DM1000 Board Guide

The quick version

Our rig

Input channels

Channels 1 to 16 are the XLR inputs on the rear of the board. Channels 12 to 16 are unused but still on the board and in the app.

Aux outputs

Each aux is one musician's in-ear mix. By the board's default patch, Aux 1 to 8 come out of OMNI OUT 1 to 8, so match the jack number to the aux number when plugging in the in-ear packs.

Outputs to the room

• Mains: Stereo Out L/R on OMNI OUT 9 and 10.
• Subwoofer: Bus 1, patched to a free OMNI OUT (we use 12). That jack normally carries the control room monitor, so the headphones still work but the monitor signal moves.

Signal flow

Four paths leave the input channels. Knowing which one a fader belongs to answers most questions.

Aux sends for the in-ears are pre-fader. Moving a channel fader for the house never changes what a musician hears. Aux 8 is post-fader, so the reverb on a channel follows that channel's fader.

Because the effects share one send, a channel's reverb send and delay send are the same amount. The levels of the two effects are balanced on their return channels.

Reading the board

The DM1000 has 16 faders but 48 input channels, plus aux and bus outputs. The same 16 strips change what they control depending on three settings: the layer, the fader mode, and the encoder mode. Most confusion comes from forgetting which is active.

Layers: which channels are on the strips

Manual p. 31

Fader mode: what the faders move

• FADER lit. Faders set the channel's own level (or the aux and bus master level on the MASTER layer).
• AUX lit. Faders set each channel's send into whichever aux is selected with AUX SELECT AUX 1 to AUX 8. This is how you look at or change one musician's mix, or how much of each channel goes to the reverb.
• The MASTER layer cannot use AUX mode. If you switch to it, the board returns to FADER.

Manual p. 33

Each channel strip

• SEL selects the channel. The SELECTED CHANNEL section (routing, EQ) and the screen then work on it.
• SOLO listens to it in headphones without changing the mix.
• ON turns the channel on or off. Off means muted.
• The knob above sets pan, or the aux send level, depending on ENCODER MODE PAN or AUX.

Other sections you will use

• AD INPUT (top left). For channels 1 to 16: +48V phantom switch, PAD (20 dB), the GAIN knob, and the SIGNAL and PEAK lights.
• STEREO (right). The master fader, SEL and ON for the mains.
• SELECTED CHANNEL. ROUTING 1 to 8 and STEREO choose where the selected channel goes. Below are the EQ knobs for the selected channel.
• DISPLAY ACCESS. Buttons that choose the screen page. Press one repeatedly to move through its pages. We use METER, VIEW, PAIR/GROUP, INPUT PATCH, OUTPUT PATCH, DYNAMICS, EFFECT and SCENE.
• SCENE MEMORY. STORE, RECALL and the up and down buttons.
• MONITOR. SOLO light, CLEAR, the monitor level knob, and the talkback button. The headphone level is a separate knob.
• Data entry. Parameter wheel, ENTER, INC/DEC and the cursor buttons move around the screen and change values.

Fader scale

The 0 mark near the top is nominal level (0 dB). The fader goes up to +10 dB. Aim to mix around 0 and below, and use the channel gain to set the level before the fader.

How to

Set the gain on a channel

1. Check with the player that the instrument is at its normal playing level.
2. Use the PAD and GAIN knob for that channel. Turn +48V on only for condenser mics or direct boxes that need it. Keep that channel's fader down when you switch phantom power.
3. Set the gain so the SIGNAL light is on and the PEAK light rarely flashes on the loudest part. PEAK means 3 dB below clipping.
4. Do not fix a quiet channel with the fader. Fix it with gain, then bring the fader to a sensible place.

Mix the mains

1. Press layer 1-16. Press FADER MODE until FADER is lit.
2. Make sure the ON button is lit for every channel you want in the room. Channel 10 (click) must not reach the mains. If you hear it in the room, select channel 10 and turn its ROUTING STEREO off.
3. Bring the channel faders up around 0 dB one at a time, starting with drums, bass, then the rest, and vocals last.
4. Set the STEREO fader for the overall level. Make sure the STEREO ON button is lit.
5. For pan, press ENCODER MODE PAN and turn the knob above the channel. Lead vocal, kick and bass stay centered.
6. For EQ or compression, press the channel's SEL. Use the EQUALIZER knobs, or the DYNAMICS button for the gate and compressor.

