DCA impacts and ways to duplicate inputs w/o Dante

dLive dLive General Discussions
1

I have two items that I have been researching on our C3500 and I want to verify that I understand them correctly. Thanks for your help…I volunteer at my church and don’t have much experience. Here goes:

Is it true that DCAs will impact the channel levels of any associated/assigned input, as if you were changing the pre-amp input gain? I have demonstrated that after assigning an input to a DCA, the original input level will be changed in the Mains mix as well as any AUX Group the input is fed to. The change to the the DCA fader also affects the assigned input signal before it goes into the channel’s specific gate or compressor, so threshold levels have to be reset if the DCA level is changed. Am I correct?

Finally, If we duplicate input 1 by using channel 100 and selecting input 1 as the direct input source, can we then process input 1 in two independent and unique ways? (one for the FOH Mix and the other for the broadcast mix) We do not have a Dante card and I’m looking for ways to process a broadcast feed independently from the FOH settings.

Thanks (in advance) for your help and expertise, Take Care,

2

to the first:

Is it true that DCAs will impact the channel levels of any associated/assigned input, as if you were changing the pre-amp input gain?

this is wrong
DCA control the fader level of associated channels and if in these channels the aux sends set to post fader then the DCA will affect the send levels
otherwise it would be a nightmare to set compression or gating

to second:

the patch is not affecting processing and vice versa…
that means you can send any input socket (XLR on mixrack, surface, expanders or any sources on the I/O slots) to any input strip (processing chanel) and to the external mix inputs (available on aux, group, matrix and mains but not on FX sends) or to the insert returns in the strips

have a look on the reference manuals Block diagrams (page 130) that describes the order of the processing and routing

https://www.allen-heath.com/media/dLive-Firmware-Reference-Guide-V1.8.pdf

3

Additional to that what Steffen said keep in mind that the only parameters shared by both channels are the preamp settings (Gain, PAD and Phantom power). the digital trim can be used independent on both channels.

4

Thanks Steffen and Mfk0815, I really appreciate the quick response. Take Care!