Calibrating analog console

[Lasse Rosendahl BangParticipant]

Hi everyone

So this is my first post in the forums and I'm still very new to the academy, so if this is the wrong place to post this, I apologize in advance.

I have a hybrid setup with a Steinberg UR824 interface along with to Ultragain Pros running 24 channels out to my MX8000 24-channel mixing desk. I have always had the 24 channels go out to the tape ins of the console for summing and processing as I was inspired to do it like this through a guy on youtube that ran almost the exact setup as mine.

It has been working fine but the problem has always been that my levels from the DAW to the different channels have seemed inconsistent. When I run a 1Khz test tone at -18db through it, the difference in levels becomes apparent although all faders in both Reaper and on my console are set at unity at the time. The drums come in at around -4 VU on the console, the bass is -7 etc. All outputs from the DAW (drums, guitar, bass etc. are all trimmed to peak at -12, to make sure they all leave the DAW at the same level).

So my question is how to calibrate my DAW and console the right way. From what I've come across online, I could switch the 24 outs to my line inputs on the console, run the test tone again and adjust the gain to get even levels across the board but are their any significant drawbacks to this approach or something to be aware of while calibrating?

Any help and guidance is deeply appreciated 🙂

Cheers!
Lasse

[Dave Le SangeParticipant]

Hey Lasse,

I assume you've already tried contact cleaner on all your connection points & faders, so next step for me would be to remove any rotary gain knobs & re-site them, in case they've slipped out of alignment over time.

You getting any unusual distortion on the louder/quieter channels? Might need recapping.

Hope I've been helpful, or at least easy to ignore.

[Author]

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