first step: assign an input to a surface strip, set it up (assign local input, Slink etc) and set fader to any value so audio is send to master
Second step: Remove input from surface strip.
In this way signal keeps going to output(s) but is not controllable.
Result was when all layers are muted, still a keyboardsignal was send to master (and mix busses) without being visable and controllable on mixer.
I added another input to surface strip, and ‘luckily’ this input was connected to the same audio source as keyboard, and it was this signal what was send to master.
I muted this channelstrip and deleted it from surface.
I had this issue a few weeks ago but didn’t understand what happened.
Now I found out and wanted it to share with you, because I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Maybe I expected (unconsciously) that if you remove a channel from surface strip it’s audio is also deleted from audio flow.
Yes, it is possible to get into these situations with a configurable surface like you have on SQ.
This can happen with most digital desks actually, and it is up to the engineer to watch out for. A classic one is to have channels assigned to a DCA that is set to -inf and not visible, then wonder why you can’t get any signal from the channels!
Personally, I view the mixer/core and surface as separate parts of the same system - it’s easier to see this with something like a dLive system that has physically separate mix rack and surface, but the same principles apply.
It’s then easier to understand how you have multiple methods for control (surface/SQ-MixPad/SQ4You etc…) but have to think about what the actual mixer is doing.
This happened when I had my SQ5 for 2 days.
At that point I probably assigned an (S-Link)input to more then 1 channel and channelstrip.
Now it’s a few weeks later and I created my own setup wrt setup channels and input.
If you force yourself to route an input to only one channel the chance to create an unwanted (and uncontrolled) audio path is less likely.
I used to have an Yamaha LS9. With that console its also possible to route inputs to multiple channels, but you can’t remove them from the surface, in other words they are always visable.