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Does someone have a good way to sum a stereo input track to mono in DP? I'm trying to do mono checks while mixing.

Monitor controller MONO button works for me.

HCMarkus wrote:Monitor controller MONO button works for me.

Exactly. There's no "one-button" way to do it in DP. Get a monitor controller that has a MONO button. Decent ones begin around $99. I just bought one of these for my daughter and it is a lot better than I expected it to be (I also paid more).
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CONTROL1USB

I use a Trim plugin and set pans to center with a little gain drop (to prevent any clipping from summing). That can be bypassed with a single click.

But that's not necessarily helpful for an input, but just incase someone would want to put it on aux or master that is monitoring an input.

mikehalloran wrote:

HCMarkus wrote:Monitor controller MONO button works for me.

Exactly. There's no "one-button" way to do it in DP. Get a monitor controller that has a MONO button. Decent ones begin around $99. I just bought one of these for my daughter and it is a lot better than I expected it to be (I also paid more).
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CONTROL1USB

I think this is what I'll have to get. I thought I would able to easily have multiple monitoring sources from the line outs on my DAC interface, but I can't find a way to control volume and select between the Monitor Outs and the Lines 1-2.

I'm a little confused on how this would work between DP and my interface. Do I run line-out and monitor-out from the DAC interface into this Behringer controller? No need to change anything in DP?

It doesn't need to be the Behriner. Any monitor controller with a mono sum button will work—not all do.
http://www.sweetwater.com/c417--Monitor_Management

Anyway, the inputs for your studio monitors (if active) or monitor amplifier (if passive) plug into the monitor controller. The outputs of your.interface or Mac go into the controller.

The Behringer takes a lot of desk space. I'm currently using a Mini MON800 which is long discontinued and much smaller. It's a little noisy at higher volumes so I'm now looking at the passive Radial MC3. I don't need 4 input and 3 output options.

The industry standard is the Mackie Big Knob. Lots of Presonus owners on this board and they are very happy, too.

Being able to just push a button and sum to mono . . . Once you get used to it, you'll wonder how you lived without.

stubbsonic wrote:I use a Trim plugin and set pans to center with a little gain drop (to prevent any clipping from summing). That can be bypassed with a single click.

But that's not necessarily helpful for an input, but just incase someone would want to put it on aux or master that is monitoring an input.

This appears to work as well and will get me through until I buy a monitor controller. Does having a balanced TRS cable going from 1 output (say Left) to a mono speaker work with this setup (using the Trim centered)? Or do I need to use a breakout cable, two 1/4 (ring and tip) to one 1/4? I actually tried the second option and it was pretty quiet compared to just one channel to the speaker.

[EDITED to correct errors & clarify:]

A TRS cable can be used for either stereo signal or for Balanced signal (same cable, different uses). With a stereo TRS, you have the TIP is the left channel (unbalanced), the RING is the right channel (unbalanced) and the SLEEVE is ground.

With a Balanced TRS cable, it is a mono signal that is carried by two wires, a hot signal (tip) and cold signal (inverted signal) and ground. A differential input will read the difference between hot and cold giving you hotter signal and mostly cancelled noise.

As long as you are sending balanced signal and your input on your monitor system has a balanced input, you should be fine.

Is there are reason the fold down button on the master output channel won't do what you want?

stubbsonic wrote:Don't confuse a stereo TRS cable with a Balanced TRS cable.

You cleared it up for me. Thanks!

PoliticalBonobo wrote:

stubbsonic wrote:Don't confuse a stereo TRS cable with a Balanced TRS cable.

You cleared it up for me. Thanks!

Well, I kind of did, but caught a couple errors (corrected above, too).

A TRS cable can be used for either stereo or balanced applications. And it is the RING that carries the right channel (I carelessly typed sleeve twice, perhaps because of a caffeine deficiency).

stubbsonic wrote:
Well, I kind of did, but caught a couple errors (corrected above, too).

A TRS cable can be used for either stereo or balanced applications. And it is the RING that carries the right channel (I carelessly typed sleeve twice, perhaps because of a caffeine deficiency).

Yeah, I knew what you meant. Thanks.

bayswater wrote:Is there are reason the fold down button on the master output channel won't do what you want?

This seems like an obvious oversight. It looks like it works to me!