I just bought a used UR44 - with Main Outputs connected to my active monitors, it sounds great. The inputs and outputs work fine in themselves, but I’ve got a problem with audio routing and I’m worried I might have bought the wrong interface.
What I want to do is have my DAW - Ableton Live - route the mix, Ableton’s master out, to the UR44’s Main Output (to my monitors).
I also want to route a single track’s audio to Line Out 1/2 or Line Out 3/4 (the additional outputs) using Ableton’s built-in “external effect” plugin; then process that audio in external hardware, and route it back in through a pair of the UR44’s front panel inputs.
Ableton seems to let me enable the UR44’s additional outputs in its configuration screen.
Ableton also “thinks” it’s sending output to my selected Line Output (either Line 1/2 or Line 3/4).
But … what I hear through the physical cables attached to those outputs is… Ableton’s master output again.
Looking at the manual, I suspect that’s because the UR44 is sending the dspMix app’s “Mix 1” to Line Out 1/2, and dspMix’s “Mix 2” to Line Out 3/4 - so, while Ableton thinks it can see and use those outputs, actually they’re only useful for direct monitoring, they’re not simply extra outputs for me to use however I want.
Is that correct, or does anyone know any workarounds?
I seem to be able to do what I want, but Ableton thinks the UR44 has 3 sets of outputs (I thought Main Out, Line Out 1/2, and Line Out 3/4). However, it behaves like you suggest - if I route audio in Ableton to Ableton’s “1/2”, it goes out of the physical Main Output and Line Output 1/2… and if I route audio to Ableton’s “3/4” it does seem to go to physical Line Output 3/4.
Both dspMix Mix1 and Mix2 seem to reflect what’s coming out of the DAW, optionally adding direct monitoring of the UR’s inputs.
So… maybe my confusion’s coming from the DAW taking over the line outputs, Ableton not knowing about the restriction of Line Out 1/2 always reflecting Main Out… and dspMix being kind of irrelevant to my use case?
I think the UR44 might be designed specifically to make my brain cave in, but I think / hope I can do what I want now.
Well, actually it does. I don’t have Ableton to check but in Cubase or other software I also have 3 output busses. But the 3rd one is the FX bus which is the onboard dsp reverb and not a real physical output.
…Which would explain the order of the outputs in Ableton’s config - maybe this is a case of me needing to RTFM.
One positive though, I’d contacted someone I’d found online asking the same question, and they hadn’t solved the issue, so I was able to pass your advice on to them, too.