Hi,
I have an MC6000, the big brother to your controller. And here’s my workflow.
Set the VU meter switch to channel.
Cue up the next track and hit play, look for a louder part in the music (like after the intro)
Set channel gain with your gain knob so your VU meters are constantly green with the peaks going into one or two orange
At this point you have established that with full channel fader up you are at average 0dB channel output towards the master.
Now switch the VU meter over to master
Open the fader full on a playing track and turn up master volume knob on your MC3000. We have already established that in the louder parts of the track you are at 0dB average. You can now turn up your master volume til the VU meter reaches average 0dB. I usually mark this position with a piece of tape or something.
You have now set up your sytem to NEVER go beyond 0dB average, not on channel and not on master. Whatever amp or speaker system or club system you are plugging into will receive a nice 0dB average (+3 to + 6dB peaks). Never any fear of damage, clipping or whatever. Trust me when I say that this way all electronic circuitry works as close to optimal as possible.
Since you don’t want to start out full force at the beginning of the night, I usually turn down the master at this point to a level that feels good to start with. Later I can make the overall sound louder bit by bit as needed and know I should not go louder than the spot I marked on the master volume.
While playing, have the switch for the VU set to channel (you effectively forget about master for now). I personally don’t use any autogain features in the software. I gain EVERY track the moment I load it.
Effectively I would leave everything at 0dB in the software (you can turn down the master a bit if signal is coming in way too hot) and use channel gain and the master knob on my controller for proper level control.
Hope that helps & greetinx.
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