Documentation

A guide to watching DVDs and referencing in the Reid Studio, in 5.1 or stereo.

The Reid studio has a HDD Dvd player resident at the bottom of the analog patchbay. This can be used for playing DVDs. The audio feeds to the desk via the patchbay, and the video feed to the center monitor above the desk. The HDD sends out audio in I.T.U standard format, but the desk uses Film standard (L – C – R – LS – LR – LFE, as stated on the SSL AWS monitoring panel). We’ve changed this via the patchbay, so the audio from the DVD is normalled to the way the desk wants to work and monitor, so Left will be Left etc. This means that as soon as you pop a DVD in to the player, and have selected the correct input source on the desk, you should get audio to the right places by default. If you want to change this and work in I.T.U format or any other, is it easy to re-patch the audio via the patchbay to which ever output you like.

Insert your DVD:

Wait a while…

Switch the screen to S-Video (at the moment you need to do this by hand, on the underside of the monitor, using the INPUT control). You should get your DVD menu:

If you want to listen in 5.1, go to the desk and select EXT A, and then DVD:

If you want to listen in Stereo only, go to EXT B, and select DVD

Earlier I mentioned that the audio from the DVD is routed via the patchbay. This option is also interesting when you use patchcables to break the connections of certain channels. By doing this, you can cause a channel of the 5.1 audio to ‘drop out’. Try this whilst watching a film in 5.1 to see how much work the sub or center channel is doing; for instance you can suddenly see how much work the center channel does in handling dialogue, and suddenly the rest of the mix becomes clearer, enabling you to hear the hard work of the sound designers/mixers!

You can re-patch via the patchbay section labelled ‘6 Track Reply ‘A’ ‘ – patch from the top layer of connections (the outputs) back to the inputs (labelled red – External A 6track 1’).

But inserting a patchcable, this breaks the connection, effectively ‘muting’ channel 2 in the picture above.

Enjoy!

Matt

Using 24 Channels for Mixing in the Reid Studio

This method of working uses the LynxTC Aggregate Device (which is a combination of two audio interfaces; the TC Konnekt 32 and the Lynx Interface). This is a 32 channel I/O device. Channels 1-16 are the TC, Channels 17-32 are the Lynx, but they function as one device.

This will not work in Pro Tools (for now), as of October 2012 Pro Tools 10 is not installed in the Reid and this setup will not work. It will work with other DAW’s, like Logic, Nuendo, and Ableton.

Follow these instructions and you will be able to get a full 24 channels from digital world into the SSL desk. Note that this does not restrict you to 24 tracks in your DAW. You can have as many tracks as you like here, then group them out of pairs of channels and send them out to the desk (e.g. 8 tracks of processed laptop sent out of 1\2, 4 tracks of guitars on 3\4 and 7 tracks of drums on 5\6).

Setup

1 – Turn on all the equipment in the digital bay (except the TC6000, which cannot be used in this setup)

2 – Load the TC Near Control Panel (from the dock)

3 – Ensure the TC Konnekt has 1-8 selected on its Firewire Matrix on the front of the device, and that the matrix is setup as follows:

4 – Patch via AES Top Blue Mytek Outputs 1\2 to TC Konnekt AES Inputs 1\2

5 – On the TC Near Control Panel, (the application on the Mac), select Sync Source as AES\SPIF\TOS 1+2, and set the sample rate to the sample rate on the Top Mytek, and ensure the device has an external lock. If it does, should look like this:

6 – The TC Konnekt should now be clocked to the Top Mytek (the studio’s master clock). Whenever you want to change the Sample Rate you are working at, change it first on the Top Mytek, then on the other two Myteks, and then check the TC Near Control Panel to ensure correct clocking to the LynxTC aggregate device. All the Myteks and the TC Konnekt should all be running at the same sample rate and be clocked.

7 – Patch TC Konnekt AES Outputs 1 – 8 to Top Blue Mytek Inputs 1 – 8 on the digital bay, using Green AES cables:

These will be your FIRST 8 Channels OUT from your DAW (Logic, Nuendo, Ableton)

8 – Patch Lynx ‘A’ AES Outputs 1 – 8 to Middle Blue Mytek Inputs 1 – 8 and Lynx ‘B’ Outputs 1 – 8 to Bottom Grey Mytek Inputs 1 – 8:

NB – PLEASE NOTE – These next 16 outputs will be outputs 17 – 32 from your DAW. This is because the LynxTC is a 32 Channel device, made of two 16 channel devices. However, channels 9 -16 cannot be used via AES, so you’ll need to skip these channels in your DAW, as you won’t be able to hear the output!!! Use 17 -32 instead of 9-16!

9 – Patch Grey Mytek Analog Outputs 1 – 8 on the Analog Patchbay (on the left of the desk) to Desk Line Inputs 17 -24.

Now everything should be connected.

10 – Load your DAW of choice (Logic, Nuendo or Ableton).

11 – Select LynxTC as your input/audio device

12 – Setup your DAW’s Outputs:

Set Channels 1 – 8 to output as normal, out of channels 1 – 8
Set Channels 9 – 16 to output from Channels 17 – 24 (this will come in on Channels 9 -16 on the desk)
Set Channels 17 – 24 to output from Channels 25 -32 (this will come in on Channels 17 – 24 on the desk)

Although you will need to do a bit of adventuring in setting up the outputs from the DAW, when you have done this your audio will come into the desk on channels 1 – 24, and should work fully and easily.

You are ready to go, have fun!!!!!