SoundCraft Spirit Monitor manual

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© Soundcraft Electronics Ltd. 1991 All rights reserved Issue 1 Pa r t No. ZZ 2727 Information in t his manual is subj ect to change w ithout no ti ce and does not r epresent a commitment on the par t of t he vendor. Sou nd craft Electronics Ltd. shall not be l iabl e f or any l oss or damag e whatsoev er arising from the us e of information or any[...]

Use r Guid e Contents I n tr o duc ti o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Ba sic Pri ncip les of Monit o r Mixing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Get t ing Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Connections and Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Fault Find ing Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [...]

INTRODUCTION Congra tu lation s on yo ur purc has e o f a SP IRIT Monitor mi xer. Owning a Soundcra f t conso le brings you t he expe rtise an d support of one of the industry’s leading manufacturers a n d the res ult s of o ver 17 yea rs exp erience supporting s ome of the biggest name s in the business . Designe d by engine ers who unders tand [...]

Abov e a ll, rem em ber that yo ur SPIRIT m ixer is designed to extend yo ur creativit y. The mo re you e xplore the controls and the effec t they have on the sound output, the m ore you wi l l a ppreciate th e f l e xi bili t y offered by yo ur SP IR IT Monitor mixer. BASIC PRI NCIPLES OF MONITOR M IXING There was a time when the P.A. system a nd [...]

The mixer is split into two se ctions. The Inputs rece ive, mat ch and process individual source s ignals, and dist ributes them at precise mix le vels to a c hoice of Monit or Outp uts . T he Mas- ter sect ion prov ides m onit oring of the a udio sign al at m any points in t he mixer, eith er on he adphones or meters and pro - vides a dditio nal m[...]

The Wedge o utput refers to the engine er’s own mon itoring output, which will typicall y fee d a flo or-mo unted ‘wedge - shaped’ s peaker v ia a suitable powe r amplifier. The Talkback syst em allows the mon itor engineer to talk back to artists, either individually via selected monitor outputs, or toget her us ing a switc h on the m aster [...]

GETTING STA RTED CONN ECTIO NS AND CONN ECTO RS Althou gh this may seem a s imple s u bject, fa ul ty co nne ctors a nd cabli n g are the s ource of most s ound system prob lems . Correct ly- made cables of the pro per typ e, with the right co nnectors for the job will en s ure peak per fo rman ce f rom your system with minimum noise pick-up. The f[...]

Balanc ed an d Unbala nced All ch annel inputs are balan ced, i.e. there are s eparate +ve(hot) and -ve (cold) w i re s for eac h signal plu s a grou nd. The design o f the d if ferential inp ut amplifiers is s uch that in- terference picked up on these wires is cancelled out. This is becaus e, sinc e bot h wires a re in clo se p roximity , the s a[...]

Avoid run ning audio c abl e s or placing audio eq uipment, close t o th y ristor dimm er u nits or power cables. Noise immun i ty is imp roved significantly by th e use of lo w impedance s ources , such as goo d quality profes siona l micro- phones o r the o utpu ts from most modern a udio equipm ent. Avoid cheape r high impe d a nce micro p hones[...]

The Bloc k Diagra m is a repres entative sketch of all the c om- ponent s of the cons ole, sh o wing how they conne ct toget her and how t he signal f l ows thro ugh the s ystem. O nce you ha ve become fami l iar with the vario us c omponent bloc ks you will find the Bloc k Diagram q uite eas y to fo llow and you will have gained a valuab l e under[...]

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR CONSOL E FACILITIES Refer to the fol d -o ut front pane l diagram at the rear of this manua l, which sh ows the co ntrol functions on the SPIR IT Monitor . Each facility is des cribed belo w, and is identified b y a reference nu mber. INPUT CHANNEL 1. MICROPHONE INPUT The Micro phone inpu t is via a s tandar d female XLR-3 conn[...]

The insert po int allows limiters , c o m pressors and other signa l proces sing units to be added as required to particular inpu t channe ls a nd bec aus e it is loc ated PRE EQ, noise gene rate d by the ext ernal equipm e nt may be reduced by a s mall amou nt of H.F. cut in th e Equalise r . 3. LINE INPUT The LINE Inp ut is a 3-po le 1 ⁄ 4 &quo[...]

