1. Introduction to
Music Production
Hey there! My name is Ian Lima,
naturally from Brazil, living in New York
City now. I’m here to do my Assignment
for the third week on the course. I’ll talk
about the Channel Strip: the Signal Flow
through a channel strip in a Analog Mixing
Board. Let’s do it!

2. The mixing board that I am using is a
Behringer XENYX X1204USB. I’m completely
far from understanding everything that it
haves and the course is helping me a lot.
So, for this week I’ll stick only with what
we’ve seen so far. A couple of pictures of
the board:

3. So, here is a picture of the
INPUT SECTION. We all know
that the signal flow starts
with an analog source. The
propagation of our voice or
the vibration of the strings
on a guitar or bass. And
they’re going to be capured
by a mic or a pick-up. This is
the place where all gets in.
It’s the PRE-AMP section. It’s
where you going to bring
your Mic/Guitar level to the
LINE LEVEL. On this case,
the TRIM knob is named
GAIN. It’s also very common.

4. ____ XLR Cable input (Balanced)
____ TS(Unbalanced)/TRS
(Balanced) Cable input.
____ LOW CUT button.
____ GAIN/TRIM knob (where
you set your signal to the line
level).

5. This board provide some different
things from the one we’ve seen
on the course video. Here on the
bottom we see the INSERT
SECTION (AUX and FX) and this
FX is a EFFECT knob. It basically
sets the level of the effects that
this board haves. We can also see
a COMPRESSOR knob, on the top
of the EQs. The compression is
something that we are learning
this week so I’ll not get into it
now. The EQ (High/Mid/Low) is
where you can equalize the sound
on the line level before it gets to
the speakers/phones.

6. __ Compressor knob.
__
__
Equalizer knobs
__
__ Insert section (aloud to add
external devices into the signal
flow) knob
__ FX knob (Controll the level of
the effects of the board.

7. The knob on the top is the PAN. It
does not move information, it
only controls the balance of the
sound (right/left). The Mute
button simply cuts the signal that
is getting into the board. If
pressed it mutes the sound and
the led lights on. On the side
there’s a SOLO button, when
pressed isolates it from all the
other channels. You can only hear
what is comming out of this one.
What happens with this one inside
of the computer depends on the
DAW. The led light also gets on
when pressed.

8. Unity / 0
And here we get to the most
important part of the mixer: the
volume fader. Remember: you
want to keep Unity as much as
possible, so you may leave it on
the U. On this mixer, there’s a
number 0 instead of the U we saw
on the videos. Your line level
should be set on the TRIM/GAIN
knob that we’ve seen on the
INPUT SECTION.

9. The Main Section:
On the right side you can
see the leds where you
going to, basing on the
colors, set your line level.
There’s also on the
bottom the main level
control, it’s going to b

10. Power / Phantom Power LEDs
Level Control LEDs
Master Volume Control

11. Thanks for taking time to check my assignment!
I hope it was helpful in some way. This devices
are very complex and can be tricky sometimes to
know how to use all the correct terms. Can’t wait
to see what’s next and get to figure a lot more of
thigs out. Take it easy!