Hi There,

On 4 May 2007, at 23:10, cfrobw wrote:

I have a Mackie 24 x 8 BUS mixer and I'm trying to figure out how to
connect a BBE 362 Sonic Maximizer and a PHONIC DFX256 Digital Effects
Processor. Both devices have 4 1/4 2 in & 2 out on them.

I'd like to set them up so that I can have them on any chanels that I
want but I'm not sure if I can do thet. I was thinking that I could
put them in to 4 of the 8 submaster inserts with insert cables, then
routing the channel output to the selected submaster chanel and
control them with the submaster sliders? Is this correct?

In typical operation, both devices would be setup differently.

The Phonic FX box would usually be fed from an AUX send, with the output of the Phonic
being returned either into a pair of channels on the desk (for more control) or Aux Returns
(if you are running out of desk channels).

It would be typical to feed the box post fader, so that the contribution of reverb (for eg) is
proportional to the amount of a given signal in a mix.

The BBE box is really designed as an overall mastering device, and as such it would be
typical to plug it into the main outputs (Left/Right) feeding your PA (presuming you are
running a PA here?). You could do this by either plugging it into the main output inserts (if
you have any) or by simply putting it in the output signal chain (desk out->sonic
maximizer>graphic>Crossover>amp>Speakers for eg)

However, if your not using a PA, my understanding from (briefly) reading the PDF you
supplied is that the maximiser wont do anything beneficial for your mix.

Further, I would be bold and suggest that even in a PA instance, until you have a better
grasp of the operation of the desk that you don't use the maximizer - it is only going to
add a layer of complexity to what you're hearing and hold you back from learning how the
desk interacts with itself.

Your expectation of how you might use the subgroups and their inserts is partially flawed.
The purpose of inserts is to "insert" some processing into the signal chain and is usually
more applicable to dynamics processors (compressors, gates, etc.)

So you might have a "Kit" sub group (so that you can easily turn the kit up and down in the
mix without changing the 8 individual channels up and down whilst maintaining their
individual relative mix. You might want to compress the drum kit also, so you could insert
a compressor in the sub-group inserts to achieve this. For a desk of this design, the
inserts will be pre-sub-group-fader, and so you're not actually adjusting any of the insert
parameters by changing the sub-group faders.

Hope some of this helps.

Best wishes,

Richard.