How to Adjust Microphone Gain, EQ & Compression on Yamaha DM7 Mixer

Choose the channel you would like to adjust gain, EQ or compression by pressing the “SEL” button on the channel.

To increase or decrease any selected value on the touch screen, use the “Touch and Turn” knobs on the mixer.

To adjust the input gain on, select the A.Gain and use the “Touch and Turn” knob on the mixer to turn up or down. Make sure that the signal is as loud as possible without the potential of clipping. This is to get the best signal to noise ratio for your recording.

To test, make the loudest sound anticipated when sound checking (ex: an on air talent speaking loudly into a lavalier or a drummer hitting their snare drum as hard as possible). Make sure their is plenty of headroom to allow for unusually high audio peaks.

In the DYN section, you can gate and compress the source signal to get rid of extra noise and to make the audio more even. To ensure the DYN section is on, make sure the “DYN 1/2” button in the top right is on (red).

To see an expanded view, press the “<.>” button in the top left corner of the module.

"THRESHOLD" is used to define the point at which the compression "kicks in."

"RATIO" is used to determine how much the compressor compresses. 3.00:1 means that for every 3dB that comes into the compressor past the set "THRESH" the compressor will output 1 dB. In effect reducing your dynamic range.

"OUTPUT" is used to turn the compressed signal back up, or "make up" the gain that had been compressed out of the original input signal. You may notice that once you've set your input gain (in the previous step) correctly, and add compression that your signal will be some what lower. Adjust this make up gain to get it back up to 0 on the VU meter.

"ATTACK" is used to determine how soon the compressor "kicks in." 5.00mS means that once the input signal has lasted 5 milliseconds past the threshold, the compressor will start and continue to reduce the incoming signal until that signal goes below the "THRESH" again.

"RELEASE" is used to determine how soon the compressor "kicks out" or stops affecting the incoming signal once the signal has dropped below the threshold.

“KNEE” is the sharpness or softness of how the compressor kicks in once activated. A higher knee will have a sharper transition to compression while a lower knee will have a softer transition.

“MIX” allows you to blend the original uncompressed signal with the compressed signal.

In the EQ section, you can adjust the frequencies of the source signal. To ensure the EQ is on, make sure the “EQ” button in the top right is on (green).

The "HPF" option determines what frequency to start cutting off your lows. This is useful if you want to get rid of low frequency rumbles or low frequency mic handling noise. The slope adjust how drastic the cutoff point is.

The “LPF” option determines what frequency to start cutting off your highs. This could be useful if the microphone is noisy or if the signal is really bright. The slope adjust how drastic the cutoff point is.

The points on the frequency spectrum are moveable EQ points to adjust where you want changes to be made. "Freq" determines the center point of the frequencies you would like to effect, "Q" determines how much bandwidth or how wide of a brush you would like to stroke with to change your frequency sounds, "Gain" determines how much you would like to add or subtract to the selected frequency and width to change the low frequency spectrum of your sound.

In the expanded view of a module, you will see options on the right side of the screen to copy/paste settings to apply to other channels.

Once you press “Copy” you will be able to select another channel and “Paste” the settings to that channel.