Direct Routing

In the process of mixing, you will find the need to route tracks to different destinations depending on the needs of the mix at that moment. For example, the dialogue tracks will go through many varied environments in the film and need to change their sound, sometimes drastically. Let’s say the main character uses a walkie-talkie while driving around in a car. As the scene changes shots, there could be times when we need to hear the dialogue as if it was coming out of a small radio.

A practical way of dealing with this is by using a special group channel dedicated to creating the radio speaker sound. The specific dialogue track can then be routed to this special group when the radio sound is needed. This can be automated using the Direct Routing feature.

Direct Routing allows you to route the output of any channel to one or more destinations and automate any changes to the routing. You can access Direct Routings either from the track list or the Channel Settings window. You might have to enable visibility of those controls. (See Figure 17.14.)

Figure 17.14 Direct Routing in channel settings.

You can set up as many as eight destinations for Direct Routings. Simply press a routing box to activate it. The current routing will be disabled. During the time when the dialogue needs to sound like it’s coming out of a police radio, press the Radio dialog routing. When it returns to normal, press the DIA 5.1 routing.

You can have a signal routed to more than one Direct Routing destination by activating the Summing mode at the top of the Direct Routing pane. Be careful not to have any signal accidentally routed to two stems at once.