3 questions on UR28M routing that are stumping me ...

[alexis]

1. Front Panel and Back Panel Routing

a) Is “Output A” always hard-wired to “Line Output 1L/2R” on the back, “Output B” always to “Line Output 3L/4R”, etc.?

b) Does the front panel also give us the option to route any of Mix 1, Mix 2, and Mix3 to the other physical output on the back, the S/PDIF output? Or is using the Hardware Panel “Output Routing” section the only way to choose which Mix to send out the S/PDIF physical output?



2. UR28M FX Bus

Where does one choose which physical output this bus gets routed to? I can only figure it out using a clunky 2-step process, which I figure must not be the best way to do it: assigning the UR28M FX Bus in Cubase’s “VST Connections > Outputs” window to Mix 1,2, or 3 ( … or to “DAW Out”) , and then use the front panel to in turn route that Mix to a physical output A, B, or C ( … or, if DAW Out was chosen, on to the S/PDIF physical output). That seems convoluted enough to make me think I’m not right!



3.Why can’t I can’t get the Control Room to send a signal to the physical S/PDIF port?

I’ve got the DAW Out chosen in Cubase’s Hardware channel as the “mix” to send to the physical S/PDIF port. If I go to Cubase’s “VST Connections > Outputs” window and send the S/PDIF mix to Device Port DAW Out 1,2 it all works well - signal gets to the external device via S/PDIF.

But, if in the Studio Tab I choose the same device port for S/PDIF out, no signal gets to the S/PDIF-connected external device.

I have a feeling this is as intended, and I’m missing something conceptually …

For that and any of the above questions - I’d be grateful for any help …

Thanks!

[BriHar]

1a) Yes
1b) Using the Hardware Panel “Output Routing” section is the only way to choose which Mix to send to the S/PDIF physical output.

Questions 2 and 3 I’d prefer answering when I’m in the Studio and have access to the HW and a bit of time to better consider what you’re asking. In the meantime please feel free to enlarge upon, or further clarify (intentionwise) these points.

[alexis]

@BriHar

1a) Yes
1b) Using the Hardware Panel “Output Routing” section is the only way to choose which Mix to send to the S/PDIF physical output.

Questions 2 and 3 I’d prefer answering when I’m in the Studio and have access to the HW and a bit of time to better consider what you’re asking. In the meantime please feel free to enlarge upon, or further clarify (intentionwise) these points.

Thank you Brihar!

Re: question 2 - I’ve never used the FX bus, and in trying to decide whether it might be helpful to me I realized I don’t understand it. My first assumption is that it’s just another name for a “Mix” to route to 1 or 2 of the 6 physical outputs, but I don’t know that really makes sense, why would a signal to a comp need a name other than “Mix3”, e.g.?

And as I wrote, I’m not sure how to actually get a signal there without all kinds of convoluted shenanigans.

Re: question #3 , though I I am getting my signal to the S/PDIF outputs and on to my processor, I can only do it via the "Outputs"tab of the VST routing window (“DAW OUT” mix selected as Device Port) … no signal gets to the physical S/PDIF outputs if I select “DAW OUT” in the Studio tab.

That seems to be contrary to the general paradigm I am carrying around in my head that when the Control Room is activated all outputs should be chosen there instead of the "OUTPUTS"tab, so I’m wondering of there is a better way to do that …?


Thank you!

[BriHar]

OK, not forgotten.
Your suggestion in the first post regarding Q.2 would necessitate operating the UR28 in Independent mode which could be restrictive in some situations. However you are correct I that you could use any of the outs.
Setting Daw out to S/PDIF routing is the best advice.

I’ll describe a typical general routing for external processing which you can try (there are other routings possible). This example uses Mono outs and ins (typical for FX on mono tracks) but you can change these to stereo if necessary.

• Set your Output routing for S/PDIF to DAW 1/2 (a point of confusion in that Cubase refers to this as DAW 1/2 but the UR schematic reads DAW 9/10 which is probably correct - not critical but good to know)
• Create 2 mono Inputs FXIn1 and FXIn2 and route these to S/PDIF In L and S/PDIF In R These will be your returns which would be typically recorded on a separate track.
• Create 2 mono Outputs in VST Connections(we’ll call them FXOut1 and FXOut2) and route these to DAW Out 1 and 2 respectively. This has created two targets in Cubase which correspond to the physical S/PDIF L/R outputs.
• Create an FX or Group channel (a group channel will usually sum selected tracks (i.e. serial) whereas an FX channel will typically have selected tracks sent to it (i.e. parallel), in this case we’ll use an FX channel) FX-1 and Route this to FXOut1 (you can create a second channel routed to FXOut2 if needed)
  You can now connect a cable from the S/PDIF Out (I use converters on my S/PDIF ins and outs as any external processing I do is analog) to your external effect(s) and back to the FXIn1 or 2.
• Instead of using Input Channels you could, create an Ext channel in the Control Room and route this to the S/PDIF IN L/R instead.
  Hope this helps.

