Studio H

TAC Studio H - B201 - Mixing Studio

Equipment Equipment available in Studio H currently includes:

Audio: Avid S6 M40-32-9-D Control Surface API 1608-II Analog Mixing Desk LCR Meyer Bluehorn speaker system 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos Monitoring system with UltraX20 Surround speakers and 4 UP-4 Slim Top speakers 4 x 8 Channel Grace Design M108-DANTE Microphone Preamps AVID MTRX with 32 Channel input and 16 Channel output Video: Panasonic AV-HLC100 SDI/NDI Switcher 2 Panasonic AW-HN38H PTZ Cameras 2 Panasonic WV-Q105A PTZ Cameras Computer: Mac Pro, 8 Core Intel Xeon @3.5 Ghz, 32GB DDR4 Mac Mini for Atmos Rendering and AV Control Windows PC for Pyramix and Graphics Rendering Software Software available on the iMac in Studio H currently includes: Logic Pro X Pro Tools HD Ableton Live 11 Dolby Atmos Renderer Dolby Atmos Mastering Suite SPAT Revolution iZotope RX 8 Reaper Max/MSP 8 Audacity Sibelius

Making Sounds Come Out Log in to the computer with your student credentials.

All sound comes out of the Yamaha AIC129-D except your DAW, in which case you should change the audio settings to HD Native Thunderbolt.

The DADman application is used for monitoring, and should open up right away. Do not exit out of DADman.

Monitoring through the Avid S6

The Avid S6 M40-32-9-D utilizes a touch screen control surface for operation. On the touchscreen, hit the HOME button to return to the main screen. From there, you can select the “Monitoring” tab to select which source you would like to monitor.

For monitoring, there are six sources: DAW System (basic system audio from the Mac) Surround (used for non-Atmos discreet routing of surround channels and other many-channel needs) Aux (exactly what it sounds like) PC (same as System but from the Windows machine) Atmos (for working with Dolby Atmos)

Master volume on the S6 is controlled by the black knob located here, marked with a strip of white tape.

You can mute sound from a speaker by tapping the corresponding button at the bottom of the Monitoring pane.

Listening on Headphones You can find the headphones to the right of the API console on top of the patch bay. They are currently coming out of a 10-output headphone splitter, so feel free to connect your own personal headphones if you would like. You can control the individual output of each headphone on the headphone splitter.

The sound for the headphones is coming out of the console on the Monitor B output. To control the master volume going to the headphones, tap “Monitor B” and then adjust the adjacent knob. You can also select the source for the monitors by pressing the “B” button on the master module screen and then selecting a monitoring source.

Troubleshooting Sound on the S6

If you find that no sources populate on the Monitoring tab, click on the DADman app window and make sure that it is woken up, and select a monitoring source on the app.

If the Avid S6 is still not showing any sources, in the DADman app, navigate to the top right corner of the screen and select File>Open Profile>and load the Default Setup file. (The filepath is Users/Shared/Dadman)

If selecting a speaker solos it as opposed to muting it, tap the gear on the bottom right corner of the screen on the S6. Scroll down to where it says “Speaker Mode” and set that to “Sum.” “Source Mode” should always be set to “Intercancel.”

Auxing In

There is an auxiliary cable readily available on the top of the mixing board. For aux to function correctly, there are cables patched into the patchbay. These are AUX OUTPUTS 7+8 of the API, going to Pro Tools INPUTS 31+32. These should not be removed.

On the API itself, make sure that AUX 7+8 have the EXT In and ON buttons compressed, and the level knob up.

Controlling the Keyboards and Monitors Overview of the Crestron Panel

The Crestron panel is what is used to control the video monitors and mouses and keyboards in Studio H. If needed, the password for the Crestron is 1357. You can also control all of the functionality in the Tech Hall from the Crestron panel in Studio H. Mapping Sources to Monitors To put something up on a monitor, tap the correct source under “Select a video source” and then select the proper destination under “Select Video Destination.” For example, to map the Mac onto the wall monitors, you would tap “MacPro DP1” on the right, then “Wall Monitor Left” on the left, then “MacPro DP2” on the right, then “Wall Monitor Right” on the left. Selecting the Mouse and Keyboard To select which mouse and keyboard you would like to use, tap “Keyboard & Mouse Pairing” on the Crestron panel.

