mc²56 - Desk Layout Options
The layout of the control surface can be customized in the following ways.
Fader Strip Assignments
Any physical fader strip can control any channel type. This allows you to position input channels and audio or control masters where you want them.
User Labels
All channels have a user label and color code for easy identification.
Banks and Layers
The surface supports six control surface banks (1 to 6), each with two layers - Layer 1 and Layer 2.
Bank switching provides fast global access to different sets of channels, or channels in a different layout - for example, to bring the music channels in a live entertainment up onto the surface when the band are playing!
Layers can be switched on individual fader strips, making them ideal for related signals - for example, to flip quickly between a presenter's input channel and their mix minus (N-1) return.
Isolated Bay(s)
An isolated bay is unaffected by the centre section BANK and LAYER switching. This make it ideal for multi-operator mixing or expanded parameter control.
If there is more than one operator, isolated bays can feed a separate AFL/PFL bus (for independent headphone monitoring), and can be excluded from snapshot loads.
Free Control Assignments
Every fader strip includes four Free Controls that can be assigned to any channel parameter: aux send levels, EQ gain, etc.
The default parameter assignments can vary from channel to channel. For example, to access aux send levels on music playback channels and compressor threshold and ratio on mic inputs.
User Buttons
Every fader strip includes four user buttons that can access 16 "channel-related" custom functions such as mix minus control (CORD and CONF), snapshot isolate (SNAP ISO) and talkback (TALK).
In addition, the CENTRAL USER BUTTON and TALKBACK areas include central user buttons for "master" custom functions.
All user buttons are programmed from the Custom Functions display and are stored as part of the system configuration and not in productions. This means that any changes will affect all users.
The rest of this chapter describes each option in more detail.