Why audio matters more than picture
An audience will forgive a soft picture. They will not forgive audio they have to strain at. If you only have time to set up one thing properly before an event, set up the audio.
Setting gain
Start with gain. Have the person speak at the volume they will actually use — not their polite test voice — and bring the fader up until the meter sits around two-thirds, peaking but not hitting the top.
If you have to push gain very high, the problem is microphone placement, not the desk. Move the microphone closer before you reach for more gain.
The processing chain
Every channel runs the same chain: gate, voice isolation, EQ, compressor, leveller, effects sends, then the bus. All of it is on by default with settings chosen for speech in a room.
The gate closes the microphone between sentences, so six open microphones do not mean six copies of the room.
Voice isolation separates the human voice from everything else — a humming amp, a buzzing earth loop, a fan, a crowd — and keeps only the voice.
The compressor turns the loud moments down so the quiet ones can come up. The leveller catches the spikes when somebody shouts.
Automatic gain control holds the overall level without anybody riding a fader.
Open a channel's Tune page and it is laid out like a desk: a preamp with gain, polarity, pan and delay; the gate and the compressor each drawn as a curve with the live level on it and a gain-reduction meter; and the EQ over the analyser.
Using the EQ
The EQ is drawn over a live analyser of the signal passing through it, so you can see the frequency you are cutting.
If a room rings, you will see a persistent spike at one frequency. Put a narrow cut there and it goes.
If a voice sounds boxy, the problem is usually between 200 and 500 hertz. If it sounds dull, add a little above 3 kilohertz rather than adding everything.
Cut before you boost. It is almost always the better move.
Groups, mutes and the headphone bus
Assign every choir or band microphone to a group and ride the whole group on one fader without losing the balance between them.
A mute group takes a defined set of channels down with one button, for the moment the room needs to be silent.
The PFL headphone bus lets you listen to any channel without it reaching the broadcast. Use it to check a microphone before you open it.
Videos, playlists, screens and phone cameras are channels too
Every source that carries sound — a video file, a playlist, a captured screen, a phone camera — has a channel of its own on the console, made for you when the source is added: a fader, a mute, a solo and a meter. Its level is remembered per source.
The fader sits on top of the source itself: a clip faded to −6 dB on the desk still only plays when it is on Program. The meter is before the fader, so you can see a source has sound before you bring it up.
Each source tile also has a mute and a fit button beside its options button. They appear when you hover, and the mute stays showing while the source is muted, so a silent clip is never a surprise on air.
A desk over USB — an Allen & Heath SQ or Qu, an X32, a multi-input interface — is listed once in Add Audio. Open it and pick the inputs you want, or bring them all in at once, one channel each with the desk's own numbering.
The sound desk, mirrored
With an Allen & Heath desk on the USB socket, or an X32 on the network, the console shows every channel the desk reports — its fader and its mute — live, as the engineer works it. Map the desk's channels to the app's in Audio Mixer › Microphones › Desk link.
Two switches make the mapped channels here follow the desk: a mute on the desk mutes the channel here, a fader move sets its level. Both act on the change, so you can still override either afterwards.
Auto FX and vocal polish
Auto FX smooths and thickens singing voices. Two volunteers with more enthusiasm than training start sounding like a group that rehearses.
It is the single biggest difference an audience will hear on a small team, and it takes one switch.
Remote guests and mix-minus
A remote guest must not hear themselves delayed, or they will stumble over every sentence. Mix-minus sends them the whole programme except their own voice. It is on automatically for remote inputs.
Snapshots
When the desk sounds right, save a snapshot. It stores every gain, every processor setting and every group. Next week you recall it and start from where you finished rather than from nothing.