Sound check

Set it once. Play your gig.

Sound Check learns how hard you play and keeps your peaks at the target. Then it stays out of your way.

We've been using it daily in every preset, at rehearsals and a gig. Its reliability stems from the simple idea:

There’s no threshold, ratio, or attack time to set. Pick a target, play a few loud notes, and let Sound Check manage the rest. It works the way a live sound engineer does: it watches the meter and nudges your gain down when you peak too often. It works for bass and guitar.

Two steps

1. Switch to Learn mode and play a few loud notes.
2. Switch back to Live mode and perform.

Bind the Mode switch to a footswitch and setup becomes tap, play loud, tap. The preset block image features a large display showing the applied gain.

It only raises gain when you ask it to care.

Down Only is the conservative default. It only ever turns you down. It follows the same one-way gain-reduction principle used in the auto gain on Allen & Heath’s CQ and Qu-5/6/7 digital mixers.

Up & Down goes a step further. When you’ve become too quiet, Sound Check turns you back up. It does this gradually, and only when your peaks are well below target.

Features

• Two live-updating views
  • Chain View: The Block shows Applied gain and Learn mode, large enough to be seen from a standing position.
  • Config View: Shows Target, Learned, and Applied gain, so you can see what it’s doing.
• Learn once, then perform
• Live and Learn modes, bindable to a footswitch
• Down Only (default) or Up & Down
• Target from -24 dB to -3 dB, default -10 dBFS
• Works on bass and guitar
• Uses under 0.5% DSP

We built Sound Check for ourselves and players who are tired of manually managing their gain structure. Explore Sound Check at Dust & Coil.

Allen & Heath, CQ, and Qu are trademarks of their respective owners and are used solely to identify reference products. Dust & Coil is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of the above.