The Guide · Part 2

The Channel Walkthrough

This is the repeatable process. Run it top to bottom on a channel and you'll have a solid, mixable starting point. Once you've done it a few times it takes about a minute per channel.

The order follows the signal flow, with the housekeeping steps (label, save) bolted on where they make life easiest. Each step below links out to its hands-on Do it on the X32 page — the "which buttons" version — so you can read the why here and get the how there.

The 14 steps

Step 1 — Patch & route the input

Confirm the physical input is mapped to this channel (see 1.4). If you set up routing globally already, just verify the channel is pointed at the right source in its Config tab.

Step 2 — Label it (name, color, icon)

Do this first, before you start tweaking. On the Config tab, give the channel a name ("Kick," "Lead Vox," "Gtr SR"), a color for the scribble strip, and an icon.

Why first? Because every step after this is easier when the desk is telling you what you're touching. A wall of identical gray channels is how mistakes happen. Thirty seconds of labeling saves you real pain later.

Step 3 — Source config (phantom, polarity)

Still on the Config tab, set the input's source characteristics:

• +48V phantom power — turn this on for condenser mics and active DIs (they need power to work). Leave it off for dynamic mics and ribbon mics. Never flip phantom on a channel while its fader is up and unmuted — the pop can be brutal, and phantom on a ribbon mic can damage it. Mute first.
• Polarity (Ø) — leave this flat for now on a single-mic source. You'll come back to it when you have two mics on one source (snare top/bottom, a mic'd cab plus a DI) and need to check they're not fighting each other. If flipping Ø makes the low end suddenly fuller, they were partially cancelling — keep it flipped.

Step 4 — Set the gain (the important one)

Here's the hands-on version of everything in 1.2:

1. Solo the channel (PFL) so you're metering just this input.
2. Get the source to play its loudest realistic part — full-band chorus energy, not a timid check.
3. Ride the preamp gain until the meter averages around −18 dBFS with peaks around −6, with the fader at unity (U).
4. Confirm there's no input clipping on the loudest hits. If the top LED even flickers red, back off.

That's it. Don't rush this one — it's the foundation the rest of the channel is built on. Everything from here is refinement.

Step 5 — High-pass filter (low-cut)

On the Config tab (or the EQ tab, depending on your firmware view), engage the low-cut and set its frequency. This throws away rumble, stage vibration, mic-handling thumps, and low-end buildup before it muddies the mix or triggers the gate/comp unnecessarily.

General starting points (full table in Part 3):

• Vocals: 80–120 Hz — nothing useful lives below a voice's fundamental, and you kill pops and rumble.
• Guitars, snare, most mics: 80–100 Hz.
• Kick and bass: very low (20–40 Hz) or off — these instruments live in the low end, so a HPF set too high guts them. This is one of the most common rookie mistakes.

The X32's channel low-cut is a gentle slope, so it thins rather than slams — you can be fairly aggressive without it sounding obvious.

Step 6 — Gate / expander

On the Gate tab. A gate is an automatic mute: it stays shut until the signal crosses a threshold, then opens. The big controls:

• Threshold — how loud the signal must get to open the gate. Set it above the bleed/noise you want to reject, but below the quietest real hit you want through.
• Range — how far down it turns the signal when closed. You rarely want full silence; −20 to −40 dB of reduction sounds more natural than a hard slam to nothing.
• Attack — how fast it opens. Fast for percussive sources (you don't want to miss the transient); slower for anything with a soft onset.
• Hold — how long it stays open after the signal drops, before it starts to close. Stops the gate "chattering" open and shut on a decaying note.
• Release — how fast it closes once hold ends. Too fast chops off tails and sounds unnatural; too slow lets bleed back in.

There's also a key/sidechain filter — you can make the gate listen to only a band of frequencies to decide when to open. Handy on toms: filter the key so the gate triggers on the tom's fundamental and ignores cymbal bleed.

When to bother: gates earn their keep on a mic'd acoustic kit (especially toms and snare) and loud stages with lots of bleed. On a controlled source or a quiet room, a gate can do more harm than good. And direct sources with no open mic — DI'd bass, keys, electronic drums, backing tracks — have no bleed to reject, so they don't need a gate at all. Monitors / in-ears note: be much gentler with gates on anything feeding monitors — a gate that chatters or clips a tail is far more distracting for the musician than a bit of bleed. When in doubt, don't gate.

Step 7 — EQ

On the EQ tab. You get four fully parametric bands on an input channel. Each band has:

• Frequency — where it acts (20 Hz–20 kHz).
• Gain — boost or cut (±15 dB).
• Q — how wide or narrow the affected range is. Low Q = wide and gentle; high Q = narrow and surgical.
• Type — the outer two bands (1 and 4) can become shelves (lift/drop everything above or below a point) or cuts, while the inner bands are bells. There are also "vintage" (VEQ) curve options if you want a softer character.

There's a built-in RTA (real-time analyzer) you can overlay on the EQ curve — it shows you the actual frequency content of the signal, which is great for finding a problem frequency, but trust your ears for the fix.

The golden approach: cut before you boost. Subtractive EQ — finding the ugly frequency and turning it down — almost always sounds more natural than boosting. Boosting adds energy and can pile up across a full mix into a harsh, loud mess. A classic move:

1. Grab a bell band, boost it a lot (temporarily), and sweep the frequency around.
2. When the annoying resonance jumps out and sounds worse, you've found the problem frequency.
3. Now pull that band down a few dB instead. Problem gone, and you didn't add anything.

