Monitor Bus

I created several Output busses in the VST connection dialog, without a hardware output assignment.
I created several audio tracks, always monitoring a hardware input or such a dummy bus, routed to another dummy bus etc. however, the goal is to have one monitor bus, with several “dummy” busses routed to. I mute the ones I don’t want to have in the monitor bus.

I inserted some plugs in these dummy busses, like a compressor, a reverb etc.

Now, when loading another preset in the output pane of the VST connection dialog and then reverting back to the monitor bus preset, all the mute states and plugs are gone.

So, plugins and channel attributes are not saved with a VST connection preset. Bummer.

Saving mixer tracks won’t save I/O configs of the saved tracks.

So, how am I supposed to save the tracks/busses including channel attributes, plugs, I/O routing, in order to have this monitor bus setup loadable in any other project?

As long as the presets of the VST connection share some buses with the same name you can switch between them without loosing the routing and mixer setup for these channels.

If you want to load a complex VST connections setup in another already existing project then you should be prepared to do some manual work. But if you have one base setup that you would like to use for new projects then you create a new project with that setup and save it as a project template.

I’m curious though, exactly what are you doing that needs this kind of setup? Maybe there’s some other simpler way of achieving what you want?

/A

Maybe, yes…

I want to have two studios in cubases control room.
One Studio is ment to feed headphone#1, the other one drives a AV receiver with HiFi speakers as secondary speakers and/or headphone#2. I dont have a vocal booth. I have two mics. Mic#1 is fixed @ a stand behind my studio chair where hp#1 usually is placed, another mic#2 at the desk, where hp#2 usually is at hand.
Hp#1 is mainly used for vocal recording at mic#1. Hp#2 is either used for main mix or vocal recording of mic#2.

A mind print AN/DI PRO is a 2ch AD, with both ch individually switchable between Mic preamp and line. The mics go into the andi, as does a outboard sound module (line). I either record a mic or line. The andi feeds the spdif in of a hdsp digiface @ pc#1, connected via adat/spdif to another hdsp digiface @ pc#2. Spdif out @ hdsp#2 drive a DAC, then the main speakers. The phones out of the hdsp#1 feed the AV, phones out of hdsp#2 drive hp#1.

I want to be able to send either main mix, studio1 mix or studio2 mix to any speaker pair/phones. The studio mixes in cubase must not include the record signal! I want dedicated monitor bus in cubase, which I can send to either AV (when using the hp#2, NOT the speakers), and/or to the hp#1. I want to decide on the fly wether I want to monitor directly (andi spdif in to out, without latency), or via cubase, with latency. Also in both cases I want to be able to include a reverb tail in the monitoring path.

So, I don’t want to use cubases monitoring system, but my own manual system.

Direct monitoring on/off is achieved by using totalmix, simply routing spdif in to the appropriate out, or mute the spdif ins. In cubase, I need a monitor bus, which I feed with appropriate signals within cubase. The monitor bus is associated with the hdsp spdif out, so both monitor Inputs, the direct and the cubase bus are under above each other in total mix, for convenience (easily mix/mute the appropriate signal)

In cubase I need to have a way to mix appropriate signals to its monitor bus.
For mic1, I setup a mono audio track, monitor always on, solo safe, receiving from andi pro left, routed to a dummy mono bus mic1M (without hardware out), and a send to another dummy stereo bus mic1fxM. I setup a mono audio track, monitor always on, solo safe, receiving from mic1M, routed to the stereo monitor bus RecM, associated to spdif out. A third audio track, stereo, monitor always on, solo safe, receives from mic1fxM, and outs to RecM.
The same applies for mic2 (andi pro right), and the same applies to line (andi pro left/right), with a stereo config, when recording the outboard.

Then I can hide these first 9 audio tracks (don’t have to bother with them anymore), and mute each of the dummy busses. By unmuting the appropriate dummy bus(es), I have the desired signal for monitoring. Either mic1M with/without mic1fxM, or mic1fxM only (for mixing it with the direct signal in totalmix).

Thus, I configure the monitor signal in cubase easily by simply (un)muting desired busses, mix this monitor bus with the direct signal in total mix and route the monitor mix to the appropriate phones…



Can this be made even easier? (without additional purchases :wink: )

Yes I believe so, that was a lot of text but if we boil it down a bit:
You want to be able to monitor either the mic signal, the efx signal or both combined out of Cubase?

This can be done with a total of 9 tracks, one main mix output bus, and as many studio/monitor feeds in the Control room as you need.

My preferred output/control room-setup is:
Outputs:
-One stereo bus, not connected to any device port, set as “Main mix”
-As many Studio channels as you need separate recording mixes
-One Monitor channel, defaults to the main mix bus, but can be switched so that it outputs any one of your studio channels instead.
If I understand correctly you only use one actual device port out from Cubase to totalmix (the S/PDIF), in that case this setup is perfect, the studio channels don’t have to be routed to any device port, only the Monitor channel does and you switch the source for it between Studio 1 for HP1 mix, studio 2 for HP 2 mix and Main mix for mixing.

I’ll just write the setup for one mic since it’s the same for all.

Mic 1, mono audio track, (solo defeat if you want or need it), monitor enabled
FX 1, stereo fx track
Mic 1 M, stereo (or mono) group track

Mic 1 - send 1->FX 1, output->Mic 1 M
FX 1 - output->Main mix
Mic 1 M - output->Main mix

In preferences under VST, uncheck the "Group channel: mute sources as well (bind a key command to this preference if you want different behaviour between mixing and recording)

Mute either Mic 1 for total silence, FX 1 for dry signal, or Mic 1 M for wet signal.
Enable studio sends from FX 1 and Mic 1 M in pre mode and set your monitor mix(es) separately.
Now you should be able to use any combination of mutes, solos and enabled/disabled studio sends, if you uncheck the “mute Pre-Send when mute” in the preferences you have even more combinations to play with, like having tracks muted in your main mix but still audible through the studio sends (as long as they’re set to pre fader)

Hope that this is what you’re after.

/A

thanks TwinOak!

At least it gives me some things to think about again!