Mobile I/O v.5 Mixer Overview

This document provides an overview of the v.5 Mixer Architecture with configuration and operation quick-start guide.

Ultra-Quick Start Guide

Perhaps the most fundamental thing for you to understand is that the v.5 mixer model is based upon user-configuration. The advantage to this is that you can build the exact mixer you need for any specific task or set of circumstances. But it does mean that the v.5 mixer window is blank until you configure it.

In order to avoid the “blank page” syndrome you can use one of the templates we've included with the software. The template selection dialog is displayed on first launch, and it can be accessed at any time from the File menu.


Template Selection Dialog

Alternatively, you can use the following steps to configure a mixer from scratch.

The easiest way to create a new mixer configuration is to use the Mixer » Configure Mixer… menu command. Selecting this command presents the Configure Mixer sheet, which allows you to do bulk configuration of the mixer.


Configure Mixer Sheet


The sheet is split into two major sections:

You create and configure the mix busses using the top section, then you configure the channels you assign to the busses in the bottom area. When you select a mix bus from the table in the Mix Busses section, the Selected Mix Bus Configuration area automatically updates to reflect the current configuration of the selected mix bus. All of the available input channels are listed in the Selected Mix Bus Configuration, and you can assign any of the channels to the selected mix bus by checking the channel’s Enable check-box.

To Create a Mix Bus:
  1. Click the “+” button — this creates a new stereo bus with a default name.
  2. Double-click the new bus in the list; you can now edit the bus name.
  3. You can adjust the bus type with the popup in the Bus Type column.
To Delete a Mix Bus:
  1. Select the bus you want to delete
  2. Click the “-” button — this deletes the bus and de-assigns the channels assigned to the bus (but it won’t delete the channel strips from the Mixer window).
To Add an input channel to a Mix Bus:
  1. Select the bus to which you want to add a channel.
  2. Check the box in the “Enable” column for the channel you want to add to the bus.
To Remove an input channel from a Mix Bus:
  1. Select the bus from which you want to remove the channel.
  2. Uncheck the box in the “Enable” column for the channel you want to remove from the bus.

When you have finished configuring your mixer, click the Configure button in the bottom right. The mixer you have configured will now appear in the Mixer window.

The v.5 Mixer removes the direct-route connection between the physical inputs and FireWire that has existed in the Mobile I/O since it was originally shipped. Instead, the v.5 Mixer extends and enhances the concept of FireWire returns. In fact, all audio is now sent to the computer via FireWire returns. In other words, if you want to send audio from your Mobile I/O's inputs to your computer, you will need to assign those inputs to FireWire returns manually via the Direct Outs in the mixer input strips. Hint: selecting “Auto” in an input strip's direct output pop-up menu will automatically assign the direct out to the next available FireWire output.

The Mixer you have created will automatically contain Input channel strips for all of your configured channels, and a Master channel strip for the Mix Bus. Now you'll just need to route your Master strip to the desired physical outputs using the Bus Output pop-up menu at the bottom of the Master strip, and you can hear all the inputs assigned to that mix bus through your MIO outputs. See below for more details about Master Strips.

Ultra-Quick Start Summary

To quickly configure a mixer that will send your selected inputs to your studio monitors and to your computer:

  1. Select the Mixer » Configure Mixer… menu command.
  2. Create a Mix Bus as described in “To Create a Mix Bus” above.
  3. Add input channels as described in “To Add an input channel to a Mix Bus” above. Be sure to add some physical inputs and some DAW inputs so you can route both physical and computer inputs through the mixer.
  4. When you have finished Enabling the input channels you wish in your mixer, click the Configure button in the Configure Mixer sheet to create your mixer.
  5. In the Input channel strips for each of your physical inputs, click on the Direct Output pop-up menu (either pre- or post-send, up to you), select "Auto." This assigns each Input strip to a FireWire output.
  6. In the Master Strip, click the Bus Output pop-up menu and select the physical outputs to which your studio monitors are connected.

