X32: Waves Channel and Bus Inserts Part 3

***10% off Waves Plugins with the following code: https://www.waves.com/r/uwnbel ***

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 24 channels as well as inserts on the Main Left/Right bus and two stereo send/returns effects busses.. You can still use the channels 25-32 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 cause the overall latency to increase, which on a native system could very well be too much for your program, but the routing would be the same for a Waves Soundgrid Server System which is very low latency and more reliable than a native system.

Much like part 2, 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 24 channels of Waves processing as well as Bus Processing– in this example on the Left Right Main Bus as well as Stereo Waves Effects sends and returns . 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 In Routing.

***IMPORTANT NOTE- Before going forward mute the Aux In Channels 5+6 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.***

Also, you can download the .scn file as well as a Waves SuperRack template from the downloads section of the website if you would like. The download is called X32 Waves 24+2+L/R Scene File.

https://survivethegig.com/product/x32-waves-24-2-l-r-scene-file/

Input Blocks

Input Blocks get routed like the picture above. The Aux In Remap only allows Selection of sources starting at 1 so we will use User In 1-6

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: AES A25-32 (This allows you to still use channels 25-32 without inserts. You could pull from a different source depending on your needs and that would be done here.)

Aux In: User 1-6 (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 inserted or send/return channels and busses. In this example I am going to use AES A1-32 to feed all 32 channels to the mixer. This routes the signal coming off the preamps directly to Waves via the Expansion Card)

Card Out 1-8: AES A1-8

Card Out 9-16: AES A9-16

Card Out 17-24: AES A17-24

Card Out 25-32: Aux 1-6/Mon

Patch Points: AUX

Here we set the Aux Output to be Inserts. Do this for Aux Out 5 and Aux Out 6 so they can be used as inserts for the Left/Right Bus. Aux 1-4 will be used for the send/return effects busses to Waves but are not set up as inserts since they are sends and returns. They should be linked to the mixbus you want to send from. In my scene file I have Aux Out 1 set to Mixbus 9, Aux Out 2 set to Mixbus 10, Aux Out 3 set to Mixbus 11, and Aux Out 4 set to Mixbus 12.

Patch Points: User In

Here we set User Inputs 1-6. These are the returns for the busses and the Waves Effects sends.

Set them as follows:

Input 1 to Card 25

Input 2 to Card 26

Input 3 to Card 27

Input 4 to Card 28

Input 5 to Card 29

Input 6 to Card 30

User Input 7 + 8 are not used.

Main Left/Right Insert

Page to Home>Config for the Main Left/Right Bus and set the Insert to Aux 5/6. 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 24 mono racks that would be the channels 1-24, and 3 Stereo Racks – two for stereo effects send/returns and one stereo rack for the Main L/R bus insert.

Starting on Rack 1 I routed the racks like this:

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

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

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

Etc. all the way to:

Rack 25: X-WSG Stereo – Input 25+26 / Output 25+26

Rack 26: X-WSG Stereo – Input 27+28 / Output 27+28

Rack 27: X-WSG Stereo – Input 29+30 / Output 29+30

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. There is also a Waves SuperRack file included that matches the X32 scene file.

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.