4th Gen. Focusrite Scarlett Series Interfaces – Solo, 2i2 and 4i4
October 19, 2023
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At a recent conference my friend Michael Helms attended a presentation where the voices of the speakers on stage started to distort when they got loud. This was due to clipping that was happening somewhere in the audio signal chain.
Unfortunately he also witnessed the sound guy lower the faders of the distorted voices which lowered their volume but didn’t remove any distortion! Not good.
In this case, and in most cases with microphones, the distortion was due to the microphone preamplifier being cranked too high.
The correct adjustment would have been to:
1. Turn down the mic preamp until the audio stopped clipping and distorting, and
2. Push up the fader a bit to compensate for the reduced level
It’s not easy handling sound for Live events, but if you know the actual cause of distortion you can quickly and easily eliminate it.
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One Response
Wow. This is pretty basic.
Most PA systems have an LED or similar on the input gain to indicate clipping.
I was taught to get an equal level from each channel using the input trim with the fader at 0 dB and then mix from that point. That means that the faders give you a graphic representation of the mix.