Electronic Studio Resources I:  Quad Mixing in Room 304

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Quad Mixing in Room 304

Set Up Digital Performer for Quad Mixing

• Follow these steps to work with quad in Digital Performer:
  1. Open the Bundles window (shift-U).
  2. Click on the Output tab.
  3. You will see 3 stereo pairs: Analog 1-2, Analog 3-4, and Main Outs.
  4. Since a quad bundle doesn’t already exist, create a quad bundle from a stereo bundle. Here’s how:
     • Click the Add button to add a new stereo pair. (Since Analog 1-2 and Analog 3-4 already exist, DP will assign the new pair to Analog 5-6.)
     • In the Model column for the new stereo pair, press where it says Stereo, and choose Quad instead.
     • Drag a box around the L R Ls Rs “chiclets” to select them all at once, and drag them over to the left so that they are assigned to Analog 1-4.
     • You should end up with something that looks like this:

       

     • Note that the odd-numbered outputs are assigned to L and Ls, and the even-numbered outputs to R and Rs.
  5. Close the Bundles window, and look at the Tracks Overview. Note that, in each track’s output column, the choices have expanded to include Analog 1-4 (Quad).
  6. Assign all your audio and instrument tracks to Analog 1-4 (Quad). Don’t use Analog 1-2 or Analog 3-4. Why? When you have finished your sequence and are ready to Bounce to Disk, all the tracks included in the bounce must have the same output assignment.)

Set up the Mackie mixer for quad mixing

• Raise the faders on input channels 9-12, so that sound will be received on these channels from DP / MOTU Analog outputs 1-4.
• To route sound to the front speakers:

  Assign input channels 9 and 10, which receive sound from MOTU Analog outputs 1 and 2, to L/R. In the output section, raise the Main Mix L/R speaker fader.

• To route sound to the rear speakers:

  Assign input channels 11 and 12, which receive sound from MOTU Analog outputs 3 and 4, to group outs 3-4. In the output section, raise the group out 3 and 4 speaker faders, which are labeled “Ls” and “Rs”.

• In the mixer’s output section, don’t assign signal to group outs 1-2, since these are used to send sound back into MOTU Analog 1-2 for recording. Leave the group out 1-2 faders down.

Test it out

• Choose a mono sound source, something lengthy, like the voice recordings you worked with in Assignment 2. As always, drag it on to a mono audio track in DP. Make sure your track’s output is assigned to Analog 1-4 (Quad).
• Take a few minutes and play just this single source alone. In the DP virtual mixer, experiment with dragging the puck in the Surround Panner. Note that you can place the puck “in the pocket” to dedicate the signal to a single speaker; place it in the center to assign equally to all 4 speakers; or move the puck around the perimeter of the panner to move the signal around. To find out more, see DP manual, Chapter 66, Mixing in Surround, pp. 775-787.

©2009, Alicyn Warren, John Gibson