The sources on the screen refer to the different computers that are controllable through this Crestron panel. Most of the time, you will be working off of the Mac Pro. The Left, Right, and Rack stations correspond to different places where you can plug in a computer and mouse. The Left and Right refer to the USB hubs underneath the Crestron panel.

Using External HDMI You can also HDMI into the video monitors in Studio H. To do that, simply plug in an HDMI cable into the “NVX HDMI IN” inputs located directly under the Crestron panel.

Once it is plugged into your computer, you should see the video source pop up under “Select a video source” on the Crestron panel. From here you can map to any monitors, or even the projector in the Tech Hall. File Management Similarly to Studio A, nothing should be saved on to the computer itself. Instead, please save all projects onto StudioG HD. You can also access TAC Shared and TAC Drive. To connect to those, refer to the “Data Storage” section of this studio guide. Finally, you can also plug in an external hard drive or USB stick into the USB ports under the Crestron panel.

DAW Settings DAW The audio input and output in your DAW should be “HD Native Thunderbolt.” This can be checked in the setup, preferences, audio settings, or the like in your DAW. Make sure that your sample rate is 48k. In Pro Tools, if you would like to use the Avid S6, make sure that EUCON is enabled. You can find this in Setup > Peripherals > Ethernet Controllers.

There is a quickstart recording Pro Tools template with 4 input tracks, 2 click tracks, and a stereo tape track with busses for headphones already set up. You can find this in StudioG Projects > Studio H Templates or in TAC Shared > Templates > Studio H. There is an alias for this folder on your desktop.

Understanding the Patch Bay

On the patch bay, names in gray are normed to the tie above or below it. For recording, the normed signal flow goes as follows:

Tech Hall Tie -> Grace Preamp -> API Line input -> Matrix (Computer)

To break a norm, you simply have to patch into a different input with a tiny telephone patch cable, located to the right of the patch bay. For example, if you have more than 16 microphones, you will need to patch directly from the Grace Preamp into the matrix, since there are not enough channels for that on the API.

Recording from the Tech Hall Patching in Microphones There are banks of tie lines scattered throughout the Tech Hall hidden sneakily underneath the wooden panels. Pull the panels up to find the tie lines.

These correspond to the top row of the patch bay next to the API console. Gainstaging

On the patch bay, the tie lines are normed to the Grace preamps. The Grace preamps are located in the far top left rack in the machine room.

To select a channel, scroll using the “Edit” knob to the right of the screen, then tap that knob when you are on the proper channel. Then, you can turn the knob to adjust the gain, or hit the 48v button to the left of the screen to turn phantom power on or off. Tap the knob to de-select the channel.

You can also patch the channel into the API preamps if you would rather use those instead. To do that, patch from the proper tie line into the API Mic Inputs.

You can set the gain by using the knobs on the channel strip on the API and turn phantom on or off. If you are using the mic inputs, make sure the “Mic” button is pressed.

Controlling the Grace Preamps The Grace preamps are located in the machine room behind the glass doors. However, during a session it can be a bit of a hassle to go back and forth between the console and the machine room. Therefore, it is a good idea to set up the Grace preamp controller on your computer so that you can control your gain from your desktop.

This is using an application called “M108 Remote Control”

Open the application and start by clicking “Recall” on the top right of the application.

In the pop up, click the three dots to select the location of the Studio H Grace pre preset. When the finder window appears, type cmnd+G and then /Users/Shared/Grace, and then hit go.

Select the file Grace Mic Pre.gdp and then hit Open.

Back in the M108 Remote Controller, check the box “Load IP Settings” and then hit Load.

You should see all of the preamps with their IP addresses load up. Click “Connect” at the bottom of this screen.

Select the tab at the top that says “Preamps” and you will be able to view and adjust the gain for all of your channels.

Configuring the API If you are using the Grace preamps, then your audio is normed to come from there into the corresponding channel strip on the API Console. Before you get sound coming into your DAW, you need to make sure that the fader is up on the channel on the API console, and that the channel is not muted. If the channel is muted, then the channel number will light up red. Press the channel number button to unmute.

Configuring your DAW In your DAW, your audio will come up on channels A1-A32. Patching Headphones and Talkback DAW with Headphones: Best Practices The LiveMix Duo Headphone Mixers allow for performers to monitor clicks, playback, talkback, and themselves however they want to. However, this multi tracked headphone monitoring requires some preparation within your DAW sessions. Here are some tips and tricks on how to make that happen.

