Quick Start Guide

16 17PRO X Quick Start Guide
Basic Principles
Before You Start
This chapter is intended to familiarise you with the control centre by showing you
how to carry out some basic operations in order to get some audio out of it.
NOTE: As the operation of both input bays is principally the same, this
chapter will generally only show the operation of the 12
-channel input
bay. However, any di erences in operation between the 4-channel and
12-channel input bays will be shown.
Please don’t forget that, although this system is a complex, high-tech piece of
equipment, it is very easy to use.
Principles Of Operation
Control centre operation is based on the concept of colours and groups rather
than ‘layering’ orpaging’, which is the case with most digital consoles on the
market today.
With so many channels available it is far easier to remember them by their user-
con gured individual/g
roup colour and name rather than their channel number.
The control surface is populated with instantly recognisable controls that are
logically distributed in major sections, so that all the controls you need to access
most of the time are always on the cont
rol surface, while the remainder are only
one action away. You can display all I/O meters, both on the control surface and
the GUI, to give instant monitoring feedback.
Operating Modes
You can change certain aspects of control centre operation by assigning di erent
tasks to certain areas of the control surface. This section will explain the di erent
ways in which the control surface can operate.
Normal mode
During normal operation the 12-channel input bay is operated from the mix bay
controls and GUI scree
n, while the controls and GUI screen in the master bay
operate the 4-channel input bay. Both input bays operate in unison and are,
in e ect, area A.
NOTE: The 12-channel input bay will always be area A, no matter which
operating mode you are using.
Us
ing the 4-channel input bay as area B
You can assign the 4-channel input bay as area B, thus making both the
input bays independent from each other. This facilitates two-man operation
(see Two-Man Operation).
Controlling the mix buses in  ip mode
Flip provides a more global approach to mix bus level control. Normally, you can
only use the level cont
rol knobs in the channel strips to adjust the signal level of
the aux/matrix mix buses going to the aux/matrix channels. However, by using
ip you have the option of controlling them from either the pan control knobs or
the faders in the input fast strips.
In ip mode the lef
t/right arrow buttons in the upper channel select section
scroll across the input fast strips.
>> To con gure the control centre for pan or fader  ip
1. At the GUI, choose home > Preferences > General.
2. Depending on which option you require, click the option button of one of the
following in the Fader ip section. When an option is selec
ted, it will contain
a red circle:
“Flip to Faders
“Flip to Pans.
>> To  ip mixes to input pan/fader control
With an output selected on the control surface, press FLIP. The button will
illuminate to show you are in ip’ mode. The currently selected mix bus in the
input fast strips will change to AuxS1 and, on the GUI, the ba
ckground colour of
the pans and faders will change accordingly.
Also, the LCD select buttons in the input fast strips will display the current bus
mode, for example,MONO AUX”.
Hints And Tips
Check what is hidden - On the control centre, unlike on an analogue
control surface, some of the settings and parameters will be hidden
from view. At various times during a mix we recommend that you
select and view unused parameters to make sure there are no hidden
surprises, for example, a rev
erb send left from a previous mix
Check the Meters screen - It is a good idea to frequently
monitor the Meters screen (default display of the master bay GUI),
which provides at a glance an overview of the control centre’s status
and operation. It shows all the meters and the status condition of
faders and some s
witches, such as solos and mutes. However, some
things will still remain hidden.
Saving Your Work
We recommend that you save your work regularly while carrying out the
procedures included in this guide. Not only is this good practise during normal
operation, but in this instance it may save you from losing some set-ups that
could prove useful later on. To do this
, create a new show (see To Open The
Automation Screen), and then continue reading through the remainder of this
section, following the instructions carefully. Save your work at convenient points
(see To Create A New Scene Using The Current Settings and To Save A
Show Or Create A New One From The Current Settings).
Saving a show versus storing a scene
It is important to understand the di erences between saving a show and storing
a sc
ene.
Storing a scene saves the current settings of the system to the show
le. Scene data is never updated unless you manually store a scene.
The show le remains unsaved in RAM.
