Consolidation in the mixer

[olliepudge]

Hi Everyone,

This will be a dumb question for many of you, but I need some help. So let’s say I have added all of the effects I want and have adjusted all levels for each channel to my liking. Now I want to consolidate the faders so I can raise/lower volumes as needed. Is there a way to group every drum individually (all close mics, buses, etc.) to one fader that will adjust the overall volume of each drum?

Example: I’ve stacked two snares under the main snare and have mixed them. Now I want to have all snares on their own fader so I can control the OVERALL volume. What I mean is that if I turn this fader down all of the way, I will hear no snare at all. Then I can hide all of the other channels so I just have faders for Kick, Snare, Toms, etc. Is this possible?

Thanks!

Topic

[Brad]

Do you mean like a VCA fader, that controls a number of faders for a defined group? In that case no. The closest thing I would say would be using buses, so all snares go to a bus, all toms to a bus, etc…. and then those buses go to their own output channels…. I hope I am understanding you properly.

Thinking about it…
You might be able to achieve close to it using macro controls.
I will play around with them tomorrow and see….

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[Mario Krušelj]

Macro controls sounds like just the thing.

[Brad]

Tried to update my original post,
I created a Snare bus, routed the top/bottom to it, bound it to a macro knob. Figured out what other channels had snare bleeds, bound their bleed sliders to the same macro knob.
Seems to work just like that.

Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro, Pro Tools Studio
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)

[olliepudge]

Thanks guys! I’ll give it a shot. I haven’t used macros yet. Are you saying the macro control will take over as the primary fader then? Like if I turn it all the way down, will the snare be muted?

[olliepudge]

Hi Toontrack,

I would like your feedback on this as well please. Thanks!

Josh

[Henrik]

Yes, you can try it yourself.
For example:
* Press the properties button on a not assigned macro knob, that open the properties popup
* Press “Add…”
* Drag all tom channel volumes to bottom
* Press “Save Start”
* Drag all tom channel volumes to a volume that you want to be a maximum
* Press “Save End”

Now your macro control should change volumes of all tom channels in the mixer.

You can read more about this in https://www.toontrack.com/manual/superior-drummer-3/8/8-2-binding-a-control-to-a-macro

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

[olliepudge]

@Henrik said:
Yes, you can try it yourself.
For example:
* Press the properties button on a not assigned macro knob, that open the properties popup
* Press “Add…”
* Drag all tom channel volumes to bottom
* Press “Save Start”
* Drag all tom channel volumes to a volume that you want to be a maximum
* Press “Save End”

Now your macro control should change volumes of all tom channels in the mixer.

You can read more about this in https://www.toontrack.com/manual/superior-drummer-3/8/8-2-binding-a-control-to-a-macro  

Hi Henrik,

So I assigned all snare mixer faders to a macro, but the macro control doesn’t control them correctly. What I want is for the macro knob to adjust every snare fader without affecting the volumes I have set in the mixer. Right now it seems to adjust them all at the same volume. Hope this makes sense. Any tips?

[Henrik]

@olliepudge said:
What I want is for the macro knob to adjust every snare fader without affecting the volumes I have set in the mixer.  

I am not following you there, on what you want to achieve. Can you give an example of what you want to happen in a scenario?

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

[olliepudge]

@Henrik said:

@olliepudge said:
What I want is for the macro knob to adjust every snare fader without affecting the volumes I have set in the mixer.  

I am not following you there, on what you want to achieve. Can you give an example of what you want to happen in a scenario?  

Sure I’ll try. Let’s say I have the top snare mixer channel set one way and the snare bottom channel set at a lower volume. When I use the macro knob, I want to control both of them, but I want them to hold there differences in volume. Right now, it levels every fader off at the same volume. So when I increase the macro knob I’m getting way more snare bottom than I originally had set in the mixer. Does that make sense? Kind of hard to explain. Thanks.

[Henrik]

Can sending the snares to a bus, and then controlling the bus volume, achieve that in your case?

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

[olliepudge]

@Henrik said:
Can sending the snares to a bus, and then controlling the bus volume, achieve that in your case?  

Don’t think so. I was using the macro control because I need a way to control the overall volume of all snare mics. Meaning if I turn it down the snare will be muted. The bus fader wouldn’t do that correct? It would just control that bus.

[Henrik]

if you route different snare mic channel’s outputs to a bus, turning the level of that bus all the way down will make all the snare channels silent. Is that what you want to happen?

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

[olliepudge]

@Henrik said:
if you route different snare mic channel’s outputs to a bus, turning the level of that bus all the way down will make all the snare channels silent. Is that what you want to happen?  

Correct Henrik. I want one fader for the snare, kick, toms, etc. to control the overall volume once I have everything set to my liking in the mixer. I usually stack 3-5 snares and send each of them to a bus, so that’s a lot of levels to control. I just want to have one fader for the volume when I have everything set right. Hence consolidate the mixer like the title of this thread. Can you tell me how to route the outputs to a bus so I can achieve this? I could probably figure it out but some help would be great. Thanks!

[Henrik]

Are you using multiple outputs, or stereo?

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

[Brad]

@Henrik said:
if you route different snare mic channel’s outputs to a bus, turning the level of that bus all the way down will make all the snare channels silent. Is that what you want to happen?  

By routing all the snare outputs to the bus and manipulating the bus fader the OP should be able to manage all the close snare mics with the bus fader. The only reason I mentioned using macros was in addition to the close mics, there could be several bleed sources that wouldn’t be manipulated by using the bus fader AND I think macros are very cool and powerful. However, perhaps I was just over complicating things.

Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro, Pro Tools Studio
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)

[Author]

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