I’ve been having a problem on some mixing desks recently, the desks in question are Presonus 16r and the x32 rack.
The QC sounds great when it’s by itself in soundcheck but as soon as the other instruments come in the qc starts to duck and compress in a weird way that effects everything else in the mix.
There is no limiters or master compression going on and I’m running the volume out of the qc at 12 o’clock.
Any help would be great thanks.
Not 100% sure without knowing more details but NDSP recommends to run the main volume at 100% as it is a attenuator and 100% is unity. You would need to tweak your I/O and signal chains to sound the best using at 100% main volume.
There must be something in the chain that is causing this. I’m going to assume theres something in the chain causing this. This is a common thing that gets overlooked when people are running these sorts of interfaces.
Are you using in ears? Assuming you may be since those are common interfaces for people running their own in ear rack. Most in ear amplifiers and wireless receivers have built in limiting thats on by default. Makes sense the ducking would happen when the whole band is playing and theres a lot more level going to the in ears.
Other option is maybe there’s a limiter at FOH. Usually there is one at many venues so that their sound system doesn’t get blown.
Other option is the band doesn’t have the proper gain staging. You could be peaking out the master bus (even if there isn’t a limiter) and just be clipping in general. That could give a similar effect. I would highly suggest making sure there is proper gain staging throughout the chain. This is common thing to happen with these entry level interfaces, and when bands dont have a professional sound engineer properly setting them up. I’ve experienced this with multiple bands that I work with who try to run their own ears.
What the mod suggested is a great first step. You’re already starting your signal with an attenuated signal which could bring noise in further down the line. Honestly that suggestion is the first step of proper gain staging.
Also I would make sure the microphones on stage aren’t giving too much bleed. You may need to get an optometrist gate for the vocal mics since theyre just going to act as ambient microphones during the set. That’s probably adding to the signal seeming weird, and you may be hearing the compression reacting to the bleed through your ears. It can change how the guitar/mix sounds a ton. The vocal mics probably aren’t on while you’re checking your guitar level, and the drums probably aren’t going during that either.
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No sidechaining or noise gate set up on your preset? Have you tested different presets? Does this happen on all of them? If so, I would tend to think the problem was on the mixer. Barring a bad cable or connection.
One of the first things I would look for is a gate (or a compressor set like a limiter - high compression ratio) on the mixer. Have run into that before myself on channels where we either didn’t know a gate was engaged or the threshold for the gate was too low. Also, a sidechain on the mixer set to affect your channel could cause this when other instruments kick in.