X32: Waves Channel and Bus Inserts Part 2

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Synopsis: This Article shows how to setup Waves MultiRack or SuperRack on an X32 to process channels and buses at the same time. Following the instructions below you can setup an X32 with Waves processing on 30 channels as well as inserts including Main Left/Right bus. You can also use the last two input channels- they will not have waves inserts but would still sum and be included in the mix before the Main L/R Waves Insert.

This setup will still cause the overall latency to be doubled, which on a native system could very well be too much for your program, but the routing would be the same for a Soundgrid Server System from Waves which is very low latency and more reliable than a native system.

Much like part 1, we are going to use the new User Input routing patch system introduced in Firmware Version 4 as well as the Aux in Remap to achieve 30 channels of Waves processing as well as Bus Processing– in this example on the Left Right Main Bus. There are many different ways to route sources in the X32 and this is just one example, but I have tried to come up with a system that will be the easiest to keep straight.

In this example I am using a Midas DL32 for all 32 channels on AES A. You could substitute Local channels or sources from AESA and AESB in addition or instead of. This would only change the Card Out and User Out Routing.

***IMPORTANT NOTE- Before going forward mute the Aux In Channels 1+2 so you do not create a feedback loop. You could also change their source for instance to Local Inputs to handle playback or something but if you do not change the source then you need to mute them before using the Aux In Remap.***

See video of process or scroll down to read the article:

Also, you can download the .scn file from the downloads section of the website if you would like.

Input Blocks

Input Blocks get routed like the picture above. The Aux In Remap only allows Selection of Card or User sources starting at 1 so we will use User In 1-6. You could use User In 1-2 and use the others as inserts somewhere else but that would make for routing that is more complex than it is probably worth.

Routing would look like this:

Block 1-8: Card In 1-8

Block 9-16: Card In 9-16

Block 17-24: Card in 17-24

Block 25-32: User in 25-32

Aux In: User 1-2 (Aux in remap will not let you route anything to Aux 7+8, but in the configuration tab for the Aux it is possible to assign any source.)

Expansion Card Output

This is where we set the sources that will feed the Expansion Card and ultimately our channels. In this example I am going to use AES A1-32 to feed all 32 channels to the mixer.

Card Out 1-8: AES A1-8 (this send the signal coming off the preamps to Waves)

Card Out 9-16: AES A9-16

Card Out 17-24: AES A17-24

Card Out 25-32: User Out 25-32

Patch Points: AUX

Here we set the Aux Output to be Inserts. Do this for Aux Out 1 and Aux Out 2.

Patch Points: User In

Here we set the User Inputs. Set Input 1 to Card 31 and Input 2 to Card 32. These will be our returns from the Main L/R insert.

Next we can skip down to User In Bank 25-32. Set Input 25 to Card 25 and patch 1 to 1 through to Input 30.

Input 31 and Input 32 can be set to any preamp and used for channels that do not include Waves Inserts. I usually leave these open for Talkback or MC mics anyway, they can be patched from local sources on the mixer or in the example above I am using channels 31 and 32 on a DL32.

Patch Points: User Out

Here we set User Out Bank 25-32. This is what feeds the last 8 channels to the Waves system. Set User Output 25 to AES A25 and continue to patch 1 to 1 through User Output 30.

User Output 31 is set to Aux Out 1 and User Output 32 is set to Aux Out 2. This is how you feed the insert from the Main L/R bus to Waves via the Card.

Main Left/Right Insert

Page to Home>Config for the Main Left/Right Bus and set the Insert to Aux 1. You can set if the insert is before or after the channel dynamics and eq.

X-Live Card

If you are setting up a Native Waves system and have an X-Live Card in your mixer you will need to set the Playback Config to “USB Interface” and make sure the USB Interface is set to 32in/32out.

Waves Routing/Setup

For this example I setup Waves SuperRack with 30 mono racks that would be the channels, and Rack 31 was a stereo rack.

Starting on Rack 1 I routed the racks like this:

Rack 1: X-Live Mono – Input 1 / Output 1

Rack 2: X-Live Mono – Input 2 / Output 2

Rack 3: X-Live Mono – Input 3 / Output 3

Etc. all the way to:

Rack 31: X-Live Stereo – Input 31+32 / Output 31+32

X32 Input Presets

For redundancy sake you could build a routing backup that bypasses the Waves Inserts in the event there is a problemo so you can quickly switch to an alternate routing system. The X32 allows for routing presets that can be recalled, but an easy alternative is using the Input Recording/Playback settings. You can set one up for the inserts like the article above and setup a backup routing scheme that routes the channels straight from the preamps/sources bypassing the Waves Card.

Download the Scene File

Check out our download section to download the scene files (link Below). The download includes a scene with inputs coming from AES50-A like the article above, as well as a version using the mixer’s local preamps. You should be able to load it on your mixer and then save the routing to a routing template to work with your scenes you already have.

Takeaway

There are many creative ways to route sources and outputs with the X32 and this is only one more of many. I plan on covering some other routing examples in later articles. Let me know if you have any questions or would like to see another example covered.