That's it! You've just created your first v.5 mixer. You can now route the audio signal from your Mobile I/O's physical inputs to your computer, from your computer to your Mobile I/O, and connected the mixer to your studio monitors.

Introduction

The v.5 Mixer Architecture represents a quantum leap forward in both the power and usability of the Mobile I/O's mixing/routing/signal processing engine. This new architecture builds upon signal processing elements that have been in development at Metric Halo since the initial introduction of the Mobile I/O in 2001.

With the introduction of the v.5 architecture, we have taken the basic interaction model of MIOConsole and we have re-engineered it based on the feedback we've received from our users and beta-testers over the years.

The v.4 took the approach of defining precisely what the hardware was capable of; you had to adjust your workflow to fit its capabilities. The v.5 mixer takes the approach of assuming nothing about the configuration of the hardware, allowing you to define your configuration up to the limits of the hardware. This has a number of significant benefits to the user:

But again, keep in mind that the consequence of the v.5 model being based upon user-configuration is that the Mobile I/O is a blank slate until it has been configured by you.

Routing

The v.5 Mixer removes the direct-route connection between the physical inputs and FireWire that has existed in the Mobile I/O since it was originally shipped. Instead, the v.5 Mixer extends and enhances the concept of FireWire returns. In fact, all audio is now sent to the computer via FireWire returns. The following illustrates the overall routing structure of the Mobile I/O with the new v.5 mixer:


v. 5 2d Routing Model

As you can see, instead of the hardwired direct-routing of inputs found in the previous Mobile I/O console, now all of the audio streams that are sent to the computer have been converted to FireWire returns. The mixer now provides the facilities to easily route any of the audio in the system to the computer — even between applications!

Routing is critical!

It is very important to understand that the v.5 mixer does not provide default routings!

You must choose where you want your audio to go. If you don't route a mix bus to a physical output, you will not hear any audio. If you don't route an input to FireWire it will not be available to any applications in your computer.

Routing in v.5 is really easy — so just remember — if you are not hearing or seeing your audio where you expect to, check your routings!


A Quick Tour of the v. 5 Mixer


The v.5 mixer provides many new features as well as greatly simplifying the use of older features. The mixer provides the following functions:

Thanks to the new routing functionality in the mixer, we have been able to completely remove the patchbay from the system. With the new routing and plugin functionality in the mixer, coupled with the availability of the Graph plug-ins, we have also been able to completely remove the overall +DSP graph interface from the system. These changes make utilizing the power of the Mobile I/O and +DSP far more elegant and intuitive.

The Mixer, Routing and +DSP panes in the MIO Console window are no longer required when all the units you are using have 2d Cards installed. If your entire system is 2d Card enhanced, you can disable these panes in MIO Console preferences. If you continue to use units that do not have 2d Cards installed, you will still use those panes in the MIO Console window to control those elements of your legacy units.

Technology

The v.5 mixer is based upon the +DSP graph technology originally designed for +DSP. With the 2d Card, we have created the concept of an Übergraph. The Übergraph is an internal +DSP graph that represents the entirety of the Mobile I/O, including the 2d DSP, all the physical I/O and the FireWire I/O. Since the +DSP graph provides infinite routing and multing capabilities with integrated latency compensation, the addition of full access to all I/O resources means that everything can go everywhere in the new system.

What’s up with the Übergraph?

While the v.5 mixer is based upon the Übergraph, it does not require (and, in fact, does not allow you) to interact directly with the Übergraph. Rather, the v.5 mixer manages all of the plug-ins and connections within the Übergraph for you. So, even though you may be creating an incredibly complex network of plug-ins with many mults and bus to bus routes, the user interaction required for you to control the system is simple and direct. This explanation of the Übergraph is included to give you a deep understanding of the v.5 architecture, nothing more.


The v.5 mixer works as complex routing manager, adding plug-ins (including mixer plug-ins) to the Übergraph based upon your configuration commands. Because the +DSP engine automatically configures the runtime environment to compensate for routing latency in the configured DSP graph, you can rely on the fact that bus to bus routes all arrive with no routing latency. This allows you to configure sub-mixes and stems, including sub-bus processing, without having to worry about phase-cancellation problems or other latency related issues.

