Hey guys, in this video we’re going to cover the mixing tools and signal routing in SoundBridge.
We’ll go over how to group tracks, create a send, and all the controls such as panning
and volume that are available for each track from the mixer view.
Before starting this video, make sure you’ve checked out the previous videos in this series
so you’re all caught up.
To get started with mixing, the first thing we can do is switch to the mixer view.
This displays all our tracks vertically and it’s easier to make edits at this point
in our project.
At the top, we have signal routing that includes the inputs and outputs.
Like we saw before, our inputs can be microphones or MIDI devices, depending on what kind of
track we’re using.
The default audio output for every track is just the master channel.
When we’re working with a MIDI track, we’ll also have a MIDI output we can use if we want
to send the MIDI signal to another device.
In most cases, I’ll skip this step since I process all my MIDI within the program.
Now let’s cover how to add a send.
To add a send, first we need to switch back to the tracks view.
Then add a new track, and change the track type to return.
We’ll call this track reverb.
The return track will be created at the bottom.
Switch back to mixer view, and the Reverb track will be found on the right.
At the top of the track, we have the output, which we’ll keep set as Master – Track
In.
We’ll also leave it Pre-Mixer so changes to the level on the individual tracks won’t
affect the send.
Now that we’ve added this send, the other tracks will automatically route to it.
On those tracks, we can increase the level of the send using the slider to create a mix
between the instruments sent to it.
If we create more than one send, there will be multiple sliders to control the levels
sent to them.
Like the other tracks, the send has panning, solo, mute, write automation, and a volume
slider.
The sends also have the option to use sends, but be careful not to create a loop.
A typical scenario where you would want to use a send is with reverb.
Multiple instruments can be sent to the same reverb processor and the reverb is applied
to all the tracks together.
This helps glue the mix together a little better when compared to just applying individual
reverb to all the tracks.
Another way we can combine tracks is by grouping them.
To get this started, we need to switch back to the track view by clicking the button at
the bottom.
Then hold down the Shift button on the keyboard and click on the tracks you want in the group
to select them.
You can also do this by pressing the Shift button on the bottom panel if you’re working
on a touch screen.
You can tell what tracks are part of the group because the color indicator for all of them
is the same.
I also like to change the group name when I create it.
To do this, right click on the group name and a window will open up.
Then you can click on the name and change it.
The other thing we can do is change the group color indicator.
If we want to get rid of the group after, just select the group and press the ungroup
button at the top.
In some other programs we would create a group by changing the output of a few tracks to
a bus, but that’s not how it works in SoundBridge.
Once our group is created, we can switch back to the mixer view.
We now have the controls like we would for an individual track that is applied to the
entire group at once.
Starting at the top, we have the audio output which goes to the master channel.
Then we have a send, which will send the entire group to another track.
Every audio track, MIDI track, group, and return has more controls at the bottom.
The first knob at the top of this section is the pan control.
If we drag it down, the track pans left, and if we drag it up, it pans right.
If we double click the knob it will re-center.
Below that we have the solo button.
When we solo a track, it will be the only track playing.
If there are multiple soloed tracks, they will all play as well, but the unsoloed tracks
will not.
Then we have a mute button, which stops a track from playing.
On a group, MIDI track, return, and master we have an arm automation button, and we’ll
cover automation in a future video.
Audio tracks have an input monitor button that processes the microphone input with the
plugins and plays it back in real-time.
To the right, we have a slider we can drag up or down to change the level.
This is called a fader.
The slider can range from +8 to –inf.
Double clicking on the slider will cause it to reset to 0.
In the bottom left, we have two level indicators.
The top is the peak level indicator, which displays the peak volume since it started.
We can click on this to reset it.
Below we have an indicator for the level of the fader.
Thanks for checking out this video on the mixer and signal routing in SoundBridge.
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