I’ve just got C6 (PC) and would like to set up the control room feature. I’m using an Emu 1212m sound card. As I understand it, The control room output should be configured to a sound card’s headphone jack, but the 1212m doesn’t have one and I’m already using the cards main output jacks. i’ve searched this forum and the net but haven’t found a definitive solution. Does anybody know an alternative way to get the CR output out of the 1212m independently of the main output jacks? The card does have SPDIF (whatever that is) & ADAT I/O. I’m not a tech head so any help/advice would be appreciated.
C6 - XP Pro - Emu 1212m - Behringer DDX3216 desk - Behringer HA4700 Headphone Amp
One of the main purposes of the control room/ or studio is to set up custom submixes for monitoring by someone you are recording.
The idea is that you … as the engineer … can switch between different mixes … the main monitor or various submixes … while the person recording voice or instrument gets a mix tailored to their desires. Someone wants the drums soft with a loud click track and someone only wants the click track.
You can use your 1212 by going mono … so one output feeds the monitors and the other goes to a headphone amp. If you have an outboard mixer that accepts SPDIF or ADAT then you could use those instead. Unfortunately, it usually takes pricey equipment to be capable of this.
I’m not aware of any headphone amps that accept digital outs … the SPDIF or ADAT, but there may be some. They wouldn’t be cheap as they’d need an additional A/D converter.
Unless you have a setup where you are sitting in your make shift control room and someone else is sitting in another room … it is hard to make much use of this function.
The 1212m is a nice card and great deal for the price … but for most studio things you need additional analog ins and outs … like the 1616m has.
Thanks Como Baila for your reply. I guess I’ve managed without the CR so far, but I would like the flexibility of being able to use it if it’s not too hard to set up. Apparently my desk (Behringer DDX3216) accepts SPDIF so maybe I could try that route (if you pardon the pun). Would this be complicated to setup? I’m guessing that I would use my sound card’s Patchmix software to send the CR output to the SPDIF outputs? If I can get that signal into the desk, I’m hoping I can route it to one of the seperate outputs…which I can then connect my Headphone amp to. Does this all sound feasable
Assuming that your SP/dif outs show as independent outputs then YES this would offer you a much more flexible solution… you could even use the extra outputs which you have ‘gained’ as one stereo foldback loop/external fx send/external fx insert etc… CR is a MASSIVELY powerful function which i think MANY people overlook, particularly the people newer to recording who don’t have the experience of physical routing.
Now all you have to worry about is figuring out PatchMix!
It is a such a deep software mixer that it can take sometime to really get your head around it … especially if you haven’t had much experience in real hardware routing/ patching.
BTW, I think Sound on Sound had a stellar article on using PatchMix. Google it.
I soured a little on my 1616m when I couldn’t use the onboard DSP reliably as VST … always got some cracking noises. I don’t know if this ever got fixed or not. But I never could get around to selling it either. Keeping it in the closet with several other past audio interfaces that just don’t seem worth selling given the resale values. I keep thinking about buying a PCIe card to go along with the cardbus I got.
Oh, by the way. First hint for using the studio. Don’t attach you outs to your speakers through the ‘Outputs’ in VST Connections. Attach them to the monitors in the Studio. Otherwise you’ll go through the “why can’t I hear anything playing in mediabay when I open my project” dance. For whatever reason, once you add sends in Studio, C6 won’t provide audio for MediaBay if you are monitoring through the Output section.
Thank you all for your advice & links. I definately come in the very little knowlegde catagory when it comes to patching & routing . I’ve had a dabble with patchmix this evening…very confusing it looks like I can set the SPDIF outputs for the 1212m ok, but i haven’t as yet figured out how to route the main mix to the SPDIF’s channel strip. I also can’t see the SPDIF showing up as an option in Cubase’s CR output settings.
I can see that I’m not gonna be able to bumble my way through this one. The emu manual isn’t very clear either. Gonna keep trying, & hopefully I’ll get to grips with it soon. Thanks again for all of your advice, the level of support here is great.
Hi,
I have been looking at control room for a few days, as it turns out Its not what I need to use as I’m using an N12 but I did discover what a great thing it is, I’d never even looked at it before.
