I have a question about the LR metering on Dlive. I’m running about 40 input channels currently. When setting gain, I PFL’d every channel and set the gain to hit around -3 on the meter for every channel.
However, the Main LR meter is hitting considerably lower than that when nothing is PFL’d. I have the fader resting around 0 on the surface. Is there a reason for this? Any recommendations or best practices that I am missing?
What EQ have you got done on the Main LR? Any compression?
Don’t forget that that will all effect the output volume and what you see on the meters.
Also check in the PAFL section of the Surface tab, and make sure that the Main L and Main R are set to 0dB, as reducing those for your PAFL/Headphones also reduces the the metering by the same amount.
I’ll definitely check in the PAFL tab. No EQ in Main LR. I am using the bus compressor but it is only on 2:1 and might hit 1db of gain reduction on peaks.
That is affecting the main bus, but the compression on the input channels happens after you soloed them for PAFL.
Adding signals will not always lead to higher levels. It depends on the fader position, the compression and of course on the amount of EQing.
And mono signals will not contribute with the full amount to a stereo bus. The pan law comes into play. I have no idea what the pan law will be on the dLive. I guess it’s -3 dB.
I wrote Allen & Heath and that was their answer as well. The system sounds great and gain staging is all correct. The meters were just stumping me.