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12 | Section 2
‘Making do’ with an older console
Consoles made before around 1990 rarely had good support for mix-minuses, and almost never
for more than one or two. With one of these oldsters, some clever improvisation is going to be
needed.
Here we describe a possible scenario that can be used as a starting point for your situation. We
assume an older console with Program and Audition as the main busses. ere is another bus
of some kind that can be adapted for mix-minus application. We’ll call this the ‘Utility’ bus. All
sources, including the hybrid, will be assigned to Program, so the audience can hear them, as
usual. We will also assign most of these sources to Utility as well, just never the fader with the
hybrid’s own audio.
is arrangement is flexible, allowing the operator to place any or all sources in Utility for the
caller to hear. In our example we have the fortunate case that the console permits the Utility bus
to be fed pre-fader, letting the announcer easily use the telephone system for off-air conversa-
tions.
A recorder can be attached to the Utility and hybrid outputs to record announcer + phone audio.
is is often done as shown here, with each signal to a separate track.
A drawback is the potential for the operator to accidentally put the hybrid in Utility, in which
case it is no longer a mix-minus. To avoid this error, the signal path could be permanently
disconnected by removing the summing resistors, or some such creative operation.
If no bus is available to feed the Nx12, you could use an external mixer that bridges the micro-
phone inputs to achieve the same effect.
Line
Inputs
Hybrid
Utility Bus
PGM Bus
To Telco
{
PGM Out
To Rec Ch.1
To Rec Ch.2