M7CL Limiter for Aviom channels?

[bassman1978]

Our FOH console is a Yamaha M7CL with an Aviom card.

Most of our musicians run wired headphones into their individual Aviom units.

Is there a way to put a limiter type of compression on each Aviom out channels, that would prevent a signal of going past a certain threshold?

[Tommy077]

Only thing I could suggest is to turn the Direct Out down some so the signal would not be too loud going out. Our stage is so loud though that we have all the Direct Outs set to maximum and sometimes the musicians still think they need more so they can hear.

[Mikey]

Are the musicians having trouble getting the volume down to a manageable level, or is this an effort to keep them from damaging their ears. If it's the first, I would do as Tommy suggested and turn down your direct outs. If it's the latter it would be much wiser to 1. get better isolating ear buds for the musicians. 2. train them how to control their mix and volume.

[bassman1978]

Thanks for the responses.

The main purpose would be to protect our ears from crazy peaks that have occasionally happened due to a musician's change to a hot signal, or the sound engineer's mishap with the knobs. This is not a recurring problem for us, but it has happened before.

[daver2]

As these are your first posts - Welcome to CMN bassman1978.

Dave

[Gracetech]

Limiters at the source are not going to help much if the musicians are running the volume to their ears hot. They will help against pops and gain increases only if the final output is kept at a sensible level and the limiters are tight to the peak of the individual voice or instrument.

Ways of doing this on a M7 is to run the direct out pre-fader not pre HP. Ofcourse this means that they will hear all EQ adjustments as well as dynamics. Turn the compressor for the channel and turn it into a Limiter.

Other way is to use an aux or matrix output to feed the aviom channels instead of a direct out. Just send the channel desired via pre hp mix to the correct aux or matrix and then limit the source at the output. This depends on how many auxes and matrixes you are using. If you don't know you can directly send to matrixes on the M7 just like any aux.

crt

[bassman1978]

As these are your first posts - Welcome to CMN bassman1978.
Dave

Nicely noted Dave. Thanks for the welcome!

Ways of doing this on a M7 is to run the direct out pre-fader not pre HP. Of course this means that they will hear all EQ adjustments as well as dynamics. Turn the compressor for the channel and turn it into a Limiter.

I'll have to experiment with running direct out as pre-fader instead of pre HP. The main thing to find out is whether the EQ for the house will sound bad for the musicians in their avioms.

Other way is to use an aux or matrix output to feed the aviom channels instead of a direct out. Just send the channel desired via pre hp mix to the correct aux or matrix and then limit the source at the output. This depends on how many auxes and matrixes you are using. If you don't know you can directly send to matrixes on the M7 just like any aux.

If I read you correctly, then you'd be suggesting for us to send the signal to avioms via aux/matrix, instead of the aviom card. This would not really help us, because we would be losing 16 channels that we currently have when running direct outs through the separate aviom card. But I think I get your point that what you suggest can be achieved both, via the aviom card or the aux/matrix outs.


Thanks for the feedback! Doesn't sound like we have many options, but at least a few things to look at and consider.

[Gracetech]

Originally Posted by bassman1978

I'll have to experiment with running direct out as pre-fader instead of pre HP. The main thing to find out is whether the EQ for the house will sound bad for the musicians in their avioms.

Yeah that's the pitfall of doing it that way. I've had some musicians that actually liked it and some that it drove nuts. Ofcourse it also depends on how well the house system is tuned. If the house system is not tuned well then you will be hacking all over the channel eq and it won't sound good in headphones.

Originally Posted by bassman1978

If I read you correctly, then you'd be suggesting for us to send the signal to avioms via aux/matrix, instead of the aviom card. This would not really help us, because we would be losing 16 channels that we currently have when running direct outs through the separate aviom card. But I think I get your point that what you suggest can be achieved both, via the aviom card or the aux/matrix outs.

You can send the aux and matrix outputs to the avioms through your digital patch. Therefore the auxs and matrixes will be feeding directly into the Aviom card. Hopefully that clarifies it for you.

crt

[sguthrie]

Hey guys, I'm new here as well. Since we are on the Yamaha M7CL and Aviom's can some please tell me how I figure out on the M7CL where each channel is patched to the Aviom? Is there a central location that allows you to see what is going out to the Aviom? I'm new to all of this and it was setup before I started. Thanks for your help.

In Christ,
Steve

[Gracetech]

If you pull up a "Sel" a channel and then tap the Direct Out you can see where it is sending the signal. If you have an Aviom card loaded then you need to see where it is physically plugged into the console. If it is plugged into slot1 then you should see routing to an output on the slot1 tab from that direct out.

Make any sense?

crt

[sguthrie]

Thanks, I found it earlier. I knew it had to be something small. Thanks so much for taking the time to answer.

In Christ,
Steve

[Tim Padrick]

You have 16 buses and 8 matrices. Take away 4 for FX, and that leaves you 20 - and you need only 16. Bus some of the channels (toms & cymbals, keys, choir, BGvocals), and direct other channels (solo vocals, piano, organ, kick, snare, hat, guitar, etc.) (This assumes of course that the necessary routing/patching options are available.)