Monitoring render via Phones

[Jave_Hughes]

When using Control Room; Does anyone know of a way to route realtime render via Phones as well as Main speakers?
Seems that the realtime render (as well as other monitoring aspects, such as Variaudio/midi preview while moving a note), only comes out one destination.

I am aware that it is possible to route overall monitoring to multiple destinations simultaneously, but the uses mentioned above (realtime render etc) seem to only use a singular destination exclusively.
Any ideas?

[Martin.Jirsak]

Hi,

In the Preferences > VST > Control Room, enable the Use Phones Channel as Preview Channel.

[Jave_Hughes]

Thank you @Martin.Jirsak,
Great suggestion, though then this way it’ll still use a singular destination (Phones, in this case).
I’m trying to preview from both destinations simultaneously. (Not even sure what it serves to disable by default at all…)
Any thoughts?

[Martin.Jirsak]

Hi,

Do you use a Monitor bus/buses in your Control Room?

[Jave_Hughes]

I use the Phones and Speakers buses in Control Room, if that’s what you’re referring to.

[Martin.Jirsak]

Hi,

Could you please attach a screenshot?

[Jave_Hughes]

Sure:

[Martin.Jirsak]

Hi,

With this settings, you get the signal to the Phones but not too the Speakers? Btw, the Speakers bus is originally the Monitor bus type, correct? Sorry, I’m not with Cubase at this moment and I don’t know the icon out of my head.

[Jave_Hughes]

Hi,
I do get signal to both Phones + Speakers (see original post). but rendering seem to only be possible via one destination.

[Johnny_Moneto]

We would not call that rendering, in Cubase lingo you are referring to the “preview channel”. That is a (somewhat hidden) audio channel that resides outside of any project and is used to enable auditioning anything that is not inside the project, like audio file import, media bay, even the audio pool items.

Unfortunately Steinberg designed this preview channel in such way that, when using Control Room, it can be routed only EITHER to the main mix OR to the headphone mix but never to both simulateneously.
For sure they had a good reason to do so back in the days but that reason does not seem to benefit their customers at all but only themselves.

My workaround is to use another “monitor bus” for my headphones in Control Room instead of the headphone bus. The backdraw is that I don’t have seperated volume controls for speakers and headphones.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Steinberg, where some features are world class and some features are {damn, what is the English equivalent for Kreisklasse?} just plain bad.

[Jave_Hughes]

Thanks @Johnny_Moneto,
Yeah that’s what I’m starting to realize unfortunately. What a random feature… Why would anyone want a render monitoring setup that’s different than their general monitoring setup?

Steinberg support suggested I’d post a feature request, feel free to vote/comment, and hopefuly we’ll get some eyes on it:

Realtime Render Monitor to Multiple Destinations

Allowing realtime render monitoring via Speakers + Phones simultaneously seems very much needed by many users. For some reason Cubase will only allow for ONE monitoring destination when performing Realtime Render; either Phones, or Speakers. Listening from both destinations at once isn’t possible. (This also applies to other monitoring aspects, such as Variaudio/midi preview while moving a note).

Thanks!

[Johnny_Moneto]

Please,
do not start a new topic for this. We have already enough, use the search function;
please don’t use the term “render” for the preview channel. While in your mind something might get rendered nobody else uses that term for just routing an audio signal to a destination. To render is rather the process of writing the signal into an audio file on the hard drive.

@Jave_Hughes

Steinberg support suggested I’d post a feature request

Either they are just ignorant of the fact that this feature has been discussed and requested before or this is the equivalent of putting a customer “on hold” endlessly. In either way it does not make them look good.

Some threads about the same topic:

Control room No sound in Phones when in Sample Editor Cubase 12.0.40

What I see, here, is the following : If the Preferences > VST > Control Room > Use Phone Channel as Preview Channel option is activated, I receive the audio signal in my headphones, this, with the following output routing : [C12_SampleEditorControlRoom] If it isn’t activated, I receive the signal in my monitors (Main channel). The whole thing is at it is, even if, yes, it would be nice to be able to get the signal on both outputs, as we can, using the Control Room with a playback from the…

Control Room - preview sounds ONLY come through headphone bus?!

Thank you for answering, Martin. I have phones, Mon 1, and Mon 2… Previews come over the phone’s channel only. If I remove the phones altogether, the preview comes over Mon 1 (not sure about Mon 2, but I presume so.) The headphone channel simply usurps control of the preview audio. Any idea how I should go about troubleshooting this?