Allen & Heath Avantis - Preferences

How I have the Avantis set up for a show.
* Please comment if there is anything else you'd like to see on the Avantis! *

[@dksouthpawatx]

super helpful video! I love seeing peoples' process, helps me determine what my own might be. I'd love to see more about your groups and parallel compression groups and matrices. That's my biggest stumbling block moving from smaller analog boards to something like the avantis

[@asilva_media]

holy crap i love ur channel, car stuff and sound equipment, yes

[@adedotunaderoju1267]

Nice! everything layed out and labeled

[@studio13nola42]

Thanks for doing this. The church I work for just got this board and I've been trying to figure out a solid workflow with it. This video is exactly what I needed to see. In fact, I was already going there tomorrow morning to setup the Dante network with it, but will also now be implementing many of your ideas for the workflow. Perfect video for the night before setup. Cheers.

[@streams76]

Glad to hear it! Once you get a solid flow, it's definitely quite the console. Cheers!

[@artysanmobile]

That’s a very smart setup.

[@hanieltrisna]

I like it! Thank you!

[@kevinvanarnam3837]

Love to see how you lay out your soft buttons. Always looking for creative ideas.

[@benyoung777]

Thanks for the vid! Lots of great ideas and tips! Nice camera angle too! I liked your workflow of the DCAs controlling the busses. I think I am going to implement that!

[@artysanmobile]

Though I have somehow never seen an Avantis in person, I am really impressed with the design as shown here. Clarity and ergonomics are a collective imperative for me in a digital console, exemplified perfectly by the SSL. Allen & Heath seem to have adhered strictly to these rules in the control layout and display appearance, as much as I can see just watching your layout demo. Many of the top makers (looking at you Yamaha!) have badly dropped the ball, choosing to reinvent the wheel and making an unintuitive mess instead. I was a major fan of Yamaha in the past but no more. I’ll be checking the Avantis closely with the hope of another option to specify. Great video, btw.

[@streams76]

Thanks! And I totally agree re: yamaha, etc. CL is a wildly capable platform, but I loathe the workflow. Avantis FTW!

[@timtimchaazn]

Great video! Love the preference and information. Great angle on the board too as ive been researching this board and there isnt to much good camera angle at the board to visually see what is going on.

[@aeiplanner]

Thanks for putting this together. Most videos on this board typically hit on the features but few go into use case scenarios. This video really helped a lot. In only curious about one thing and that's how your IO is arranged on stage. Also, what does your matricies implementation look like? Are you using any Dante cards for recording to a DAW or no?

[@streams76]

On stage, my io is into a gx4816, usually close to 1:1. As for matrices, it depends on the PA. I usually do one per type of box/side, along with any streaming, broadcast, etc. I do have a Dante card that I multitrack into pro tools.

[@feral-bull]

👍👍👍

[@christdub1241]

Great review! Definitely got some cool ideas!👍🏽

[@streams76]

Thanks! I'm so happy with this console...now we just need concerts to come back :)

[@christdub1241]

@@streams76 I recently installed 2 in a local church. Great console!

[@streams76]

@@christdub1241 Agreed! I think I'm ready to call it - my favorite workflow of any desk I've used, and this includes the big boys.

[@christdub1241]

@@streams76 I agree! Of course I had a Digico guy look at me like I was crazy but I think that work flow is quick and fluid. It’s definitely the best value at the $8k-$9k range. . . Maybe up to $20k. 🤷🏽‍♂️

[@alaskasoundguy2838]

You could have dual mixers have the left side be FOH inputs outputs have right side be monitor inputs output if you wanted I love this mixer also you could have it set up for left handed have groups outputs on left inputs on right

[@ryanleonardo2485]

Very true, you can configure it however you like. One of the most versatile consoles out there!

[@streams76]

All true - I love how versatile this desk is!

[@BrianSimmons]

We do this at our church. On our old board, we ran a broadcast stream off an AUX. That had it's own set of limitations. With the Avantis, we have duplicated all the channels and 1-32 is FOH and 33-64 is broadcast. This way we can use the trim function as well as the channel settings and FXs to really dial in both mixes independently. Until Allen and Heath releases the Director for Avantis software, we are forced to have both engineers mix on 1/2 of the board. Our mixer is in a terrible location in a balcony, so as I FOH engineer, I'd rather mix from the audience location. I'm using the MixPad app currently, but it is so limiting because it doesn't allow access to most of the features of the board. I find myself running back and forth quite a bit right now.

[@mjevenson1877]

Nice overview. How do you set up the parallel processing on the groups (Drums for example)

[@streams76]

I just sent all of the shells to the parallel group and put an 1176 on it, then sent it to the mains, then season to taste.

[@mjevenson1877]

@@streams76 Thanks

[@DbiPro]

Can you do a tutorial on how to setup an fix rerun and send and how to use it

[@revelationevents2323]

Have you used the console for years without problems? I see people talking about problems with the screen freezing among other things, I’m thinking about buying a solo but I’m also considering the Yamaha dm7; what do you think?

