above). The desk is divided into three areas: the patch bay, the channel strips, and the output section.
The buttons that run across the top of the desk from the left to the right are called the patch bay. This where you plug things in. There are input jacks for microphones, instruments and effects as well as headphones and a lamp (so you can hear and see what you are doing). Basically, any sound you are going to add to your mix, whether it is voice, instrument a sample or loop on a tape or CD, has to be plugged into here. More information about what this section of the desk does. (Note that this is an external PDF document and may take a while to download.)
Below the patch
bay are the channel strips. Most mixing desks have multiples of four of
these – so you can get 4, 8 or 16 strips. Our desk has 16. The last
four tracks are stereo tracks and are labelled 9-10, 11-12, 13-14 and
15-16.
Each channel strip has various buttons and sliders which allow you to
manipulate the sound coming in on that track so you can balance it with
all the sounds on the other tracks and make a pleasing mix of sounds.
Some of these functions will be easy enough to understand by anyone with
a little musical knowledge. Other functions will only make sense if you
have some prior experience for this course. What
each of these buttons does in more detail. (Note that this is an external
PDF document and may take a while to download.)
The output section is just that. The patch bay is where you put sounds in, the channel strips are where you manipulate and mix each track until you are happy with the whole blend, and the output section is where the final mix is polished and then sent to a recording device. The main sound control or fader is in this section as are the other main buttons, the main aux and main mix buttons. What you do in this section will apply to every channel on the channel strip. This is also where you plug in your tape deck to record your final mix. More about this part of the mixing desk. (Note that this is an external PDF document and may take a while to download.)
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MIXING