Speakers to monitor audio from AJA Lhe

[Hd Freak]

No problem Ron. You’ve been a great help.
I have been looking at a few mixers and after Christmas I’ll most definitely get one. The Mackie 402 looks pretty good quality for the price.
For monitoring once the audio has been captured Bob seems to prefer going back through the mixer (he says “You will also need cables that come out of the Kona LHe to go back into the mixer (XLR to 1/4″ phone plug), and more cables to go from the mixer CR Mon Out to the Speakers XLR inputs (also 1/4″ phone plug to XLR)”.
What are the advantages of doing that over a direct connection from Lhe to the speakers?

HD. F

[Ron Thompson]

[HD Freak] “What are the advantages of doing that over a direct connection from Lhe to the speakers?”

There isn’t so much of an advantage as much as it is a convienence. The volume controls are behind the speakers.
Every time you want to adjust the volume, you need to get up, reach behind the speaker and adjust. Its also a pain in the booty if you need to do analog audio output. The LH only has those 2 XLRs (RCA if you have the BOB). It can be done, but its not the greatest setup. (I would also think you could control the volume using the system volume in OSX).

Here’s my setup: LH output into Mackie Channel 1/2 — AUX 1 and 2 out to LH — Control Room 1/2 to Alesis RA150 — Main Out to analog decks — AUX 3/4 out to VHS/DVD. Ch. 3-6 have XLR inputs–which I use for VO mics and ext. decks. Ch. 7-14 are 1/4″ which I use for VHS/DVD decks, iPods, and other sources. ALL channels can feed the LH via AUX SEND 1 and 2… ALL channels can be sent to decks via MAIN OUT or AUX 3/4 for VHS/DVD dubs.

A very user-friendly piece of gear. I can record show masters for network to DigiBeta via SDI, monitor the deck, and use the Kona on Channel 1/2 and send the signal to AUX 3/4 and do client dubs at the same time.
And if the phone rings…I just lower the control room volume… and I don’t affect the mix. 🙂 That’s the long answer as to why you wouldn’t plug the LH into your speakers.

Peace
Ron

[Hd Freak]

Thanks Ron for that information about your setup.
Do you use a surface control with your setup to control the audio in FCP using the mixer and can you do that with any mixer?

HD F.

[Ron Thompson]

I use the Mackie Control Universal. One of the best additions to my edit suite to date. It works with FCP, Soundtrack and Logic….and if you configure it right, it works with Motion too (but I haven’t tried that yet).
There are other options out there though. I believe Tascam has a Control Surface/Mixer combo that works via firewire. Mackie uses MIDI — and you’ll need a USB to MIDI converter by Edirol.

I can’t recommend it enough. I work on a TV series, utilizing 12-16 tracks of audio per show. The ability to mix on the fly while editing is a tremendous workflow improvement.

The MCU is very powerful when used with LogicPro…I can only hope Apple expands the protocol in FCP6 to include more control surface control like Plug-In parameters. For now you get realtime TC display feedback, jog/shuttle, save, undo, enter, transport controls, pan, solo, mute, and flying faders. I’d love to see EQ or plugin control, assignable buttons for audio in the timeline (waveform, track height, etc…), and, my request since FCP3, the ability to name tracks.

Ron

RIOT Productions
G5, Kona LH, Atto UL4D, FCP5, QT 7.

[Hd Freak]

That sounds really good Ron.
So when using the MCU with your Mackie mixer what kind of setup is that?
Mackie to MCU to Lhe?? or do you use the Mackie mixer at all when using the MCU?

HD F.

[Ron Thompson]

[HD Freak] “So when using the MCU with your Mackie mixer what kind of setup is that?
Mackie to MCU to Lhe?? or do you use the Mackie mixer at all when using the MCU?”

Nope. MCU is ALL data. USB to MIDI. It controls the mix inside of FCP. There are only 3 wires pluged into the MCU: power, MIDI IN and MIDI OUT. That goes into a converter and the USB is plugged into the Mac.

The 1402 handles all of the analog audio in and out of the LHe.

While related, these are really two different mixers that have nothing to do with each other.

Check out https://www.mackie.com/products/mcu/ for more info.