Reference

Glossary

Plain-language definitions of the terms you'll meet across this site. Not sure what a word means? It's probably here.

AES50: The digital link that carries dozens of channels down one cable between a stagebox and the console. One snake to the desk instead of a fistful of XLRs.
Attack: How fast a gate opens or a compressor grabs the signal once it crosses the threshold. Fast catches the transient; slow lets it punch through first.
Bus: A mix destination that channels get sent to — a monitor mix, an effect, or the main L/R. The X32 has 16 mix buses plus the mains.
Channel: One input (one mic or instrument) and its whole strip of controls — gain, EQ, dynamics, fader, sends.
Click & guide vocal: A metronome and a reference vocal the band plays to. They go to the musicians' in-ears only — never the mains. The rule →
Compressor: Evens out loud and quiet so a source stays consistent in the mix. How to →
Condenser mic: A sensitive mic that needs phantom power to work — overheads, choir and lectern mics. Silent without +48V.
DCA: A master fader that controls a group of channels' levels at once without combining them. Ride the whole band on one fader. How to →
DI (direct box): A box that takes an instrument's output (bass, keys, acoustic) straight into the desk, no mic. Active DIs need phantom; passive ones don't.
Dynamic mic: A rugged mic that needs no power — most handhelds, kick, snare, guitar cabs. Ignores phantom power harmlessly.
EQ (equalizer): Tone control — turning specific frequencies up or down. Four parametric bands per channel on the X32. How to →
Fader: The sliding level control. What your hand rides during a service. Unity (the "U" mark, 0 dB) is its neutral home.
FOH (front of house): The main mix the congregation hears, and the position you mix it from.
Gain: How much the console amplifies a source at the input — the preamp / head amp. The most important setting in the chain, set once per source. How to →
Gain structure (gain staging): Setting the right level at every stage so the signal is clean but not clipping. Aim for ~−18 dBFS average, peaks near −6. Targets →
Gate: An automatic mute that opens only when the signal is loud enough — keeps a mic shut when its instrument isn't playing. How to →
Headroom: The gap between your average level and the 0 dBFS ceiling — room for unexpected peaks. You're protecting ~18 dB of it.
HPF / low-cut: High-pass filter — throws away everything below a chosen frequency to clear out rumble and mud. How to →
IEM (in-ear monitor): Earpieces a musician wears instead of a wedge. Fed by a monitor bus, kept pre-fader. Great for controlling stage volume.
Line level: A strong, already-amplified signal — from a laptop, keyboard, or DI. Needs little to no gain, unlike a quiet mic.
Makeup gain: Level added after a compressor to put back the loudness it took away, so the compressed channel matches its bypassed volume.
Monitor: What the musicians hear on stage — a wedge speaker or in-ears. Mixed on its own bus, separate from the room.
Mute group: One button that silences a set of channels at once — e.g. everything but the speaking mic for the sermon. How to →
Pads: Sustained, ambient synth patches that sit under a worship mix to glue it together and smooth the gaps between songs. Felt more than heard.
Phantom power (+48V): Power the console sends up the mic cable for condenser mics and active DIs. Mute before switching it — and never send it to a ribbon mic. How to →
Polarity (Ø): Flips the waveform upside-down. Used when two mics on one source are fighting each other and the low end goes thin. How to →
Pre-fader / post-fader: Whether a send ignores the channel fader (pre — for monitors, so the stage stays stable) or follows it (post — for effects, so they scale with the mix). How to →
PFL (pre-fade listen): A solo mode that meters/hears a channel before its fader — what you want when setting gain, so the fader position doesn't skew the reading.
Q: How wide or narrow an EQ band is. Low Q = broad and gentle; high Q = narrow and surgical.
Ratio: How hard a compressor clamps once over threshold. 2:1 is gentle, 4:1 is firm, 10:1+ is basically limiting.
Release: How fast a gate closes or a compressor lets go after the signal drops. Too fast chops tails or pumps; too slow never recovers.
RTA (real-time analyzer): A live display of the frequencies in a signal, overlaid on the EQ. Great for finding a problem — but mix with your ears, not your eyes.
Scene: A saved snapshot of the entire console. Recall it and the whole desk returns to that state. How to →
Sends: Copies of a channel routed to other buses — monitor mixes and effects — each at its own level. How to →
Sends on Fader: A mode where the physical faders become one monitor mix, so you build a whole person's mix by hand instead of channel-hopping.
Show file: The biggest save unit — all scenes, routing, and libraries in one file. Back it up to a USB stick every week.
Snippet: A partial scene recall that changes only some settings. Advanced; most volunteers use whole scenes.
Stagebox: A box on stage (like an S16) that takes the inputs and sends them to the console over AES50.
Threshold: The level a signal must cross before a gate opens or a compressor starts working.
Trim (digital trim): A fine level adjustment after the signal is digital — used to nudge a channel without touching the shared analog gain. Gain vs. trim →
Unity: The neutral fader position (0 dB, the "U" mark) — no boost, no cut. Where you set gain and where faders start the show.
Wedge: A floor monitor speaker angled up at a performer. The alternative to in-ears.