Stereo Track to Mono Output - DP Live Best Practices

[wesdrums]

Hi, I'm switching all of my cover bands backing tracks over to DP. Each song is it's own chunk. I have a few questions.

What is the correct way to output stereo stems to a mono physical output? All of my track stems are stereo or (some dual mono) wavs, because thats how my previous DAW batch bounced individual tracks, without separate time consuming bounces of the mono tracks. Before it never mattered cause if I output a stereo track to a mono external output it would just sum it to mono and be done. In DP all these tracks show up as stereo and it won't let me assign their output to a mono bundle. Perhaps this is the wrong way to do it?

Also do people usually put master faders in the song chunk or a v-rack? Or even use them at all in this context.

Any help with this, and just general best practices for setting up your session layouts for live use would be helpful. It seems there isn't a ton of info out there about specifics. I did buy Magic Dave's Hal Leonard book that mentioned "Live Performance" in the title, so I'm hoping there is some good stuff in there. It just hasn't arrived yet. Thanks in advance!

-Wes

[reedster]

In Mixer you can set Aux Sends to mono output or use Trim Plug-in to mix both sides to a single output

[stubbsonic]

I use the trim plug. It can help to drop the gain a little in case the summed mono clips.

[wesdrums]

So do you send your tracks to Auxes > trim plugin > output?

[stubbsonic]

I usually send all tracks to a stereo bus pair. That bus pair goes to a mixdown audio track.

However, for your case, you would create an Aux Track and select that bus pair as the input.

You'd then insert a trim to mono on the Aux track.

I think putting the Aux track in a V-Rack makes sense, especially if you'd be inserting some stuff (EQ, compression, etc) on that aux track that you wouldn't want to replicate with every chunk.

[Shooshie]

Also do people usually put master faders in the song chunk or a v-rack? Or even use them at all in this context.

I don't use Master Faders very often. I create an Aux and name it "Submaster." That's essentially my Master Fader, but it's got all the features of an Aux.

Now, the decision to put all this into a V-Rack depends on what you want to do. If you're about to mix a project, and you want to automate your faders, pans, etc., then you're going to need to have those things right there in your project, not merely in a V-Rack. But if you are transferring a lot of songs to DP, you may wish to use the V-Rack method to get it all going more quickly. Let me explain:

I've just been going through a few dozen old MIDI files that predate DP. They're excellently done, but they have no audio. That MIDI was going to hardware units and Disklaviers, playing live instruments. Now, I want to use VI's for all that. So, I created a V-Rack that has all the VIs I want to use, and another V-Rack that has all the Aux tracks necessary to catch the audio from the VIs, and route it to a submaster, PLUS the submaster. You could put them all in one V-Rack, but there's a reason why I split them into one V-Rack for instruments, and another for Aux tracks. More on that in a minute. Then, in the chunks window, I select those V-Racks and from the Edit menu choose "add to Clippings file." Now, I've got all I need to add instruments and audio to any all-MIDI chunk.

So, when I open another project without audio or instruments, I just open the Clippings file (it's usually already open), choose those V-Rack clippings and drag them to the Chunks window. It takes a moment to load all the instruments, but now I've got everything loaded! Next, I go to the Bundles Window, Bus tab, and choose "Add Multiple." It takes about a minute to add them, name them all, and click their assignments in the matrix. I also add inputs and outputs, if necessary. (Note, if you import V-Racks with the Load command, you can also import your bundles and skip this step)

Now, I have to convert the MIDI assignments. Because I'm careful in the way I name these things, and the channel assignments, I can do most of the MIDI assignments with the Remap MIDI menu item, under the Studio Menu. In all, it takes about 3 minutes to do what would take 20 or 30 minutes if starting from scratch. When you've got a dozen or more projects, that's a huge time saving.

Now... as your purposes change, and you want to start mixing, automating tracks, etc., you can drag your Aux V-Rack into the Tracks Overview Window to put those tracks into the sequence, itself. Turn off the Aux V-Rack when you're done (or delete if if you like). Now you've got those very same tracks in the actual sequence, and you can begin automating them and mixing. See why we made those V-Racks separate?

Of course, you could have saved the Aux files into the Clippings window, too, without a V-Rack. I can't speak to the advantages of either method. I just like using V-Racks for that in the beginning. It keeps my MIDI files the way they were, without changing things much.

There's SO much you can do with this stuff. So many ways to do things.

Shooshie

[Shooshie]

About my previous post: It's a long reply to a small part of your question, but it could be something that makes your whole project easier.

Let me sum it up:
Preparation:

• 1) Put Instruments into a V-Rack
  2) Put Aux Tracks into a V-Rack, and route everything so that your entire audio system is operating in the V-Racks (you'll have to set up your Bundles (Busses, Inputs, Outputs) for this.
  3) Save both V-Racks into Clippings

Subsequent Projects:

• 1) Load V-Racks into project from Clippings Window, or use DP's LOAD feature to pull it in from previous project.
  2) Set up Bundles (unnecessary if you brought them in from the previous project with LOAD.)

For Mixing and Automation, later:

• 1) Drag the Aux Track V-Rack into your Tracks Overview Window
  2) Turn off the Aux Track V-Rack

This method gets you running fast, and allows you to put your Aux tracks into the sequence later, when you wish. Those auxes can be used as stems later, if you like, when you add audio tracks for every MIDI track.

Shooshie

[wesdrums]

Thanks for the help. So I take it most people use buses -> auxes?

So for example if I have:

Synth Pad (Stereo WAV)
Synth Lead (Stereo WAV)
Synth ARP (Stereo WAV)

Tracks in a chunk I want routed to the Synth Output which in most cases would a stereo out, you'd take those all to a stereo bus then assign that buss as the input to an aux and then send that out either a stereo bundle or mono bundle depending on what your physical output and FOH input channel configuration allows?

Typically we carry our own monitor console and I use Dante Virtual Soundcard to send 16+ channels of audio over ethernet to our monitor console. (Though I have an Ultralite too that I use in some situations)

Currently I stem the following into my desk:

Percusssion (Stereo)
Instruments (Stereo)
Synths (Stereo)
Horns (Stereo)
BGVs (Stereo)
Sub Bass (Mono)
SFX (Mono)
Cues (Mono)
Click (Mono)

Whenever I need to pair it down further I do it on my desk and send those stems on to FOH