The headphones will be connected to your session via a Dante card which receives inputs from channels C33 and above. Plan which stem groups for which you want to give performers control to monitor (Click, Playback, etc.) and create a stereo Aux Input track for each one. Skip sending any groups out of C41, as this is reserved for Talkback.

Then, designate a bus for each of your groups. Send any tracks that you would like your players to monitor to the corresponding Aux Input via its designated bus. For example, you could send both a track of 4CLK and 8CLK to a Click Aux Input over a Click bus. Remember to turn up the volume on the send.

Once you have this set up, you are ready to patch the headphones.

This method of sending out monitoring groups to your performers is highly versatile and can provide your performers a lot of options to assist them in their playing. For example, instead of sending both the 4CLK and 8CLK out the same bus and having the engineer pick which one gets sent to the players per the conductor’s request, one could send out both click tracks at the same time, but over two different Aux Inputs/monitoring groups, therefore letting players pick and choose individually whether they want to listen to a quarter or eighth note click. Patching Headphones Patching headphones is a fairly simple task, however it does involve use of the patch bay in the machine room at the back of Studio H. Many important connections come through this rack, so please exercise caution and only patch what you need to.

The LiveMix Duo Headphone Mixers are powered and receive audio over ethernet. Important: these only work with CAT5e or CAT6 ethernet cables. A CAT5 cable will power the mixer and you will see signal coming in, however no audio will come out of the headphones.

You can check what CAT ethernet a cable is by reading the text printed on the cable.

In the Tech Hall there are tie lines for ethernet connections just as there are for XLR connections. Plug your ethernet cable into the port on the back of the headphone mixer and into your favorite ethernet tie line in the Tech Hall. Take note of the name of the tie line that you choose.

Next, go into Studio H and take a look at the far left rack of the patch bay in the machine room. The row at the very top of the rack is called LiveMix. This contains several ethernet ports which receive the information sent to the headphones from Dante. All of these ports receive the same information, so it does not matter which port you choose to patch your headphones from.

Under the LiveMix patch rack, there is the patch rack for the ethernet ties to the Tech Hall. Find the port for the tie line you chose and connect it to a port on the LiveMix with an ethernet patch cable.

Viola! You have patched your headphone mixer! Using the LiveMix Duo Headphone Mixers Once you have patched your headphone mixers, the audio you send to it will come up corresponding to whatever channels you sent the audio out from your DAW. For example, if you sent something out of channels C33-34, it will come up on channels 1 and 2 in the headphone mixer, C35-36 come up on 3 and 4, etc.

The headphone mixers each have two sets of outputs, A and B, each with both a 1/4th inch and 1/8th inch output. To pick which output you are controlling, select either the “A” or “B” button under the touch screen of the mixer.

There are three important volume knobs on the mixer: Master Volume, which controls the overall output to the headphones, ME, which controls the volume of the “Me” Group, and Adjust Vol & Pan, which controls the volume of the selected channel or group.

If you are sending stereo signals to your headphone mixer, you should group the channels on the mixer. To do that, first turn the volume of each channel you want to group all the way down. If you group the channels when they are set at different volumes, they will maintain the same volume relationship, which is typically not good for stereo tracks.

Next, long press the “ME” knob to open up the “Group ME Setup” page. This page will allow you to select the channels which will correspond to the ME volume knob. This should be typically used to select the channels which correspond to the performer using the headphone mixer. For example, if this is the headphone splitter to be used by the vocalist, you would assign the Vocal channels to the ME group. To add a channel to the group, simply tap them on the screen. Many performers typically do not want to monitor themselves, so assigning channels to the ME group is often not necessary.

To group channels outside of the ME group, tap the “Show Next Group” button on the bottom of the screen. The title of the screen should now say “Group 1 Setup.” Here you can start grouping other channels. For example, if you are sending a stereo click, you can group your click channels.

To name your channels, navigate back to the main screen. Select “Mix Tools” at the bottom right of the screen, then “Local Mix Options,” then “Single Channel View.”

Long tap the top button next to the channel number and a screen will appear where you can enter the name.

Talkback

The talkback is already set up to come through channel 9 in the LiveMix headphone splitters. To trigger the talkback, press the “Talk” button on the S6.

On the S6, check that Auto Talkback is turned off. If it is on, the Talkback microphone will automatically turn on whenever you are not playing back or recording in ProTools, which is typically not the desired behavior.

