Show dictionary · Audio
Mix-Minus
Also: N-1 · clean return
A mix-minus is a program mix with one source deliberately removed: everything minus the recipient’s own contribution. A remote guest hears the whole show except themselves, which prevents the delayed echo of their own voice that would otherwise make speaking impossible.
In practice
The physics is unforgiving: any return path with latency (a phone line, a video call, a satellite hop) turns a full program feed into an echo machine, because the guest hears themselves a half-second late. Subtract their input from their return feed and the problem vanishes. Broadcast calls the general form N-1: N sources, each fed the mix minus themselves.
Consoles build mix-minus from auxes or dedicated N-1 buses; every remote-guest segment, phone-in, and two-way interview on a corporate stream needs one per remote end. When the client asks why the Zoom guest keeps stumbling, the answer is almost always that someone fed them program instead of mix-minus.
How you’ll hear it
"Remote CEO gets mix-minus on the return or she will hear herself in the ballroom PA a beat late."
Related resources
Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.