[@w6gps]

this was the best no nonsense video that makes sense any chance you could share your configuration?

[@streams76]

The configuration changes based on how many mixes or matrices I need. Could you be more specific?

[@thada7070]

Thanks for the video! Impressed with your setup. You mentioned that your DCAs control the groups instead of the inputs (so that adjusting the DCAs doesn't throw off the parallel compression taking place at the group level). That approach appeals to me, but I'm stuck on something: How do make your DCA moves still affect FX levels with this set up? Assuming your FX sends are post-fader, then DCAs controlling inputs also control how much of those inputs are sent through FX, but DCAs controlling groups don't affect how much of the inputs go through FX. With DCAs controlling groups, how do you make it so that you don't keep hearing drums or vocals FX when you pull their group DCA fader is down? The only two ways I can think of are to either send the groups to the FX instead of sending the inputs, or have your DCAs also control the corresponding FX send (e.g. drums DCA includes drum groups and drum FX send(s)).

[@streams76]

Typically, if I’m mixing with DCAs, any level adjustments I make are going to be minute, so effects aren’t affected significantly. If I need to make a more drastic adjustment, I will go straight to the channel fader or mute group.

[@thada7070]

Makes sense. Thanks again!

[@shaneb9323]

lots of useful info! I'll subscribe but you should make a video of how you are routing your sub and LR matrices! Thanks.

[@streams76]

I'm just sending my Main LR to each matrix at unity, and then sending matrices to amps/boxes

[@tesfadennis9570]

How do you properly set up the sub group for drums, vocals, etc…?

[@matthewsippi6802]

Great video. But can you please help me out with a training video as how to setup the board for the first time.Thanks a lot

[@streams76]

Sure, but it depends on how you'd like the board set up. FOH vs. monitors, or both, for example.

[@streams76]

Also, there are a lot of helpful videos here: www.allen-heath.com/avantis/#images

[@matthewsippi6802]

@@streams76 Please both. Thanks a lot

[@Curbow5]

What did you use to label the softkeys?

[@streams76]

I used a P-touch 1880 with black tape :)

[@ismscsim]

Cool...great board?

[@Brian-nz6ns]

you need another camera focused on the screens, just can't read them. It's nice to see how you layout your channels, but everyone is going to do something different. I'd like to hear more about how you use the effects and processing. Are the basic effects they give you per channel sufficient? Basic EQ and compressor is it I think? Beyond that there are only 7 FX busses you can apply the plugins to. Do you get pre or post waveforms at any point? It's a lot easier to apply processing when you can see what's happening. It would be a waste of dual 10" screens if they didn't.

[@streams76]

The basic/included effects are fine, but the Dpack has some amazing capabilities, I especially like the Dyn8 & 1176. As for effects, there are 12 engines, not 7. If by waveforms, you mean RTA, there is one RTA that you can assign to anything that is PAFL'd, but they don't have it embedded in the PEQ like the M32, etc. I agree that it would be a nice feature. As for the camera angle, agreed, I just threw this together on a day off. And, they're 15" screens :) Cheers.

[@Brian-nz6ns]

@@streams76 There are a couple Waves EQ plugins (F6 for example) that give you a pre or post RTA in the background. Does this mixer have a similar EQ plugin?

[@streams76]

@@Brian-nz6ns It doesn’t have one built-in, but you can put a waves card in one of the two slots and do it that way. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if A&H included that in one of their next software update, as everybody is asking for it

[@esp.event.sound.professionals]

How do you split channels?

[@streams76]

You don’t split the channel per se, but assign two (or more) channels to the same input socket. For example, if your vocal mic is plugged into input #1 on your stage box, you can assign one channel to be your FOH vocal, and another for your monitor vocal, so that you can have completely different processing for each.

[@esp.event.sound.professionals]

Anyway you could give me a walk through. Press what to where and so on. New to this type of routing. Thank You If you want to email me it to me. [e-mail] Appreciate

[@BrianSimmons]

I just wish Allen and Heath would release another firmware and the Director software. It's been promised for the last 15 months and we still don't have it. It is making my Avantis experience very frustrating. I love the board, but I'm really hating the amount of support A&H has been providing or how they have not been living up to their own expectations with regards to releases. I honestly couldn't recommend the board right now until they start supporting it more.

[@elhefethegreat]

Just found out I am mixing the band I work with (online show) tomorrow on one of these. Bummer I can't set stuff in advance like labeling, routing and other little stuff I like to do with my mix beforehand....

[@BrianSimmons]

@@elhefethegreat Yup. Still no 1.1 release! It really is a nice board to use, but having the Director software would make it even better. Hopefully you have a great show and enjoy the board.

[@ngaionobumoto3356]

@@elhefethegreat They just released the editor