Asking because I can’t find the info I need here on the forums or google so far. We had a GLD112 with Waves super rack rig, it worked nicely but the GLD was showing age, failing faders, crashes etc. So we upgraded to the Avantis with same Waves rig. It’s all working, but we’ve noticed a slight bump in audio levels from all inputs, seemingly causing feedback issues with frontline mics. We did not have this before. I realized over the weekend that GLD was set to operate inserts at +4dbu, and the avantis was set to operate at “digital levels”, not analogue (+4dbu). Could this be the issue? If not, any other ideas? We did not have feedback issues before. The only changes were the console, and then adding a few FX racks in Waves. Thanks!
If you turn the inserts on/off, does the audio level change - either up or down? This question is appropriate at each input level (ie does the guitar level change when you turn on/off the insert for that channel) as well as overall audio levels (ie does the overall mix level change when you turn on/off all of the inserts).
The best way to handle this to to build out your gain staging so that the levels stay the same whether the insets are being used or not (ie in or out). The original post doesn’t really go into detail where the “bump” in gain is occurring. If the levels change when you turn the inserts on/off, then the gain staging “problem” lies in the external system and you need to make sure that you aren’t adding/reducing gain in that system as your work through your plugins. You want to set it up like this so that if the external system ever has a problem, you can turn off all the inserts and not experience any change in volume - whether that be the overall volume or the volume of any of the individual audio paths/sources.
On the other hand, if the levels are just too “hot” across the board whether the insert is on/off, then I suspect if comes down to the fact that the preamp circuitry between the GLD and Avantis is different. It might be as simple as realizing that a preamp gain level of “30” on a GLD preamps (or stage boxes) may not be at the same voltage/level as a preamp gain level of “30” on the Avantis (or DX/GX stage boxes). If you simply set up the Avantis by copying over the preamp settings on the GLD, this might be the problem. You should go through the system and set the gain levels for each input to whatever is appropriate without referencing what it might have been set to on the old system.
However
Hey Brian, thanks for the response. To clarify, the audio level changes are coming from the insert operating level changes. On the GLD, the only options were +4dbu or -10dbv, we would obviously operate at +4dbu. On the Avantis, there are three different options for insert operating levels, digital (0db), analogue (+4dbu), and -10dbv. According to the manual, it says we should use digital because we are sending inserts via the IO port, since we are sending inserts through dante, not through a physical socket. But we WERE running at +4dbu before on the GLD, and there is a considerable volume difference across all inputs and mastering when A-Bing between digital and analogue insert operating levels on the Avantis. Digital being hotter, analogue being quieter. I guess my question is, should I really be running at digital insert operating levels or should I use analogue (+4dbu) like how we had it set on the GLD?
I mean it’s one of those “where do I do gain staging in my audio path” kind of questions - which means there is no right or wrong answer. That being said, I definitely would recommend using “Digital” when using the I/O cards. This way the system is not altering the gain structure on the inserts at all. Obviously this may mean having to alter your overall gain structure compared to how the GLD handled it (ie it’s not going to work exactly the same as it did on the GLD), but I think that is the better choice long term.
Yeah that’s what I’m figuring too. We had a rehearsal last night and I was able to get a better mix with little feedback. There’s definitely a difference but I think I just need to shift some things around. Thanks for the help!