The v.5 mixer builds a model of your desired mix bus structure and also tracks all of the routes that you create between busses, bus outputs and direct outs. The mixer then ensures that everything stays routed properly as you add and remove plug-ins, channels and busses. This technology makes the manipulation of your mixer and routing simple — rather than think about how to route the elements of the mixer, you simply insert things where you want them and the mixer takes care of all the routing for you. Since the model is based upon the +DSP graph, you have much more flexibility in your routing options with regards to arbitrary sends, I/O, direct outs, and mults than you have in most digital mixers.

Configuration

As described above, the v.5 mixer starts with a clean slate — nothing connected:


Blank Mixer Window

In order to use the Mobile I/O with v.5, you must have a mixer configured. This means that you need to load one of the supplied mixer templates (using the "Open Template..." command), a saved MIO Console Settings file (if you have one), or you can create a new mixer configuration.

Using Templates for Configuration

The easiest way to create a new mixer configuration is to start with a template using the File » Open Template… menu command. When you select this command, you are presented with the "Choose Configuration Template..." window:


Template Window

To start with a template, click the template you would like to use in the "Template" list on the left side of the window. A description of the template will appear in the "Template Description" area to give you more information about the template. You can browse through the templates to choose which one is the best starting point for you. For example, if you select "2882 Basic Setup", you will see the following description:

Selected Template

Once you decide to use the selected template, click the Open button. If you decide that you don’t want to use one of the templates, you can click the “Use Current State” button to use the state that is currently loaded in the console. If you are using the Template dialog at application launch, this will load the state that the console was in the last time you quit MIO Console. If this is your very first launch ever of the MIO Console, you will then need to manually configure your mixer.

Manual Configuration

The next way to create a new mixer configuration is to use the Mixer » Configure Mixer… menu command. When you select this command, you will see the Configure Mixer sheet:


Configure Mixer Sheet

The Configure Mixer Sheet allows you to do bulk configuration of the mixer. The sheet is split into two major sections:

You create and configure the mix busses using the top section, then you configure the channels you assign to the busses in the bottom area. When you select a mix bus from the table in the Mix Busses section, the Selected Mix Bus Configuration area automatically updates to reflect the current configuration of the selected mix bus. All of the available input channels are listed in the Selected Mix Bus Configuration, and you can assign any of the channels to the selected mix bus by checking the channel’s Enable check-box.

Each mix bus has a number of attributes that you can control:

The Bus Name is the name you assign to the bus. It is used throughout the Mixer UI to identify the bus. You can name the bus anything you like.

The Bus Type determines the number of channels of the bus (mono, stereo, etc.). The type of bus determines the type of panner used to connect the input-strips to the bus. We have implemented the following types so far:

The Bus Mode allows you to determine if the bus has a master fader or not. If the mode is Master Mix the mixer will create a master fader for the bus. If the mode is Aux Bus the mixer will not create a master fader, but you can assign the bus to another bus to create a return fader.

Mixer Configuration Tasks

The following task lists are succinct guides to performing the specific configuration tasks you will need to engage in while configuring a mixer using the Configure Mixer Sheet.

