Sound is where a broadcast is judged. A picture that is a little soft goes unnoticed; audio that is too quiet, too loud or half a second late does not.
This part covers the four things a playout does with sound: the level of each cue, the master and its meters, which track goes to the output, and what you hear at the desk.
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Volume per cue | The Vol column, and the automatic correction behind it. |
| Master and meters | The fader per playout and reading the VU column. |
| Audio tracks | Which of the six tracks an output carries. |
| Monitoring | Hearing the playout at the desk — and the one arrangement that breaks it. |
The principle behind all of it
What you hear at the desk is what leaves the building. The monitoring is taken from the same place the output is, rather than from a separate mix, so there is no version of the sound that only exists in the control room.
That is why there is no monitor mixer here, and no per-source monitoring switches: fewer things that can be set differently from what is on air.