Signal flow! - Posted on 2013-06-19 by Miguel Davila

Date of Session:  6-5-2013

Time in:  12:00pm

Time out:  1:00pm

Lesson #5

This lesson covered patch bay and signal flow. I learned that patch bays assist with signal processing by connecting hardware and software within the console. A patch bay can also send a signal to where it may need to go, such as an effects processor or compressor for example.  I also learned the four studio patch bay configurations which are: open, half-normalled, normalled, and parallel. The open and half-normalled configurations are the configurations that are used at the Miller Street studio.  A normalled configuration is used in a commercial studio set up with multiple rooms.  I learned that a balanced plug has a hot, cold, and ground pin versus an unbalanced input jack that only has one lead with a ground shield.

I was introduced to a few new types of equipment during this lesson. I used patch cables on the patch bay to direct signal from the microphone to the Avalon preamp and I then checked for signal.  Then I directed the signal to the interface again through the use of patch cables and checked for signal a second time. The signal is directed into the Mac and I changed the input on ProTools to 3 and 4 to complete the signal flow. The path from the microphone to the Mac is called the channel path. The path from the Mac to the monitors is called the monitor path. In the monitor path, signal moves through Mac to the interface to the Alesis mixing board channels 3 and 4.  From there it is send out to an aux for headphones and continues to the small fader and the master fader and finally through the monitors.

The program is going well for me, and I am always learning something new. This lesson I was given the opportunity to set up the channel path and monitor path of the signal flow, and I really liked being able to do it myself and seeing it for myself instead of solely knowing it in theory.  I look forward to more opportunities like these and working with more types of equipment.  I am also looking forward to receiving my own Protools and Mbox very soon. I am finding my brand name to be a challenge as I am still undecided, but I know I will find something apropos for my vision.