Gain Sharing Auto Mixer

The Gain Sharing Auto Mixer is an automatic microphone mixing process whereby the total gain of the system remains constant.  Each individual input channel is attenuated by an amount, in dB, equal to the difference, in dB, between that channel’s level and the sum of all channel levels.

When the Gain Sharing Auto Mixer is selected from the Object Toolbar, an initialization dialog is produced.

Input Channel Count specifies the number of channels in the block.  If Custom is selected, any input count from 2 to 256 channels can be specified.

Enable Direct Outputs determines whether the block will have direct outputs for each channel, along with the always present Mix output.

Double clicking on the Gain Sharing Auto Mixer block produces a control dialog window.

 

 

Mute In turns the input signal on/off.  Mute Out turns the Mix output signal on/off. 

 

View Grid Bird’s Eye:  Clicking this button opens the mixer’s bird’s eye view window.  This is useful in very large mixer objects as a means of navigating around the available mixer crosspoints.  Light blue indicates a mixer crosspoint that is enabled, and dark blue indicates off.

 

Mic Options:  Clicking this button opens a control dialog window that shows global settings.

 

 

 

Gain Response Time is the amount of time (in milliseconds) it will take to apply a new gain value to a microphone channel.

 

Microphone Isolation Factor (0 to 2.00, default = 1.00) is used to tailor the gain distribution in systems with a large number of microphones, where the cumulative noise floor may make it difficult for a talker to receive enough gain.  In this situation, increasing this setting from the default value of 1.00 will compress the detection level of channels below a signal level threshold, which will make it easier for a qualifying speech signal to receive full gain.  Values less than 1.00 will lessen the effect of this detection level compression, which may be appropriate for systems with a small number of microphones and low cumulative noise floor.

 

Channel Levels:  If direct outputs are enabled, this button will be visible.  Clicking it produces a control window.

 

 

 

Mute turns the corresponding direct output on/off and removes the channel from the mix bus.  Level controls the output volume of the corresponding direct output and the contribution of that channel to the mix bus.

 

Applied Gain Meters: Shows the amount of Gain being applied to each channel.