Audient ASP4816 - Mixing Consoles / Studio Signal Flow

During our lectures this first week we have looked at the signal flow of the Audient and Tascam studios on campus, creating signal flow diagrams and carrying out practicals to utilise this. The two studios we have been introduced to are prime examples of professional modern studio environments, each fitted with a mixing console - (Tascam DM3200 digital desk / Audient ASP4816 analogue desk) these contain all the functionality of operation within the studio, the master control hub for signals coming in from either the live room during recording or digital audio workstation during mixing and playback.

Using the Audient for example, a desk with 48 inputs at mix / 12 mic inputs / 4 line inputs / 16 outputs, the console receives its recording signal along mic inputs 1-12 from the live room through the stage box via XLRs (along with foldback A-B direct to the desk), these inputs then go into and through a channel strip in sequence, passing through the various utility controls and inserts which make-up the channels.

The channel strip controls on the Audient ASP4816 consist of from top to bottom :

●  20 segment metre (DAW monitor) / 3 segment metre (Mic/Line input monitor)

●  DAW Insert in / trim controls

●  Mic / Line switch button / MTR switch

●  Insert in (Mic / line path)

●  Signal polarity reverse switch

●  48V Phantom power switch

●  High pass filter / low-end roll off

●  Routing switches (1-8)(9-16) - to route signals into the DAW for recording from SF

●  Shift - to swap routing switches to (9-16)

●  Pan - allows signal to pan over odd / even buses

●  LF (Long Fader) - replaces SF (Short Fader) signal to Routing Switches with LF

●  Auxiliaries - Green pan-pots adjust signal level sent to aux outputs

○  SF button switches signal to SF path over LF path

○  PRE button takes signal pre fader over default post fader

○ CUE Blue pan-pots identical to green however they’re individually switchable to SF

●  Equalisers :

○  HF / LFreq IN places relevant eq (High frequency / Low Frequency) in SF circuit, determined by SF button

○  10kHz / 18kHz determines high frequency range selection

○  Red pan-pot determines boost / cut control of HF

○  50Hz / 100Hz determines low frequency range selection

○  Grey pan-pot determines boost / cut control of LF

○  MIDS IN puts the MIDS EQ in circuit / with SF to insert into SF path for EQ before recording

○  Green pan-pots consist of parametric EQ controls, top smallest of HMF determining the centre frequency to then boost wuh the boost / cut control and attenuate with the Q control.

○  Blue pan-pots consist also of parametric EQ controls, utiliing Low-Mid Frequencies (LMF) over High-Mid Frequencies (HMF) as previously stated

●  Source sets the source for the SF path as the post-fade LF signal over the Mic or

Daw signal, indicated with lights highlighting the selected source.

●  Pan control for the SF signal to go across odd / even buses

●  Mix button routes the SF signal to the stereo mix out bus, where the signal can

then route to monitors / Daw recording session

●  The Short Fader (SF) controls the level of SF recording signal, typically MIC for recording purposes but previously mentioned utility allows for either MIC / DAW / LF signal control here.

●  SOLO, type specified by solo settings elsewhere on the desk, solos SF to outputs

●  Cut acts as a SF mute signal

●  Flip switches inputs between SF and LF

●  Indicators DAW and MIC to show which input is selected for the LF path

●  Mix sends the LF signal to the main stereo mix bus

●  Blue pan pot can pan LF signal across the stereo bus

●  SOLO LF / CUT , Solo in place replaces console output, solos and mutes LF signal

●  Long Fader (LF) controls the level of the LF signal, maxes at +10dB, unlike the

master out faders which max out at 0dB unity gain, this is done to +10 dB to allow for balancing within the mix if signals require more level however never on the master out fader of a console as the signal should never be pushed from there. 0dB on the LF will set unity gain so that the input signal is not boosted or cut in any way, the LF will go down to cut the signal at -inf dB.

The information here was gathered from :

Audient ASP4816 User Manual - https://audient.com/products/consoles/asp4816/downloads/ - Audient LTD

The signal flow of the Audient studio is set up to record from the live room and into the DAW, passing via various pieces of equipment from the source including the stage box, patch bay, Audient ASP4816 console and Scarlet interfaces :

From the Live Room, signal is sent via XLR to and from the stage box on CH 1-12 mic ins to the Audient, routed to the Audient for pre-gain and levelling on the SF before recording on whichever relevant channel, this signal can then be solo’d pre-fader for monitoring the input by sending to the Control Room Monitors (CRM) over the mix out XLRs and solo bus with the solo button on each channel, before sending on the main stereo out to the DAW for recording.

The desk itself connects to the DAW via two Scarlet 18I20 audio interfaces and is routed using the CH group buttons, with group out 1-8 sent via the Patch Bay, and group 9-16 sent direct to the two Scarlet 18I20s, these channel groups are recognised in the DAW as each input from the desk’s channel outs. These multi-track routes send the signal received in from the mixing console via the audio interfaces where the signal is then digitised and sent via USB to the DAW. There are also returns sent back parallel to each of these input signals from the desk, which allows for signals to be sent back from the DAW to the LF where the mixing and monitoring of playback can take place. With the DAW sitting effectively between the SF and LF in a typical set-up whilst recording due to the in-line architecture of the console, the two different faders can allow for the individual control of both recording levels and mixing / monitoring levels simultaneously.

As mentioned there is also a patch bay in this studio setup, the patch bay sits as a signal routing hub through which audio signal can be routed both into and from the desk to various out-board effects units as well as to and from the stage-box and interfaces.

Signal sent to the patch bay can route via :

●  Mix out L-R CRM

●  Line Inputs 13-16 to desk from bay

●  Aux out 1-6 from desk to bay

●  Stereo Aux Return 1-4 (8 in stereo)

●  DAW input sends 1-16 / DAW input returns 1-16 (Stereo)

●  CH bus send / return 1-16 (Stereo)

●  Group bus send / return 1-6 (Stereo)

●  Tie Link 1+2 from stagebox

The patch Bay then is utilised mainly to route signal into the outboard effects units, where they are then returned to the Audient console for mixing, these units consist of :

●  Lexicon MPX

●  Yamaha SPX

●  A.R.T Max preamp

●  A.R.T LTA Tube compressor

●  Drawmer Lx20 Limiter / Compressor / Expander

●  dBx Compressor