Manual p. 62 to 69 for dynamics, EQ and routing

Mix the reverb and delay

One bus feeds both effects. Three separate things control what the room hears, and it helps to keep them apart.

Manual p. 148 to 150 and 170

Run the subwoofer

The sub is Bus 1. It is a separate mix of the channels you choose, so the sub does not just copy the mains.

1. Choose which channels feed the sub. Common choices are kick, bass, drum trigger, keyboard and pad. Vocals and guitars normally stay out.
2. Press the channel's SEL, then press ROUTING 1 in the SELECTED CHANNEL section. The light shows the channel goes to Bus 1. Press it again to remove it. (The app's sub button on each channel does the same.)
3. Channel-to-bus feeds come after the channel fader, so the channel faders also balance the sub. Turning a channel down for the house turns it down in the sub.
4. Press layer MASTER. Strip 9 is the Bus 1 master. That is the overall sub level. Check its ON button is lit.
5. Make sure Bus 1 is not also sent to the stereo bus. Press ROUTING DISPLAY repeatedly to the Bus To St page and check Bus 1's TO ST is off. If it is on, the sub signal also goes into the mains and the low end doubles.
6. The sub needs a crossover so it only gets low frequencies. The simplest place is the sub's own crossover. The EQ on Bus 1 can also be used: select Bus 1 and press EQUALIZER DISPLAY.

Check or fix a musician's in-ear mix

1. Press AUX SELECT AUX 1 to AUX 7 for the musician (see the aux table above).
2. Press AUX in FADER MODE and layer 1-16. The faders show that musician's levels for every channel. The click is channel 10.
3. Press SOLO on the aux master (layer MASTER, strips 1 to 7) to hear their mix in your headphones.
4. Set the aux's overall level with the master fader on layer MASTER. Change it slowly. In-ears are loud in the ear canal.
5. The Overview screen in the app shows all eight aux mixes at once, which is quicker than the board for comparing mixes.

The aux sends need to be in Variable mode and PRE for in-ears. In Fixed mode there is no level control. Check this on the AUX SELECT DISPLAY Send pages (manual p. 96 to 99).

Listen with headphones (solo)

1. Press MONITOR DISPLAY until the Monitor | Solo/C-R page appears. Set SOLO to On and SOLO INTERRUPTION to Off.
2. Press SOLO on a channel. The SOLO indicator flashes and only that channel goes to the monitor and headphones.
3. Press MONITOR CLEAR to cancel all solos.

Input channels and output channels cannot be solo-monitored at the same time. Solo does not change what the room or musicians hear. Manual p. 118.

Save and recall scenes

1. After soundcheck, press SCENE MEMORY up or down to a free scene number.
2. Press STORE and confirm. The dot next to the number flashes whenever you change something after storing.
3. RECALL loads a scene and moves everything: faders, routing, aux sends, effects. Recall before the musicians arrive, never during a song.
4. After recalling a scene, tap Re-read board in the app's Setup so every iPad shows the board's values.

Manual p. 155

Soundcheck order

• Power the console first, then amps and the sub. Power down in reverse.
• Raspberry Pi and travel router on, iPads connected. The app's start page should show Connected.
• Confirm layer 1-16, FADER lit, STEREO ON lit, all faders down.
• Set gain on each channel with the player (see "Set the gain").
• Check each in-ear: Aux 1 to 7 master up slowly, click audible in Marc's ears, click absent in the mains.
• Bring up the mains: drums, bass, rest, vocals last.
• Set the sub level and listen for a mix that does not boom.
• Set the reverb and delay returns. Check the effects send on lead vocal.
• Have each musician set their own mix on their iPad.
• Store a scene.

Rules that protect the room

• Return channels 33 to 36 never send to Aux 8.
• Channel 10 (click) is in the in-ears only.
• Change an aux master slowly. The app limits musicians to 0 dB per channel, but the board has no such limit, so a send raised on the console can be very loud in an ear.
• Do not switch an aux between Fixed and Variable during a show. Switching to Variable resets every send on that aux to off and to post-fader.
• Do not pair or group channels 1 to 16 or any aux unless you mean to, because pairing links the sends.
• Recall scenes only between songs.
• Phantom power is switched on with the fader down.

When something is wrong