I’m trying to set something flexible enough to use both my monitor speakers and headphones at the same time, using the control room. In other words, I would like to be able to set independently the output level of each one.
The main problem I have is that Patchmix (my E-Mu device manager) doesn’t allow me to set an ASIO outputs pair to specific physical outputs. In other word, I can’t, say, directly route ASIO output 1/2 to ‘Line Out 2L/2R’ and ASIO Output 3/4 to ‘Phones/Line out 1L/1R’, as I would like. I found a workaround, using a send in each of my output strips in Patchmix : in the ASIO 1/2 one, I set a send to ‘Line Out 2L/2R’ and in the ASIO 3/4 one, I set a send to ‘Phones/Line out 1L/1R’. Fine : this works, but at the expense of not being able to set the relative volume of one against the other : it’s an ‘all sound/no sound’ solution. From which my attempt to use the control room to be able to set precisely the levels for both stereo busses.
What I already did :
I defined in Cubase ‘VST Connections/Studio’ window a ‘Phones’ channel routed to ‘E-MU ASIO/ASIO Out 3/4’ (my main Cubase outputs being routed to ASIO Out 1/2).
I opened the Control room mixer and got this (see ‘CR_Settings.png’ attachment). Seems fine, and I’m indeed able to set precisely my headphones level, using the dedicated fader and/or ‘Activate phones’ button of the ‘Phones’ strip.
And here is where I’m stuck : what works for the headphones doesn’t for Cubase main output. The ‘Control room’ strip is not working. When I use the ‘Active monitors’ button, the signal shown in the meter is exactly the same as the one in the ‘Phones’ strip, but that’s all about it : the fader doesn’t do anything. So, I must be missing something more or less obvious, but can’t put the finger on it. I already checked that the ‘Set “Main out” as main mix’ option is activated, as well as the ‘Click’ one, in the ‘VST connections’ window.
From which :
What is the ‘Control room’ strip actually supposed to control ? Seems rather confusing to me…
Is there a way to control Cubase main output level directly from the control room mixer as the phones one ? Or, in other words, to link the ‘Main out’ fader of the F3 mixer to the ‘Control room’ strip of the Control room one ?
I do not have the problems that you have with Control Room, but at the top of this topic list is a link that tells you a lot about Control Room, a great topic started by SLD music. Maybe there you can find answers.
So, I looked again at some of the videos, especially the fourth one (‘The listen bus’) and I sincerely appreciate SLD effort for offering these to us, by the way. But, sorry to say that the sound take of the comments is still close to inaudible, which limits a lot their interest, sadly.
However, I saw that maybe the ‘Listen’ buttons in the mixers could be involved in my issue. To no avail : no matter what I try to activate, the main out fader of the F3 mixer doesn’t flinch.
So, I looked again at some of the videos, especially the fourth one (‘The listen bus’) and I sincerely appreciate SLD effort for offering these to us, by the way. But, sorry to say that the sound take of the comments is still close to inaudible, which limits a lot their interest, sadly.
I don’t understand… Are you saying you can’t hear the audio in my tutorial videos? If you are, then… something in your set up is very wrong indeed. The audio is fine. I was meticulous about that when I produced them. If that’s not what you’re saying, I apologize. Just trying to decipher your comment.
That said, I’m unfamiliar with the EMU patchmix, but if you actually watch the first three or four videos in my series from the very beginning, I think you might be able to solve your problem. It sounds (and looks by your screenshot) to me like you’re setting up the control room incorrectly. I could write out a long explanation of why I think that, but … this is fundamental stuff for control room set up and it’s all already in my video series, so I would just encourage you to watch them from the beginning (or read the manual if you preferred).
Short answer: set up a “monitor” channel…
That all said, I could be misunderstanding your problem as well. For some reason I’m having a hard time following what you’re saying.
When using the control room, the main output should not be connected at all - the control room “monitor” -channels are used for that…
That is because your ASIO outputs are still connected to the Cubase Main outputs, instead of the control room monitors - so obviously if they are not connected to anything, the “strip” (i.e. the fader, I guess?) will not control anything. Your main mix still ouputs through the “ouputs”, not control room. That´s the problem so many users have with previewing - activated control room, (which automatically routes preview through control room) that has no output busses connected - so preview goes to Nirvana.
It controls the monitoring level of the selected source via the selected output
Didn’t mean to be hurtful, sorry. When I wrote ‘inaudible’, I actually meant ‘incomprehensible’ but it’s probably my bad for 90% of it : first, english is not my native language, second, I have a deficient hearing, this, since I came in this world more than 50 years ago, and I have a hearing aid for that. The result is that, without it, and on video clips such as yours, if the comments are not loud enough and made in a strictly ‘Oxford english’ accent, I quickly get comprehension problems… Tha last 10 % reside, IMHO, in the fact that maybe the sound level of your comments/explanations would gain being, say, 3 dB louder with a more present high frequencies area. But this is directly related to the way my ears are working, I admit.
Spot on, Thinkingcap ! My wrong ASIO routing was indeed the culprit and I should have think of it, just by looking more carefully at the ‘Control room overview’ window.
So, I set my ‘Main out’ bus to unconnected and defined a ‘Monitor’ bus connected to the ASIO Out 1/2 pair in the ‘VST connection’ window and everything is almost working. I say ‘almost’, because having to use the ‘Send’ workaround in patchmix makes that, as an example, my ‘Wave’ strip (used for non-Cubase purposes, such as CD audio listening) doesn’t work : I have to remove the sends before being able to use it again, as the allocation of the ASIO pairs are exclusive. But this a Patchmix issue, not a Cubase one. Not a biggie, as I’ll just have to define a new Patchmix session for fixing it.
Glad you got it working Cubic13. And thanks for the explanation. I apologize if I was defensive–I was just confused and worried that despite my best efforts, I had done something woefully wrong.
Anyway, glad you got it (mostly) sorted out. Cheers.
The audio is fine. I was meticulous about that when I produced them. If that’s not what you’re saying, I apologize. Just trying to decipher your comment.