We also have a bunch of other stuff plugged in – the rest of the wireless rack, a CD player that’s seldom used, etc.īecause of how the channels are set up, the channels we most often use are spread across two pages on our Midas M32. The plot features a pair of podium-mounted mics, three wireless handheld/lav combos, a DI from the board, and a DI from the booth. At NVCC, our main stage rep plot is mostly used for the lectures and dance groups that come in. Also, while I use the term “group,” some manufacturers may refer to these as subgroups, mixes, busses, or a number of other terms, which may have their own implications.įirst, an easy example. We will assume you have 8 of them, since that’s a common number. I am also, for this article, using DCA to mean both DCA or VCA – they do the same thing, and DCA is more modern. We will proceed with general terms, with some specific examples. and may have variations in the implications.
WHAT IS VCA IN MIXING LIVE SOUND HOW TO
Let’s look at how you might want to use these, and compare them.įirst off, I’m not going to tell you how to assign DCAs, VCAs, or groups – every board is different. Groups, on the other hand, allow you to bus channels together – which might be for more than just volume control, since you can add effects. It basically does the same thing, only digitally, not via voltage. This makes it possible to ‘move’ a raft of faders together, maintaining any offsets within them, by moving a single control fader.”Īs digital boards came into being, that usability and workflow was desired by engineers, and so the DCA was born. “In a large–format analog mixer, a VCA, or Voltage Controlled Amplifier, is a channel gain control that can be adjusted by varying a DC voltage on the control input. It allows you to group faders together, without having to hunt around the board or grow extra hands.įrom one of my favorite resources, : The way to look at a VCA is as a remote control.
One of the brilliant inventions of the analog era was the VCA – which stood for “Voltage Control Amplifier.”
If you where to fade out the VCA the 3 channel faders also fade out and no signals are going to the FX/reverb sends.īy having no VCA fader option it makes wanting to lower many faders at the same time frustrating, if you have a drum kit set-up where you wanted to lower 10 individual drum kit pieces on 10 channels each with unique send FX routings you would now have to use 10 automation moves instead of 1 VCA automation move.Audio Acronyms: DCA, VCA, Groups, and why the nuances matterĪ look into DCAs and VCAs – seemingly strange and esoteric acronyms – how they can help you mix, and how they differ from groups.Īs audio mixers got bigger, it made sense to have the controls for outputs, submixes, and other master knobs and faders in the center of the desk.
VCA fader is basically a macro fader, a group/buss lowers the volume of channels going into it because all sound sources are merged into 1 signal, but a VCA individually takes control of the parameters' of the channels faders relative to its 0 db fader positioning. The VCA takes control of all 3 faders and moves them relative to its fader positioning, kind of like a VU meter for the faders assigned to its 0 db value. If i have 3 channels in a group all 3 channels assigned to a group/buss, and these 3 channels all have sends to FX like reverb and delay, when you lower the volume of the group fader the 3 channel faders do not lower so they are still sending post fader audio to the FX/reverb (The channels lower in sound but the reverb is still playing).
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