Sound Boards?

Question

Can someone tell me all they know about the use of soundboards? Not the "how to set it up" but "what do the k***s do". I have the basic understanding but don't get gain, equalisation and so on.

Answer 1

If you are referring to a Mixer as a "soundboard" (which is probably the case) then my answer is that you use one to select a source for the audio you hear coming out of your speakers.

In a home theater, you really do not need one as they are built into your reciever 99% of the time.

In a home theater setting I cannot think of an instance where you will need to combine two or more audio sources and mix them. It will be much easier to just use the remote on your reciever to select "Cable" or "DVD" or "Aux" or whatever because you'll only need one at a time.

Now if you are PRODUCING films then yes, you'll need a "soundboard" to mix your music level with your sound effects and another channel for the voices and another for back ground noise and so on.

Another example of correctly using a mixer is that I have several microphones and musical instruments plugged into my mixer and the output signal is a sum of all of the levels that I adjust.

Equalization via "soundboard" is also rather pointless as your reciever PROBABLY has a way to adjust all of that.