During the break between sets, the BE asked me to show hin around the console. Though I had a relatively short, ( and a little frantic ) time with it, I was able to get him moving through the console's features in under ten minutes. At which point, I asked him to help me modify the internal effects on the tt24 to similar parameters that he was using on the dual engine TC M1 he was using for the lead singer's vocal effect.
As I mentioned before, I had set up a cathedral-type reverb, and a 400 ms delay with 30% feedback. He quickly moved through the easily found effects parameters on the Mackie, and lengthened the pre-delay, shortend the length, and most importantly, EQ'd the delay to provide a similar sound as the old " telephone " effect. Matching these details to my existing mix proved invaluable.
I had another few minutes to evaluate my first set mix on my headphones ( Sony 9506 , and was pleasantly surprised. The great mix isn't what grabbed me though, it was the total lack of noise. Trespassers William plays incredibly quiet on stage, and I had pre-amps running fairly hot. Even between songs, there was no noise, no hiss, no air - no nothing. These obviously were not the old 1604 pre's !!
My first thought on this was that the switch from the global phantom switch on many Mackie models to the individual 48v channel switches may have helped in this arena, but I can't say for sure - but it was silent.
I made a punch list of several compressor and EQ settings that could help the mix, and jumped right in when the music began. Using my HP laptop, hooked to the USB bus on the tt24 gave me the full-color clarity and definition necessary to make the precise adjustments I had noted. The tt24's software offers the user a GREAT click-and-drag 4 band parametric per channel. Changes could be made quickly, and the visual of the EQ curve being altered, while I listened in the headphones provided me with one of the unexpected benefits of using a digital console.
The settings of the compressors and gates offered me both adjustable virtual dials, as well as a very cool linear graph with different icons colored differently for threshold, ratio, and release. Again, the console responded quickly, and effectively.
I don't know that I would want to mix a large show in this fashion without a comprehensive soundcheck, as it certainly more time-consuming than grabbing a knob in the analog world, but the visuals provided an intuitive and truthful display of what was going on with each dynamics processor.
Satisfied with my changes, I scrolled over all the channels in the " Overview " mode, and saw mini- displays of everything going on with each channel, including a horizontal bar graph of all my aux sends - vital when I would be using the console to mix monitors from FOH in two nights !!
Back to the recording. I use a TC Electronic Finalizer 96K to process all my recordings - have for years. The TC was hooked up to the 96K AES output of the Mackie. Instantly, by looking at the meters of the TC, I could tell that the changes made to the tt24's channels were driving the entire mix better, and indeed, it did sound better in the cans.
What I found troubling however, was my inability to label the channels on my laptop. ( Gil, did I miss something? ) Instead of " CHANNEL 3 " - I really wanted to see " HI-HAT ", but again, I may have missed the edit function somewhere...
Also, I dream of being able to set up scenes for bands on long plane flights, while saving them on my laptop. Did I miss that part of the software as well?
I have a track or two from the show that the band would like to release - would everyone like to hear them?
We have a show with the prestigious singer-songwriter Ellis Paul in two days. I will be using the tt24 to mix the FOH, so stay tuned.