To Create a Mix Bus:
  1. Click the “+” button — this creates a new stereo bus with a default name.
  2. Double-click the new bus in the list; you can now edit the bus name.
  3. You can adjust the bus type from the pop-up menuin the Bus Type column.
To Delete a Mix Bus:
  1. Select the bus you want to delete
  2. Click the “-” button — this deletes the bus and de-assigns the channels that were assigned to the bus (but it won’t delete the input channel strips in the mixer).
To Add a channel to a Mix Bus:
  1. Select the bus to which you want to add the channel.
  2. Check the box in the “Enable” column for the input channel you want to add to the bus. Your choice of input channels consists of any of the physical analog and digital inputs from your Mobile I/O, as well as any available inputs from your computer (called "DAW" inputs). The channels you select here are the channels that will be available in your mixer as Input strip destinations.
To Rename an Input Channel in a Mix Bus:
  1. In the "Channel Name" column, double-click the name you wish to rename.
  2. Type the new name of the input channel.
To Remove a channel from a Mix Bus:
  1. Select the bus from which you want to remove the channel.
  2. Uncheck the box in the “Enable” column for the channel you want to remove from the bus.
To Add/Remove all visible channels to/from a Mix Bus:
  1. Select the bus you want to configure.
  2. <option>-click one of the checkboxes in the “Enable” column. All visible channels will be added or removed from the Mix Bus.
To limit the channels visible in the Selected Mix Bus Configuration area:
  1. Select the bus you want to manipulate.
  2. Type the text that you want to use to limit the channels visible in the table.
    • You can click the pop-up menu next to the search field to quickly enter certain standard search text items (like “Analog” or “DAW”)
    • You can click the pop-up menu inside the search field to choose which column is searched for the text
  3. To remove the limitation, delete the text in the search field or click the X in the circle in the search field.

Input Strip Details

Every Input strip in the v.5 mixer has a similar set of controls. The following figure shows each element with a label; a detailed description follows below:


v.5 Mixer Input Strip

Selection-based Linking

When you have multiple strips selected, the changes you make to a selected strip will be applied to all the selected strips. For example, if you have multiple input channel strips selected and you choose a setting for "Character" on one of the selected strips, that setting for Character is applied to all selected strips.

This feature allows you to quickly apply bulk changes to the state of the mixer.

The parameters that are linked by selection are: The following parameters are linked by selection, but the link is only applied if the <control> key is held down when changing the parameter:

Plug Ins

The v.5 Mixer provides an insert model for using +DSP plug-ins. The 2d Hardware includes a basic set of plug-ins that provide "nuts & bolts" production processing:

When the +DSP license is added to 2d, the options grow dramatically. All +DSP plug-ins can be inserted directly into the insert slots in the channel strips, or you can insert a +DSP graph into any of the insert slots, and then insert and connect a graph populated with +DSP plug-ins within the inserted graph.

The plug-ins that may be inserted in any given slot depend on the number of channels of a given input channel strip. All mono plug-ins may always be inserted in any slot; if you insert a mono plugin into a strip that has a multichannel input (for example a bus master strip or bus return strip, or a multichannel input strip), the mixer will automatically instantiate multiple copies of the plugin (for example — two plug-ins into a stereo strip and 5 plug-ins into a 5.0 strip), and link the parameters of the instances so that when you control the inserted plugin, it will control all instances.

If you are working with a multi-channel strip, only plug-ins that make sense for the number of channels of the strip will also be available; for example, with a stereo strip, you will see both the mono and stereo versions of the MIOComp and MIOLimit dynamics processors; you can select the version that works best for you. At the present time, there are few processors that have specifically been built for multi-channel strips with more than two channels. If you expect to use (or change to) a bus with multiple channels beyond stereo, you will probably want to use the mono version of the plugin as they can be automatically instantiated as you adjust the number of channels of the strip.

Plug In Graphs

When you insert a graph in the mixer, the graph is automatically generated with input and output ports to match the number of channels of the strip that it is inserted into. The default state of an inserted graph is for the inputs to be connected directly to the outputs.

When you open the graph UI for the insert, you can insert any set of plug-ins into the graph that is shown in the graph UI window. These plug-ins can be connected by virtual cables, their UIs opened, and parameters set. The graph I/O connections will automatically be routed to the appropriate points in the strip that hosts the graph. The graph will be saved and recalled with the rest of the mixer, and you can also choose to save the graph independently as kind of a "macro" that can be inserted again and again into the mixer.

The graph inserts also have access to the saved graph patch library — this lets you migrate patches that you have created in +DSP in v.4 or earlier to inserts in v.5. You can also save the configuration of your graph insert into the library as a preset, so as you work with the mixer, you can build up a set of "secret weapon" processors that can be instantly recalled and tweaked as needed.

To Migrate Graph Patches from v.4 or earlier Consoles:

Graph patches created in v.4 or earlier consoles may require a little clean up for use with v. 5.

