You may think that a sound desk just enables you to send a main mix out of two channels to a couple of amplifiers, but you’d be wrong!
Auxiliaries act like a number of faders on each input, resulting in a series of mixes which can be sent to monitor speakers, recording devices, sound processors etc. Although they are mono only (and therefore can’t be panned), the auxs act just like the main mix and can be used as such. They come in two flavours, pre-fade and post-fade; these are changed using the buttons next to the controls.
Pre-fade
The auxiliary takes the signal after the EQ section but before the channel’s fader. The auxiliary is therefore unaffected by the position of the fader.
Post-fade
The auxiliary takes the signal after the EQ section and after the channel’s fader. The auxiliary is therefore affected by the position of the fader.
Monitor mixing with auxiliaries
So, you’re engineering a band but its quite small and so you’ve only got one desk. They need two channels of monitor speakers: what do you do?
Set the desk up as normal, setting all the gain, EQ and fader levels to ensure that what comes out the front-of-house speakers are just right. Or right enough.
Set the auxiliaries to pre-fade mode
Use the auxiliary controls to set different mixes for the monitor channels
Use the auxiliary send control as a master volume control on each monitor channel
Wire the auxiliary outputs on the desk to the inputs of your monitor graphic equalisers or amplifiers (depending on what equipment you’ve got)
Backstage
Technical Services,
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