How do I setup the DBXs?

Let's start with the audience mics. Make sure that the mic is turned on, then unplug the DBX from the corresponding channel of the mixer and check that you can hear the mic through the mixer headphones. Plug the DBX back in and make sure that you know which channel of the DBX corresponds to that mic.

First set up the noise gate. Turn the Expander/Gate Threshold knob (left side of the control panel all the way down -- you will hear hum and noise that the mic is picking up. With no-one in the room speaking or making noise, turn the knob clockwise until the noise cuts out. You will also see the row of LEDs light up, indicating that the unit is at maximum gain suppression. Turn the knob just a little further up -- you should find that when you speck, the signal cuts in, and when you are silent, the signal cuts out.
Set the Expander/Gate Release knob to about 12 o'clock. Adjust it until the cutin-cutout of the voice as you speak sounds as "natural" as possible.
The Contour button is probably best turned on.
Now set up the compressor section. Turn the Contour switch on. Then set the Threshold knob so that with the room quiet, the LEDs above are at yellow.
Set the compression ratio to 4:1 to start; you can experiment with making it higher if you like. The compressor limits the dynamic range of the mic signals so that the encoder has a good signal to work with and so that the A/D convertor is less likely to go nto clipping (which sounds really bad.
Set the Attack and Release knobs to about 11 o'clock -- fiddle with them later if you want.
Set the Output Gain so you get good signal into the mixer. For the audience mics, set it to about +10 dB.
Set the Peakstop Limiter button so that when you speak VERY LOUDLY the light above it comes on. The idea of this is that loud or excitable speakers will not cause the encoder to clip.

Setting the DBXs for the speaker wireless mics is a similar process. Some differences:

The Expander/Gate threshold can be set lower, since there is much less noise picked up by the wireless mics.
The Output Gain can be lower since the wireless receivers generate more signal than the audience mics.

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