Decibel loss using groups?

Qu Qu Troubleshooting
1

Hey everyone, I run the board for a podcast network and I send all the mics to one group and all the line inputs to another group, then send the groups to LR. I notice that the groups suffer a 3-5 db loss and I’m not sure why. I have to use some compression gain to get it back to normal, which is fine, I just can’t figure out if it’s something I’m doing. Even if I take out the groups and just send to LR there’s still a db loss.

any ideas?

I attached a picture where I sent a steady tone to ch. 18 and you can see all the mixes/groups have a lower output.

db.jpg
db.jpg1124×1152 902 KB

2

DCAs?

3

No I don’t use DCAs, should I be? I use groups so I can set different compression on the mics vs the line.

4

No, but they are an obvious first thing to check.

5

I did a test with the DCA and same problem. I had to raise the fader 5db to get the same output from the original channel.

6

PAN law?
You’ll probably find the mono sum of L and R in a group equals the level of the mono source. A stereo source would display the same meter reading as the group I suspect.

7

Ahh ok, thanks, that makes sense. So that would apply to the microphones too I assume?