[alexis]

@BriHar

OK, not forgotten.
Your suggestion in the first post regarding Q.2 would necessitate operating the UR28 in Independent mode which could be restrictive in some situations. However you are correct I that you could use any of the outs.
Setting Daw out to S/PDIF routing is the best advice.

I’ll describe a typical general routing for external processing which you can try (there are other routings possible). This example uses Mono outs and ins (typical for FX on mono tracks) but you can change these to stereo if necessary.

• Set your Output routing for S/PDIF to DAW 1/2 (a point of confusion in that Cubase refers to this as DAW 1/2 but the UR schematic reads DAW 9/10 which is probably correct - not critical but good to know)
• Create 2 mono Inputs FXIn1 and FXIn2 and route these to S/PDIF In L and S/PDIF In R These will be your returns which would be typically recorded on a separate track.
• Create 2 mono Outputs in VST Connections(we’ll call them FXOut1 and FXOut2) and route these to DAW Out 1 and 2 respectively. This has created two targets in Cubase which correspond to the physical S/PDIF L/R outputs.
• Create an FX or Group channel (a group channel will usually sum selected tracks (i.e. serial) whereas an FX channel will typically have selected tracks sent to it (i.e. parallel), in this case we’ll use an FX channel) FX-1 and Route this to FXOut1 (you can create a second channel routed to FXOut2 if needed)
  You can now connect a cable from the S/PDIF Out (I use converters on my S/PDIF ins and outs as any external processing I do is analog) to your external effect(s) and back to the FXIn1 or 2.
• Instead of using Input Channels you could, create an Ext channel in the Control Room and route this to the S/PDIF IN L/R instead.
  Hope this helps.

Thanks again, Brihar! I had brute-forced my way into figuring out a very similar routing from Cubase through S/PDIF to stereo processor and back, I wish I had asked earlier and then seen your answer before I did all that, but I suppose it probably it helped me learn things more permanently figuring it out myself.

Since I asked my original question, I went through the UR28M manual, and you got me to look at the flow diagram on page 38 (thanks). Would you know the answer to these questions?

1. There is an “FX Insert” point at the left of the page, right after all the gain controls and metering of each of the inputs. What does that refer to? My old interface had a physical port there, a regular old insert point … but since the URM28 doesn’t, I can’t figure out what that entry on the flow diagram means …

2. It refers to “10-DAW in/6 DAW Out”. I don’t understand that nomenclature … isn’t it 8 DAW in and 8 DAW out (Mix 1R, Mix 1L, Mix2R, Mix2L, Mix3R, Mix3L, S/PDIF Right, S/PDIF Left … in and out for each of those)?

Thanks again, Brihar -

[BriHar]

1. The FX insert point you describe refers to the DSP FX i.e. Ch. Strip and Guitar Amps (shown near the bottom at the left hand side), in particular this is the Ins or lower insert location (applied to both Monitor and DAW outs) as described on page 19. A little below this and to the right you will see another FX Insert point which corresponds to the Mon or middle position (applied only to the Monitor outs).

2. This can be confusing. The 6 outs refer to outs of the UR to the DAW and the 10 ins are from the DAW to the UR - not the other way around which might be assumed at first. The 6 outs are shown at the top right of the schematic. 6 of the 10 outs connect to the mix busses and 7 and 8 feed the reverb bus. The remaining 9 and 10 can be selected for the S/PDIF out (the wrongly labelled DAW OUT 1&2 in the routing dialog).
   The 6 outs then correspond basically to the 6 physical UR inputs Channels 1&2 (Mic/Line/Hi-Z), Channels 3&4 (Line Inputs) and the S/PDIF L&R. The Schematic can also be a bit confusing in this regard as they are shown in single line representation whereas there are in fact 2 of each - this is an oversimplification done to keep the diagram uncluttered but can be confusing for the average person.

Hope that helps.

[alexis]

@BriHar

1. The FX insert point you describe refers to the DSP FX i.e. Ch. Strip and Guitar Amps (shown near the bottom at the left hand side), in particular this is the Ins or lower insert location (applied to both Monitor and DAW outs) as described on page 19. A little below this and to the right you will see another FX Insert point which corresponds to the Mon or middle position (applied only to the Monitor outs).

2. This can be confusing. The 6 outs refer to outs of the UR to the DAW and the 10 ins are from the DAW to the UR - not the other way around which might be assumed at first. The 6 outs are shown at the top right of the schematic. 6 of the 10 outs connect to the mix busses and 7 and 8 feed the reverb bus. The remaining 9 and 10 can be selected for the S/PDIF out (the wrongly labelled DAW OUT 1&2 in the routing dialog).
   The 6 outs then correspond basically to the 6 physical UR inputs Channels 1&2 (Mic/Line/Hi-Z), Channels 3&4 (Line Inputs) and the S/PDIF L&R. The Schematic can also be a bit confusing in this regard as they are shown in single line representation whereas there are in fact 2 of each - this is an oversimplification done to keep the diagram uncluttered but can be confusing for the average person.

Hope that helps.

Completely, thanks so much. So unintuitive (the labeling of the diagram), as the usual descriptions I’ve seen of interfaces with “X in/Y out” have a completely different meaning, referring to the physical ports.