Questions & Answers

Signal flow for In-Ear Monitors during live shows with backing tracks

+1 vote
1,120 views
asked Mar 29, 2018 in Ai Mixers by adamskillen1 (320 points)

Hello all you smart people! I have been looking for weeks to find the same or a similar problem that has been adressed already, and I haven't been able to find it.  I am running out of time and need to get an answer, so hopefully somebody can help me out.

First the issue:

I just need to figure out how to route a couple of tracks in my DAW, (StudioOne 3 Artist, - and I also have Logic Pro X), to my In-Ear Monitors, (IEM).  Track one in my arrangements is always my click track, track 2 is always my guide track.  I have built my own and synced them to my instrument and vocal tracks.  Every instrument has it's own seperate track so that I can add or remove what we need for rehearsals, etc. and then when we perform, I remove what we are playing live and add sound effects and parts that we don't have. 

But I can't seem to get the click and guide tracks to route to only my IEM's and NOT to the FOH or monitors for those people who don't want the click?  I have tried following the manuals, but I must be missing something?  The pictures in the manuals are not exactly the same as what I'm seeing on the screen when looking at the song setup in StudioOne 3 either.  I've also noticed that I can't seem to route output signals to Aux mixes, only to channels? Can anyone give me the simple, plain english method to make this happen?

My equipment:

StudioLive RML32AI, StudioLive CS18AI, PreSonus SW5E AVB Switch, Wireless Router, CAT 5 Cables, FireWire 800 cable with the Thunderbolt to FireWire adaptor, PreSonus HP2 Wired IEM, Power Conditioner, Power amps, mics, speakers and all the cables and trimmings.

An iMac 21.5" (Late 2015) 1.6 GHz Intel Core i5 with 16 GB 1867 MHz DDR3 Memory running the current version 10.13.3 macOS High Sierra

an iPad with UC Surface and an iPhone with QMix-UC

The following programs; Universal Control version 2.5.2.45951, Capture 2 version 2.3.5.45951, StudioOne 3 Artist version 3.5.5.45892 with Plug-Ins galore.

Again, all I really need to know right now is how to get the first 2 channels in StudioOne 3 Artist routed to my IEM and NOT the mains.  I don't know why I'm having such a hard time getting this signal routing under control, but it's really kicking my butt! Any help this community can provide is GREATLY appreciated, thank you!

2 Answers

+1 vote
answered Mar 29, 2018 by PreSonuSales2 (68,140 points)
selected Mar 30, 2018 by PreSonuSales2
 
Best answer

If you're able to route your tracks from Studio One back to channels on your mixer, you've already done the hardest part. As long as you're seeing signal from your tracks in UC Surface (in other words, if you're seeing your click track come through on Channel 1 of your RML32AI, your Guide track come through on Channel 2 of your RML32AI, etc. - then you're mostly there.

From there, all you need to do is make sure that Channel 1 is turned down in your Main mix and turn it up in your Aux mixes.

In Studio One, you're not worried about "Send track 1 to the mains" or "Send track 2 to Aux mix 5" - you're just saying "Send track 1 to play back on Channel 1 of my RML32AI." Once you've got your digital returns (A.K.A. recorded tracks in Studio One) playing back on the channels of your RML32AI, you'll do all the routing ("Turn track 1 all the way down in the mains" / "Turn track 2 up in aux mix 3") from within UC Surface.

0 votes
answered Mar 30, 2018 by adamskillen1 (320 points)

I figured it out, thank you!!  I don't know what the heck I was thinking!? For some reason, I was trying to send the tracks to my AUX Mix straight from Studio One.  What I should have understood, and I'm not sure why I didn't, is that the DAW sends the signal back to a CHANNEL that I must then route to an AUX Mix from within UC! (And for those who may have a similar issue in the future, don't forget to change your input type to FireWire for the channels you want to send from the DAW to the RM!)

Now; I just have to figure out how to make this all work with Logic Pro X so I can use all of my previous work without having to figure out how to get it all into Studio One! I love Studio One, but I've discovered that it is not very compatable with the file types commonly used in Logic Pro X.  With Logic, I can simply drag and drop MP3 files, WAV Files, AIFF, it doesn't matter they all work.  When I've tried to export my completed projects from Logic to my desktop so I can import them into Studio One, they don't appear to be available? (They are greyed out and I can't select them.) I'm assuming it's because the file types are not compatable.  So I have found myself having to Re-Mix the projects in Studio One if I want to take advantage of the Active Integration capabilities.  I'm getting kind of burned out on that though, so I'm going to try and figure out how to make Logic Pro X work with my PreSonus system.

Thanks again PreSonuSales2, I really appreciate your help!!

commented Mar 30, 2018 by PreSonuSales2 (68,140 points)

No problem! A couple of other thoughts on your comment:

With Logic, I can simply drag and drop MP3 files, WAV Files, AIFF, it doesn't matter they all work.  When I've tried to export my completed projects from Logic to my desktop so I can import them into Studio One, they don't appear to be available?

If you're using the copy of Studio One that was included with your RML32AI - that's Studio One 3 Artist and it doesn't include MP3 support (but you can add that functionality to Studio One 3 Artist for $10: https://shop.presonus.com/products/software/studio-one-add-ons/MP3-Converter-for-Studio-One-Artist).

However, you should be able to import/export WAV files into Studio One 3 Artist just fine as is.

If you're exporting sessions from Logic in a ".logic" file type - Studio One won't be able to open those. You'll want to export your stems from Logic and then import those into Studio One.

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