• If the graph patch you want to load is already set up to take input from Analog 1 (for a mono patch), Analog 1-2 (for a stereo patch) or Analog 1-N (for a multi-channel patch), then you can just use it directly in v.5.

• If the graph patch you want to migrate is set up to take input from another source (say Analog 6, or Digital, or DAW, or ADAT), you need to open the graph in the Virtual DSP area of the +DSP pane and change the inputs to patch to Analog 1 (for a mono patch), Analog 1-2 (for a stereo patch) or Analog 1-N (for a multi-channel patch). The same applies for output assignments. Make sure to set the outputs to Process Bus 1-N. Save the patch with the new input and output assignments and it is ready to be used in a v. 5 graph plug in.

Also, please note that v. 4 and earlier medium and long delays will not currently load on the 2d DSP. However, MIO Console v.5 includes new 2d compatible delays that you should be able to use to replace the older medium and long delays.


Graphs may be instantiated into any insert point of any type of channel strip, whether it is an input strip, aux return strip or a master fader strip. This allows you to configure (or utilize pre-configured) processing in a variety of ways as appropriate for the project that you are working on. For example, you can insert a one in-one out graph into a mono input strip to implement anything from a guitar amp model to a parallel compressor or a feedback delay. You might insert a 2-in 2-out on an aux return strip and build a stereo reverb or echo time domain processor to process the send bus; you would insert sends on the various input strips to route the audio to your reverb graph.

Plugin Macros

With a +DSP license, the v.5 Mixer also supports the direct insertion of Plugin Macros, which are premade Graphs. Metric Halo includes a number of bonus macros with the +DSP license, including reverbs, guitar processing models, mastering tools, delays and other effects. Some of the macros are open — once you insert the macro, you will have full access to the graph, and you can edit it, modify it and interact with it as you please. Other macros are closed and represent a monolithic processor; you can insert them, and they do the job they were designed for, but they cannot be edited.

Sends

Any insert in the mixer may be used to send the audio from that point in the signal path to any bus defined in the mixer. When you insert a send to a bus on a strip, a new send strip is automatically added to the mixer; when you insert a send or click on a send tile in the mixer, MIOConsole will automatically open the Sends Mixer window:


Sends Mixer Window

The Sends Mixer window shows the all the send strips for the currently selected bus. Send strips are more limited than full input strips. Each Send Strip has a panner (if appropriate for the bus width and send width), phase invert, solo, mute and pre/post fader buttons, as well as a send level fader and level meter. All of the elements common with the full input strips function in the same way as the elements in the full strip.

The control element that is unique to the send strip is the Pre/Post Fader button (the lavender button with the "P" in the illustration above). When this button is illuminated, the send functions "Post Fader" relative to the mixer fader for the strip that the send is inserted on. This means that the level of the signal will be adjusted by the input channel strip's level fader. This is default state of the Pre/Post Fader button. Since the signal is actually routed from wherever the send is inserted, the "Post Fader" state does not control the routing of the send, but rather the level; the total send level will be the sum of the source fader level and the send level fader. When you have selected "Post Fader" mode for the send, the send will also respect the mute and solo state of the strip that the send is inserted on.

In "Pre-fader" mode, only the send level fader controls the level of the signal to the send destination. Also, the send does not take the mute or solo state of the strip into account when sending the signal to the send destination.

Master Strips

Master Strips are used to control the signal processing and output routing for mix busses. Rather like the Input Strips, they provide Character, Direct Outs, Inserts, and Mute controls. They also provide a very flexible strip output routing popup that allows you to route the output of the processed mix bus to any specific output path, mult it to many output paths, or to assign it to the Monitor Controller.


v.5 Mixer Routing Connections

Routing Summary

All routing in v.5 is managed through the mixer and monitor controller. The diagram below summarizes the routing control points and what elements of the routing model they control:


v.5 Mixer Routing Connections

In the diagram above, the various colored arrows indicate different routing elements:

These routing elements allow you to completely configure the routing resources of the mobile I/O and accomplish any set of routings required quickly and easily, directly from the signal source.