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Re: How important is VCA capability on your mixer?I think mixing/routing style in part determines the importance, but that mixing/routing is also determined by what is commonly available. Most of my shows are less than 16 inputs, done on a variety of desks with a variety of capabilities. When I walk up to patch FOH I still almost always patch dynamics on single channels and effects off of an aux. If either groups or VCA's are available I rarely go beyond splitting instruments/vocals. In bluegrass, a common setup seems to be the one vocal mic, backed up by 3 or so supplemental instrument mics and a bass channel. In that situation, I might be inclined to assign each channel to a single group, especially if it is a large board (thing Midas Heritage) in a festival setting. Then the relative levels can be mixed at the center of the board regardless of where the channels got placed.
Re: How important is VCA capability on your mixer?
I think mixing/routing style in part determines the importance, but that mixing/routing is also determined by what is commonly available. Most of my shows are less than 16 inputs, done on a variety of desks with a variety of capabilities. When I walk up to patch FOH I still almost always patch dynamics on single channels and effects off of an aux. If either groups or VCA's are available I rarely go beyond splitting instruments/vocals.
In bluegrass, a common setup seems to be the one vocal mic, backed up by 3 or so supplemental instrument mics and a bass channel. In that situation, I might be inclined to assign each channel to a single group, especially if it is a large board (thing Midas Heritage) in a festival setting. Then the relative levels can be mixed at the center of the board regardless of where the channels got placed.
