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You might want to control your 4 backing vocals on DCA 6, with DCA 7 as your lead vocal (independent control, but next to each other, with the lead first so that you don’t have to quickly find the “center vox” etc. So which do you use? Here’s where “it depends” comes in. Putting all of those drums into a group, or controlling them with a DCA, would mean that a single fader would allow you to control the level, instead of 12 faders (discounting that things like overheads and top/bottom snare might be paired). In these cases, grouping your channels together with a DCAs or groups helps alleviate the situation. Similarly, the vocals are blending nicely, but when the song heats up and you have to boost the lead vocal in the choruses, you don’t want to suddenly leave the backing vocals behind when they come in. All of the drums may sound great by themselves, but pulling back 12 faders of drums that are too loud in the mix starts to destroy the balance you worked so hard on. Obviously, when you are live mixing something like this you only have so many fingers and want to control fewer faders in mixing.
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To make mixing easier, I’ve assigned all of these channels to DCAs, so that everything can be mixed with the 8 faders on the DCA page – no flipping back and forth between the podium mics on channels 1 & 2 and the laptop DI coming from the stage on channels 31 & 32.ĭepending on the band and your style, you may want to approach organizing and layering your mix in a few different ways, once you have all of your inputs and levels set. We also have a bunch of other stuff plugged in – the rest of the wireless rack, a CD player that’s seldom used, etc.īecause of how the channels are set up, the channels we most often use are spread across two pages on our Midas M32. The plot features a pair of podium-mounted mics, three wireless handheld/lav combos, a DI from the board, and a DI from the booth. At NVCC, our main stage rep plot is mostly used for the lectures and dance groups that come in. Also, while I use the term “group,” some manufacturers may refer to these as subgroups, mixes, busses, or a number of other terms, which may have their own implications.įirst, an easy example. We will assume you have 8 of them, since that’s a common number. I am also, for this article, using DCA to mean both DCA or VCA – they do the same thing, and DCA is more modern. We will proceed with general terms, with some specific examples. and may have variations in the implications.
#What is vca in mixing live sound how to
Let’s look at how you might want to use these, and compare them.įirst off, I’m not going to tell you how to assign DCAs, VCAs, or groups – every board is different. Groups, on the other hand, allow you to bus channels together – which might be for more than just volume control, since you can add effects. It basically does the same thing, only digitally, not via voltage. This makes it possible to ‘move’ a raft of faders together, maintaining any offsets within them, by moving a single control fader.”Īs digital boards came into being, that usability and workflow was desired by engineers, and so the DCA was born. “In a large–format analog mixer, a VCA, or Voltage Controlled Amplifier, is a channel gain control that can be adjusted by varying a DC voltage on the control input. It allows you to group faders together, without having to hunt around the board or grow extra hands.įrom one of my favorite resources, : The way to look at a VCA is as a remote control. One of the brilliant inventions of the analog era was the VCA – which stood for “Voltage Control Amplifier.” Audio Acronyms: DCA, VCA, Groups, and why the nuances matterĪ look into DCAs and VCAs – seemingly strange and esoteric acronyms – how they can help you mix, and how they differ from groups.Īs audio mixers got bigger, it made sense to have the controls for outputs, submixes, and other master knobs and faders in the center of the desk.