Dolby Atmos

In an exciting update, we are now using a separate dedicated computer for Dolby Atmos rendering! Setting Up

To get started, you can open the “Atmos Template” Pro Tools session located in the Studio H Templates folder. Make sure that your buffer size is set to at least 1024 and that your sample rate is set to 48k.

To work in Dolby Atmos, open the Dolby Atmos Render App alongside Pro Tools.

To make sure Atmos is working in Pro Tools, go to Setup>Peripherals… and make sure that Dolby Atmos is enabled, indicated by a green check mark. Renderer host: 192.168.155.211

On the Ethernet Controllers tab, ensure that EUCON is enabled as well.

If you are having issues with your I/O, go to Setup > I/O and check where it says “Restore from Session” at the bottom. This should put all your settings back to where they should be.

There is a limitation to how many audio objects can be rendered separately by the Atmos system, and this is reflected in the number of Object tracks the template provides. These will be where you want to focus any content that you want to prioritize for surround automation, etc.

However, you can send as many additional tracks summed together to your Atmos mix as you want…

Clicking the orange Object button will conveniently toggle between sending any track as a separate rendered object in Atmos, or to a bus (SND_BED_IN_712). The easiest way to get more tracks to send to this bus is to duplicate your last Object track, and switch the toggle to Bus.

Mixing With Dolby Atmos, all of the mixing is done in Pro Tools. If you press the fader symbol next to the object, you will be able to control all of the panning.

In the template, there is a reverb aux input track equipped with Stratus3D reverb. To send an object to the reverb, add the Reverb Bus send to the track. The most important thing to note is that on the bus, the FMP button must be pressed.

Exporting Data In the Dolby Atmos Renderer, go to File > New Master File. Save the location of the new master file wherever you want to access all of your exported assets. Once this file is created, you can hit the record button located above your signal meters and then play back the audio in Pro Tools. Once it is done playing back, you will have a master file which can be played back in Dolby Atmos Renderer apps wherever you go. If you would like to export a further file format, you can go to File > Export Audio and then select the format. To find out more about rendering out Dolby Atmos mixes, read this module.

SPAT Revolution Setting Up To get started, you can open the “SPAT Revolution Template” Pro Tools session located in the Studio H Templates folder. Make sure that your buffer size is set to at least 1024 and that your sample rate is set to 48k.

This template starts you off with two stereo tracks and three mono tracks already set up to send to SPAT Revolution over a plugin called “SPAT Revolution Send”. Then, these are brought back from the SPAT Revolution app to the aux input tracks at the bottom which correspond to different ways of monitoring: Binaural, 5.1, and Atmos, which all have a plugin called “SPAT Revolution Return.” The Atmos returns are divided into two tracks, the main 7.1 speakers and the top 4 speakers.

If you are having issues with your I/O, go to Setup > I/O and check where it says “Restore from Session” at the bottom. This should put all your settings back to where they should be.

To continue, open up the SPAT Revolution app. Go to File > Open and open the Spat Revolution Template.json located in the Studio H Templates > SPAT Revolution Template folder.

On the setup tab, you will see a flow chart of how your sound sources are routed into the room and then out back into Pro Tools. If you create a new track, you will need to route it to the room. All you need to do is drag your new track from the top row labeled “Input” to the “Room 1” on the fourth row, “Room.” This will automatically create the intermediary flow items that you need and route your sound into the room.

Mixing

Head over to the “Room 1” tab. Here you will see a speaker array with your inputs placed in the field as items. Above the speaker array, you can change the View to Top/Front so that you can see the Y Axis and the XZ Axes simultaneously. You can move your items around the sound field to pan them around. To the left of the sound field, you can see each of your inputs and control the volume.

There is also a Reverb track in this area, where you can control the reverb time and values. If you click on the big R you can see more in depth reverb controls, where you can pick presets and adjust things like the reverb size, heaviness, predelay, room response, and even air absorption.

For Binaural monitoring, SPAT Revolution includes a bank of HRTFs (Head Related Transfer Functions) for you to pick from. To pick an HRTF navigate back to the Setup tab, and then on the second to last row labeled “Monitor,” click on the box labeled “Monitor 1.” On the right, there will be a pane and a subtitle called “Binaural Encoder” where you can pick from a list of HRTFs.