Lesson 3 Assignment. Channel strip: (by Pablo Anson)!

Teach the signal flow through a channel strip in a DAW or analog mixing board, describe in detail
every component of the channel strip including its usage and position in the signal flow.!
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Hello! My name is Pablo, I live in Vienna and this is my Lesson 3 Assignment for the Coursera
course Introdution to Music Prodution. I am not a native speaker, so forgive my spelling and
gramatical mistakes! Thanks for correcting any other mistake in the content of this assignment :)!
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I will try to make an easy and schematic description to afirm our knowledge about the structure of a
channel strip. The objective of this to create a pratical (and complete, though!) material where I can
check back the organisation of channel strip in a glance. !
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A mixing board is modular: it is (almost) the same vertical channel strip repeated over and over.!
We have the INPUT in the top and the OUTPUT in the bottom, but the signal flow is not completely
top to bottom.!
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Mic Preamp Section: !
1. INPUT section with XLR (mic input) and line input for a line level source. !
2. TRIM CONTROL (input level). In some DAWS the sound is already at line level (and there is no
Trim Control). This has the same function as the Input Gain (set levels) in your Audio Interface
while recording.!
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Insert Section: in analog mixing board in the back (not visible) -adds external devides like
comperssor or EQ in the signal flow-. We use an insert cable: one side TRS, for the insert section
in the back, other side with 2 TS cables (for insert-in and return). It creates a loop out-in-return.!
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Knobs (the section can have different orders depending on the mixing board):!
1. Aux(iliary) sends: separate output for the track, allows to route the track to more places than
the main output at the bottom.!
2. EQ section: in a digital DAW EQ normaly works as an insert!!
3. Pan knob (even if the track is mono, the output is stereo!). Works as two faders, one for the
right and one for the left: Pan only reduces one side, it doesnt move information from side to
side.!
4. Mute and Solo buttons.!
5. Volume Fader!
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The output of all your tracks or channels get combined on our muster bus or muster fader (DAW).
Above you can control the level setting feedback to controle that there is no clipping. Keep things
in the green and picking in the yellow (never go to the red!).!
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While working in a DAW its important to locate where the inputs and outputs are. Name the track
properly! Maintain always clear in your mind how the signal flow is working in your DAW.!
Keep in mind that sends can be PRE or POSTfader (normaly, there is a button to control that).!
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Attached is a picture that ilustrates all what I have written above.!
I think one of the most important basics of mixing is keeping some order in your work, and the best
way to do that is knowing exactly how all is working inside your mixer!!
Greetings from Vienna!!
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. and never forget: it is music what we are trying to do here ;)!
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