Hi, does anyone use the direct routing section in the racks of the mixer, if so, why do you use them please? what are the advantages ? I know from the manual that it’s possible to route to multiple tracks but how is this an advantage?
thanks for any answers, Kevin 
I don’t think the regular Routing is fundamentally different than Direct Routing ('cause under the hood it’s all Direct Routing). If you have a Channel that you used normal Routing to send to a Group Track XYZ and you look at the Direct Routing for that Channel it will also show XYZ. The only purpose for it is to route to multiple destinations. It is kind of analogous to turning on additional Outputs on a VSTi.
I’ve only used it once a few years back and don’t recall the specific circumstances other than needing to send that channel to 2 destinations - can’t remember why. Wouldn’t be surprised if folks doing surround or orchestral stuff used it more often.
I often use it for sending drums to a parallel drum group.
Ok, thanks for the reply’s guy’s…
Imagine you have to provide several mixes that require different processing / levels of the main mix. Summing mode can provide a good way to achieve this, Also Direct routing allows you to automate output routing of channels.
Since the number of sends is not unimited (max 8) in cubase, I simply see it as an alternative way to route things directly (without dedicated fader and pan) to where you want the signal to live. Paralel busses, effects, and so on.
I recently discovered this! Routed vocals to both a “verse” group (with inserts) and a “chorus” group (with different inserts) and automated their enables.
Rout parallel compression, or some fx with volume automation
I use it, because they allow to disable/enable the routing with one click. To e.g check a side chaining without hearing the source. I disabled the the main routing in the mixer and show the direct routing section only.
Could some of you who regularly use Direct Routing describe why you used Direct Routing instead of using Sends for the routing?
Direct Routing is pretty much like a console buss system. You can split one signal to multiple buses.
It’s very handy to have set up in your Templates to pre-existing destinations that make sense, then you can just one click them on or off, keep your sends free for other uses.
That’s a pretty cool way to set things up. Good chance that ends up in my next revision of my Templates.
I take it there is no downside to having a bunch of inactivated routing sitting around.
Very fluid workflow, you’ll never look back. I barely have to manually route anything anywhere anymore, it’s all set up and ready to go. There’s something creative about it to being able to move signal where I need it.
Wow!!glad I asked the question…lot of good info here…cheers for all the answers.
Setting something like this up would also force me to examine & rethink my current Group Channel configuration. Probably worthwhile in itself.
Remains a more unimportant question: Why is the “summing mode” called “summing mode” - isn’t it rather distributing to multipe destinations at the same time (which is more like the opposite of summing, or?).
Just words. still I am curious.
Ernst
I think one of if not the main intention of Direct Outs is to create multiple stem sums, drum sum, bass and drum sum, lead vocals, backup vocals, etc, etc. Multiple sums, rather than just a single direct out which is in itself a sum, but, I guess they figured more summing = ‘Summing Mode’.
Thanks for the explanation, lovegames!
Threads like these are why i´m having this site on my bookmark bar. Great stuff folks.
Some questions for lovegames on the practical aspects of implementing this.
What did you take into account when thinking about/deciding which “standard” destinations to create?
I take it you have a template with this all configured. But how do you manage those slots when adding a new Audio or Instrument Track? Do you need to setup the slots from scratch at creation?
Do all your Tracks use the same destinations, or do you have several destination “sets” that you vary based on the source Track?