Although the state of the control centre is copied every ve seconds, it is not
s
tored in a scene. Instead, it is placed in the NVRAM (non-volatile random access
memory) of the control centre’s memory, which is a type of RAM that doesn’t lose
its data when the power goes o . If the control centre loses power accidentally,
these set
tings are loaded so that audio parameters are identical, thus avoiding
audio level jumps. When power is lost, the show le loaded (if any) will not
subsequently be restored, and any unsaved changes to it will be lost.
Saving a show copies the show le onto the internal solid-state disk
of the control centre. This provides you with apermanent’ copy,
provided you shut down the system properly as detailed in the
following section.
Shutting down the control centre properly
When switching o the control centre, we recommend that you use the
shu
tdown option of the GUI menu (see To Switch O The Control Centre).
By using shutdown, the cached copy of the show data, which is maintained by the
system, is automatically stored. Shutdown then uses the current show le, NVRAM
data and cache les to restore the control centre to exactly the sa
me state as at
power down; even to the point of loading the unsaved show and placing you at the
correct scene, with non-stored scene data at the control surface.
If you don’t use the Shutdown option the audio parameters are still restored,
but the show and show sta
tus (saved/unsaved) cannot be restored automatically.
You must manually reload the show, and any unsaved changes will be lost.
Working With The Control Centre
Although many controls on the control centre are similar to their equivalent
analogue-type counterparts, some have been speci cally designed for the PRO
Series, particularly those for navigation and GUI operation. As you will probably
have had experience on analogue consoles
, you will already be familiar with
most of the PRO X controls and their operation. Therefore, this chapter only deals
with the GUI controls that may be new to you.
The navigational controls, such as quick access buttons and scroll buttons, are
described in Na
vigation, and the ones speci cally for automation can be found
in Managing The Scenes.
About Channel Operation
During normal operation the task of controlling the input (12 channels), aux,
return, aux sends and matrix channels is allocated to the two bays on the left.
The two bays on the right control the input (4-channel) and master channels.
This task allocation applie
s similarly to the GUI screens. However, you can control
any channel from either GUI screen. This is done by navigating the channel to
the GUI channel strip via the GUI menu; control is also then available via the local
channel strip on the cont
rol surface.
About GUI Operation
This section explains the basic procedures you can perform at the GUI screens.
In general, you will control and operate the GUI by combining the operations
described here.
Each trackball controls the movement of a pointer on its respective GUI screen.
The left trackball operates the mix ba
y GUI screen and the right one operates the
GUI screen in the master bay. Each trackball has two buttons, which have similar
functionality to the buttons on a PC/laptop mouse. The left button is used in click
and drag operations, while the right button is generally used for ed
iting and ner
control operations.
Operating The GUI Screen Controls
This section shows you how to operate GUI screen elements, such as buttons,
control knobs, drop-down lists and sliders.
>> To switch a GUI button on/o
Click the button. If it has a status indicator, this will illuminate/extinguish to
show that it is on/o , respectively.
>> To adjust a GUI control knob or fader
Use a drag operation. Move the pointer up
/down/left/right for adjustment.
>> To select an option from a drop-down list
Click the drop-down arrow. The drop-down list will unfold to display some or all
of its contents, depending on how many items it contains.
Do one of the following:
Click the option you require
If necessary, scroll the list (see “To scroll a drop
-down listbelow) to display the
option, and then click it.
>> To scroll a drop-down list
With the drop-down list displayed, do one of the following:
Drag the scroll box
Click the scroll bar. The scroll box will ‘jump’ in the direction of the click to
another position in the scroll ba
r
Click an up/down scroll arrow. The scroll box will ‘jump’ in the direction of the
scroll arrow to another scroll bar position. Clicking a scroll arrow when the scroll
box is adjacent to it has no e ect.
Using The GUI Menu
You can open the GUI menu at either GUI screen, or you can go directly a GUI
menu screen by using a screen access button.
Throughout this guide, menu/submenu option selection sequences are shown in
the following format (for example, for choosing the general preferences screen):
home > Preferences > General
>> To open the GUI menu
Clic
k home.