To put my input for what it’s worth I think to use it with C6 you would need more analogue outs. You need two for your main monitor in Vst outputs then when you enable the control room feature you asign analoge outs to each item but you can’t use the same outs as the main. I didn’t see anywhere you could use spdif. When you make say a studio for a singer and asign two outputs to it you go to the project page and if you don’t see the studio sends listed in the inspector you right click it and choose them. This ticks them and they will now appear in the list with the inserts etc. You just activate the studio send on every track you want it on. When you open the control room mixer you see your studo there. In control room there is a phones that can be allocated in vst this is usually for you the engineer and in the control room mixer you can choose to switch what you hear between the studios, monitors or main mix. I think to use this feature with cubase 6 your looking at a minimum 6 analogue i/o. Before I got the N12 I used a Delta 1010 which is 8 + spdif I was really pleased with it.
Hope some of this info is useful, good luck.
PP
Very briefly the way i’m set up here at my place…
Multiface2 has 8 analogue I/O and SP/dif I/O + 8 ADAT I/O (not currently using the ADAT I/O… yet).
An 1&2 are control room outs sent direct to my monitors, 3&4 are FX send/s, 5&6 are 1x stereo or 2x mono foldback sent to a headphone distribution amp, 7&8 to alternative monitors, SP/dif L&R are the Pod I/O.
I use AN input 8 for my talkback mic… the rest of the In’s and AN 3&4 OUT are routed to a patch bay… a nice fairly simple but highly flexible and powerful setup… we use a MOTU 828 with 8ch of ADAT I/O in the main studio though which is a much more complex affair.
@Petepraise … the choices you see are dictated by what your interface/ sound card provides that has/ have been setup/ activated in the main device manager window.
In other words, if your soundcard doesn’t have SPDIF or ADAT, then in VST Connections>Studio you won’t see those options in the drop down menus.
Like matjones, I have a RME Multiface II. I don’t use all the outputs in the Studio … since some of my routing is done through a Mackie Big Knob … but they all show up there. But I do use all my ADAT inputs. My synths are patched to my Mackie Onyx 800R and piped optically to the Mutltiface.
Why? This lets me record in real time 4 stereo, 8 mono or some combination of these outputs from my hardware synths back into Cubase. The synth outs are patched through a conventional patchbay back to the 800R so I can use different combinations of synths.
The Mackie Onyx 800R was discontinued, but it’s a stellar piece of kit. ADAT out from either any of the 8 mic pres or line input … or again, any combination of these. I’d grab one on eBay if I had an unused ADAT in on my interface.
Been playing with this thing for a while now…my head hurts
It looks like petepraise is right in that I will need a device with more I/O’s. I’ve managed to configure & connect the SPDIF as an output for Cubase, but then I lose the output from the main output jacks. I was hoping to be able to have an output from the main out jacks AND the SPDIF at the same time but it looks like that’s a no go. Como Baila you weren’t joking when you said that Patchmix was deep…I nearly drown in the thing
Thanks Como Baila, matjones, Conman, and Petepraise for you input.
I’m not giving up yet, but it looks like a different card is my best option. Any recomendations
Hi all, looks like i’ve managed to get this set up . After stuggling for days I was on the verge of giving up but thought I would ask E-mu support to see if what I wanted to do was possible. They sent me this reply.
“Hi, the trick is you need 2 ASIO hosts (in Patchmix).
Go to Create Strip there will be an option to create a host ASIO.
Once you have the strip you need to insert a PEAKmeter and an ASIO send.
Now in CUBASE you set your 2ndary stream to the new out. With the ASIO send in the strip you can also activate the 2ndary strip as a recording source”
Once I did this, I was then able to see both the main ASIO outputs & the SPDIF outputs from within Cubase. I could then select the SPDIF as the control room outputs. So, it looks like I’ve been able to route the control room outs to my DDX desk via SPDIF. All I have to do now is get a couple of leads to hook up the headphone amp to the desk and I’m (hopefully) laughing .
. I’ve had a dabble with patchmix this evening…very confusing 
it looks like I can set the SPDIF outputs for the 1212m ok, but i haven’t as yet figured out how to route the main mix to the SPDIF’s channel strip. I also can’t see the SPDIF showing up as an option in Cubase’s CR output settings.
. After stuggling for days I was on the verge of giving up but thought I would ask E-mu support to see if what I wanted to do was possible. They sent me this reply.