8. EQUALISER The Equalis er(E Q ) comprise s three sec tions. The upper co n- trol provides H.F.(treble) bo o st and cut of +/-15dB. The lower two pairs of knobs are arran ged as a cut /boo st c on tro l (lower knob) of +/- 1 5dB , and a S WEEP(frequency) control which dete rmines at whic h frequenc y the boost/c ut action will be centred. Th e LF [...]

suppre s se d very precisely. 9. MONITOR SENDS These controls route the inpu t channel signa l to a ny one or more Monitor busses and the associat ed Monito r O utpu ts, al- lowing a number of completely different monitor m ixes to be create d. The sends are a rranged a s two groups of fou r (1-4 and 5-8) and both groups are normally fed after the [...]

can be made or pro b l ems traced. When the PF L switch is relea sed the LED o n the channe l serves as a PEAK indicat or, to warn wh en an exces sive ly high signal lev el is prese nt in the channe l. The signal is sampled at two points in t he channel, P RE INSERT (PRE H i-PASS FI L- TER), an d POST EQ . The Pea k LED will il l u minate approxima[...]

switch is pre ssed (LED illuminated). 4. HI-PASS FILT ER A variable frequ ency filter is pr ovided cover i n g a range o f 20Hz to 200 Hz., and this is always in circuit. This may be found us eful to reduc e t he level of s tage -driven low freque ncy feedback, or part icularly to tailor the o utput freq uency t o match more closely t he frequency [...]

small scre wdriver, t aking ca re not to damage the trim mer. 9. FADER A l i n ear fader c o ntrols th e overa ll level of each o u tput . Unity gain is at the t op o f the tra vel. MASTER SEC TI ON 1. D.C. POWER SOCKET The cable from t he powe r supply connec ts to the conso l e via this 5- p in SRC connector. To the right of the power connec - to[...]

or plu gged in via a cable. 6. BARGRAPH METER A sixt een segme nt, three colou r bargraph meter pro vides vis- ual monitoring o f WEDGE/PF L lev el. Normally the post-fade Wedge signal is displaye d , unless any PFL switch is activ e, in which cas e the PFL signal is shown. The level of t he dis- played Wedge signal follows the ac t ual Wedge outpu[...]

the b argraph rea ding. 13. HEADPHONE VOLUME The mas t e r volume con trol fo r the wedge o r PFL signal being fed to the headpho ne so cket (4 ). 14. WEDGE FADER The master fader for the Submix or PFL signals feeding the USING YOUR SPIRI T Monitor CONSOL E Yo ur ch oice of a SP IR IT Monit or console ha s provided you with a pro fess iona l produ [...]

• Adjust the input gain until the meter i s j ust r eaching the amb er section (0dB) at a t ypical maximum sou r ce level. This al lows suff icient headroom to accommodate peaks and establ ishes the maximum level for normal operation (but see note b el ow). • Repeat this proced ure on other channels as r equ ired. • If y ou c annot obtain a s[...]

cessful sound mixing. The aim sho uld be t o place the microphone as clos e as physi- cally p ossibl e to the sourc e, to cut out unwanted surro unding sounds, a llow a lower gain se tti ng on the mixer and avoid feedback. Also a well-chosen and well- p l aced micro phone should no t need any a pprec iabl e equa lisatio n. Input Co nnec tions The m[...]

CARE OF YOUR MIX ER Gene ral Prec autions Avoid st oring or using the mixer in co nditions of exces sive heat o r cold, or in p ositions where it is likely t o b e subject to vibration , dust or mo isture. Keep the mixer c lean using a s oft dry brush, and a n occa- sional wipe w i t h a damp cloth or ethyl alcohol . Do not use any othe r solv ents[...]

(sub) group an outpu t into which a gro up of signals ca n be mixed. hea droom the av ail a ble signal ra nge above th e nom inal l e vel before clipping occ urs. highp as s filt er a f ilter that rejec ts l o w fre que ncies . line l e vel sign a ls at a nom inal level of -10 to +6dBu, usua lly co ming from a low impeda nce s ource . peaking an e [...]

Selecta ble Options The eight channel M onitor Sends are fac tory set as POST FADE, but may be altered to P R E FADE in bloc ks of four (1-4 and 5-8) b y repo sitioning a link on the Input P CB SC3005 as shown below, afte r removing th e PC B from th e co nsole . R56 R54 J1 J3 J3 J1 PRE PRE PRE PRE J2 J4 J4 J2 POST POST POST POST INPUT BOARD SC3005[...]

SPECIFICATIONS Typical Figure s for a 24 C han nel Cons ole Meas ured RMS, 22Hz to 22kHz Bandwi dth E.I.N. Microp hon e Input , -128.5 dBu ma x ga in, 1 5 0R OUTPUT NOISE 24 chann el conso le, -80dBu channe ls sends tu rned down C.M.R.R. Meas ured at 1k H z Microp hone Inpu t at maximu m gain 80dB Line Inpu t at unity gain 50dB DISTORTION THD measu[...]

Outp uts 75 Ω INPUT & OUTPUT LEVEL S Mi c Input M aximu m Level +10dBu Line Inpu t Maximu m Leve l + 30dBu Any Outpu t Maximu m Level +21dBu METERING 16 Segme nt LED Bargraphs Accu racy Relat ive to 0dB +/- 1dB Dimens ions 590.5 824 (16 ch) 1088 (24 ch) 82.8 Pag e 27[...]

3 1 2 3 1 2 3 3 1 1 2 2 S S Y Y S S T T E E M M B B L L O O C C K K D D I I A A G G R R A A M M ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ Pag e 2 8[...]