Zeroing out a console — the methodical process of bringing all the live audio mixing console knobs, faders and switches to a benign state of usage. This way the future engineer using the console will not have to be observant of every last detail before connecting the system to the console and fear immediate mayhem. But zeroing out a console is more than a courtesy after the gig; it should also be a practice before the gig.
The Process
Zeroing out most analog consoles typically starts with the faders. Unless the console is partially active providing recorded music before the gig, you want to turn down all the faders, including the main left-center-right, auxiliary, subgroup and channel strip faders. Yeah, having mute groups on helps, but until you have programmed them or understand why other channel faders have to be up, send all the faders to the bottom and hunt down the channel strip equalizers and flatten them all at unity gain first.
I recommend centering the swept frequency controls on the parametric equalizers and choosing wide frequencies for high- or low-pass filters. Nothing aggravates the next console driver more than high-pass filters stuck at 200 Hz when gig time pressure is on. Choose a more wide-open value like 80 Hz or lower to let the next person narrow up the response bands. Leave the channel strip equalizer strips “inserted” and not bypassed — another hair-pulling aggravation in stressful gigs with no zero-out time.
For channel strip gains and assorted other preamp controls, bring the gains back down to around the 10 o’clock position with the XLR jack as the chosen input. Also, you can remove the pads, polarity flips and phantom power settings as you regain the channels. If there are high-pass switches or controls, leave the switches engaged or back off the controls to a low frequency so that channels needing extra bottom-end will have action taken by the next user. Nothing like chasing hum on channels not needing subwoofer support. For auxiliary sends, send them all packing back to full attenuation until you have effects and other mixes to support. Pay extreme attention to the pre/post and stereo/dual mono switches. A safe bet is leaving things in post-fader mode and each aux control in mono send mode.
Tackling the master section is mostly common sense. Once all the faders are down, check the signal routings and un-flip any fader flip switches so that groups and aux send masters are obvious. Also, check for global pre/post settings on aux masters on lower cost consoles. Then back down on the headphone monitoring levels and choose the L-R mix as the default monitor when a PFL or AFL switch is not activated. And, of course, leave the mute group in a safe condition with all channels muted by the groups or with individual channels muted if not in a mute group. If you have marked up board tape on the console, it is at your discretion to remove it. There is no reason to leave it on the console if a good zeroing out is performed. The exceptions would be if the next act is keeping the same mic patching or if there are bad channels that need identification.
The Courtesy
At the end of a gig, it is a nice courtesy if you zero out the console to leave it for the next user. Of course, if it is very likely you will be the next user, you may gamble on leaving things half-zeroed so that EQ settings and preamp gains are left for the next performance. An efficient console operator should be able to dial in EQ and rough gains very quickly from a zeroed-out console.
Zeroing before the gig also helps familiarize yourself with the console if you have not been on that brand/model for a while. Feeling all those controls and faders may provide a clue on how well maintained the console is before mixing. Loose controls and sticky faders may provide a scenario of how to defensively drive the console to avoid crackles and pops before the show goes on.
The Ego
I once had an ego enough to not zero out the console because I wanted the next user to see the mixing prowess I had as a teaching aid. Today, I am much more likely to play nice and zero out for fear that someone else will see my bad mixing habits instead. But there is another reason to zero out each night, especially when you really are a good console operator, to the point where your pay is very well up in the compensation ranks.We know of a few FOH engineers who had plenty of experience with top acts and used a few novel mixing tricks to nail each artist’s signature sound. The engineers never zeroed out each night because they were always at the console for the next show.
But management changed its mind and let the expert FOH guy go very quickly — even without letting the guy mix his last show and zero out. A competent and much lower paid FOH engineer took note of the expert’s settings and continued to almost flawlessly preserve the sound of the show for the artist. The moral of the story is that your “mix” is your intellectual property, and not keeping it under wraps is letting others have free usage, possibly without the learning curve you went through. If you are on a digital console, zeroing out means resetting the board to factory defaults. Your settings are saved on your card for next time.
Contact Mark at marka@fohonline.com.