Save your boosts for genuine enhancement — a little air up top, a touch of thump down low — and keep them modest.

Step 8 — Dynamics / compressor

On the Dyn tab. A compressor turns down the loud parts so the quiet parts feel closer in level — it makes a source consistent. The controls:

• Threshold — the level above which compression kicks in.
• Ratio — how hard it clamps once over threshold. 2:1 is gentle, 4:1 is firm, 10:1+ is basically limiting.
• Attack — how fast it grabs the signal once over threshold. Fast attack tames transients (can dull a snare's crack); slower attack lets the transient punch through before clamping.
• Release — how fast it lets go. Too fast can sound like "breathing"/pumping; too slow and it never recovers between notes.
• Knee — how gradually compression comes in around the threshold. Soft knee = smooth and subtle; hard knee = more aggressive and obvious.
• Gain (makeup) — since you just turned the loud parts down, the whole thing is quieter; makeup gain brings the level back up. There's an AUTO option that guesses this for you.
• MIX — blends compressed and dry signal (parallel compression). Lets you add density and control while keeping the natural transients of the untouched signal.

How much? For most sources, aim for 3–6 dB of gain reduction on the loudest parts, shown on the GR meter. If you're slamming 12 dB off, you're probably over-doing it (there are exceptions — see the by-source tables). The goal is control you feel more than hear.

The PRE/POST EQ toggle (from 1.1): the comp defaults to sitting after the EQ. Leave it there normally. Flip it to PRE when a big EQ boost is making the compressor overreact — putting the comp first means it responds to the raw signal, and your EQ shaping happens on the already-controlled result. A subtle tool; don't lose sleep over it early on.

Detection (RMS vs Peak): RMS reacts to average level (smoother, more musical, good for vocals/bass); Peak reacts to instantaneous spikes (good for catching sharp transients). RMS is a fine default.

Step 9 — Inserts (optional)

On the Config tab you can set an insert point to route the channel out to an external processor or an internal effects slot, then back into the same channel. You'll leave this empty on most channels. Use it when a specific channel needs a specific tool — a dedicated de-esser plugin on a harsh vocal, an outboard compressor you love, etc. You can also choose whether the insert sits pre or post the channel's own dynamics/EQ.

Step 10 — Pan

Set where the channel sits left-to-right. Keep the kick, bass, snare, and lead vocal centered (they anchor the mix and you want them equally in both mains). Spread everything else to taste — overheads and drum toms panned to reflect the kit, guitars opposite each other, etc. Don't go hard L/R in a live room the way you might in headphones; the audience on the far side of the room shouldn't lose an instrument entirely.

Step 11 — Bus sends (monitors & FX)

On the Sends tab. This is where the channel gets copied off to the 16 mix buses — your monitor mixes and effects sends. The one concept that matters: pre-fader vs. post-fader.

• Pre-fader sends ignore the channel fader — the send level stays put no matter what your hand does out front. This is what you want for monitors, because the musician's wedge shouldn't change every time you ride the FOH fader.
• Post-fader sends follow the channel fader — turn the channel down in the mains and its send drops too. This is what you want for effects (reverb, delay), because you want the effect to scale with how present the source is in the mix.

So: monitor buses = pre-fader, FX buses = post-fader. Set the send levels by what the musician asks for (monitors) or how much effect you want (FX).

In-ear monitors (IEMs) are the norm in a lot of worship rooms, and they're just monitor buses — so the same rule holds: pre-fader. If your players run their own in-ear mixes from a phone or tablet app, you set up the send structure once and they take it from there. And anything the band needs but the room doesn't — click, guide vocal, a pad cue — goes to their in-ears only, never assigned to the mains (more on this under Tracks in Part 3).

Step 12 — Main assignment

On the Main tab, confirm the channel is assigned to the Main L/R bus (it usually is by default). If you run a separate mono/center bus (for fills or a mono PA zone), set that here too. Occasionally you'll un-assign a channel from the mains — e.g. a click track that should only go to the drummer's monitor and never to the room.

Step 13 — DCA & mute-group assignment

The X32 gives you 8 DCA groups and 6 mute groups:

• DCAs are master faders that control a group of channels' levels without summing them to a bus. Assign all your drum channels to one DCA and you can ride the whole kit's level with one fader while keeping every individual channel's balance intact. Common setup: DCAs for Drums, Bass, Guitars, Keys, Vocals, FX.
• Mute groups let one button mute a bunch of channels at once — kill all the mics between sets, mute everything but the MC, etc.

Assign the channel to whatever groups fit its role. This is what keeps a big show manageable with two hands.

A worship-friendly starting layout: DCAs for Drums, Bass, Guitars, Keys/Pads, Worship Vocals, Speaking Mics, and Tracks covers most Sundays — and lets you pull the whole band down with one hand the moment the pastor starts talking. Pair that with a mute group that kills everything except the speaking mic(s) for the sermon, and another for "all band mics" to shut the stage down cleanly between sets.

Step 14 — Save (so you never do this twice)

Lock in your work:

• Channel preset / library — save the whole channel strip (or just parts of it) to the console's library so you can recall it later or drop it onto a similar channel.
• Copy / paste — the X32 lets you copy a dialed-in channel and paste it onto another. Set up one tom, paste it to the other three, tweak from there. Huge time-saver.
• Scene — once the whole desk is set, save a scene. A scene is a full snapshot of the console. Save early, save often, and save a fresh scene once you've got a show sounding good. (More on scene management in Part 4.)