Hi everyone,
To my understanding, the Group is just like a post-fader Mix and has no individual channel send setting. The Mix also has a pre-fader option which can be helpful too.
I wonder why people still use Groups? Setting the Mix with every send channel at 0dB would be the same as Group right? Furthermore, both Groups and Mixes can be send to Matrix.
It would be great to have some examples of use cases in which Groups would be more preferable.
Thanks.
But you can’t route an AUX to the MAINs (you can a GRP though).
An AUX (on the other hand) has to be routed via a MTX (or directly out) - as I understand the block diagram.
You are correct that an AUX gives you something to adjust whereas a GRP doesn’t. Just check that you havent limited yourself by the routing capability of each option.
Dave
Groups are designed to be used when you need to send audio to one destination (like the main mix). Therefore it is counterproductive to have individual send levels for the sources going to the group. The source’s main fader does this (change the level of the source going to the group). Because the group does away with this unneeded functionality, it also prevents a mishap from happening where the audio is sent to an unwanted destination.
If you need to audio to potentially go out to many destinations, especially at different levels, then an aux is the appropriate buss to use. But when it is only destined for one place (for example the Main Mix), then a group is the appropriate buss to use to keep things simple.
Obviously the SQ tried to force people into using this logic by preventing auxes from being able to be routed to the Main mix, but the logic still applies even on consoles where that limitation doesn’t exist (Avantis and DLive for example).
Apart from the reasons already provided as an answer to your question, extra reasons I use groups: