Mixer Routing
The mixer routing can get very complex in this situation. This example will be broken down into basic steps and then special routings as the mix progresses. The end result intends to be a manageable number of tracks to handle while providing sonic options and tricks reserved for old-school analog console mixes.
Group Routing
Let’s start routing tracks to the various group channels. Starting with the drums, it’s possible to route several tracks to the same destination at once by using modifier keys. First, select all the drum tracks, from K out to the Room track.
If you hold Shift+Option/Alt while routing one of the selected track’s output to the Drum group channel, all selected tracks will be routed to that destination, 11 tracks at once. The same can be done for the rest of the groups such as strings and background vocals. (See Figure 16.10.)
Figure 16.10 Drums routed to group.
If you use group channels, the 47-track song can be pared down to around 18 channels. Move the group channels around in the project window so that all relevant channels to the mix are in the same area, giving you centralized access to the major mix components. (See Figure 16.11.)
Figure 16.11 Main mixing channels.
Output Routing
Route the remaining channels to their appropriate output channels in the mixer. The piano needs to be routed to the Stereo 3 output, for example. Once this has been done, play the song and look at the meters for the outputs to see if they are reasonable. Since these outputs are going directly to DA converters that feed the summing box, they cannot clip; otherwise, distortion will inadvertently be added.
In order to see the proper levels in the mixer, ensure that they are set to post-fader in the global meter settings found in the mixer’s contextual menu. (See Figure 16.12.)
I usually set up the second mixer to see only the outputs. This mixer can be set to show meters in a narrow format so it doesn’t take up a bunch of space. It keeps you in touch with the actual output level being fed to the converters. (See Figure 16.13.)
Figure 16.12 Global meter settings.
Caution In the native digital world of 32-bit floating-point processing, high levels in the digital mixer are usually not a problem until they reach the master fader, at which point, high levels may be turned down to avoid clipping without any negative consequences on the sound quality. However, in this example, signals are being summed by an external analog device. All the old rules about signal level come into play in this scenario. You don’t want to overdrive analog components or clip the converters by sending signals that are too loud out of Nuendo.