Channel Overview

Audio I/O

Within the scope of a SoundDesk channel, audio flows from top to bottom. The A and B drop-down menus on top configure the input and the bottom ones the output destination for that channel.

Input options: Off (no audio in), Bus options (receive from an I/O bus) or one of the available interface input options. See Audio Setup.

Output options: Master (send audio to the Master Section), Bus options (send to an I/O bus) or one of the available interface output options. See Audio Setup.

Note: SoundDesk channels have a stereo output by default, but if we set output A and B to point to the same Bus or device output, SoundDesk will automatically convert the stereo signal into mono (except for the Master option).

I/O Bus options: The I/O Buses can be used to route audio from a channel output to the input of another. They can be useful for sub-mixing or to send a channel output to a plugin side chain input.

Note: I/O bus receivers can send to other I/O buses, but only once per path, a sequential I/O bus will not be capable to send to yet another I/O bus. I/O bus senders and receivers can always send to Aux receivers, but Aux receivers can not use the I/O bus options to either receive or send.

Autofill: I/O options can use the autofill function by pressing the Alt/Option key while selecting.

Input section

The input section, at the very top, includes a text box with a channel default name/type designation, followed by a user-assignable text box.

If a MIDI controller capable of displaying names is connected to SoundDesk via MIDI Desk Control, the user-assignable text will be delivered to it, when undefined SoundDesk will use the default name instead.

The A and B input drop-down menus, respectively, set the Left and Right input options for stereo channels.

Mono channels only have one assignable input (A).

MIDI Instrument channels do not have any audio input options, instead, they will present MIDI Device and Routing options.

I/O

Input and Output MIDI devices.

[P] Pass-through

MIDI pass-through options, allow selected MIDI messages to be routed directly from the input device to the output device. This feature can be used for MIDI split and routing.

options:

- SysEx Pass-through

- Active Channels Pass-through

- Unactive Channels Pass-through

[C] Channels

List of active/unactive MIDI channels.

Note: Use the Shift key to add more than one channel.

Utilities

Each channel in SoundDesk includes a utilities view.

The user can use this section to configure the channel type: Stereo, Mono, MIDI Instrument or Auxiliary Receiver and colour assign.

It also includes Input Gain control, a signal generator (Sine, Square, Triangle, Sawtooth Up, Sawtooth Down Waves, Pink Noise and White Noise), a DC removal filter and a delay unit (in samples).

Aux Receivers

When a channel is set to be an Aux receiver, it retains all other audio I/O options with the exception of I/O buses. An Aux receiver will add all Aux senders to the default input if active.

Note: If we do not need the default input, we simply set the input drop-down menus to Off.

MIDI Instrument

In the Utilities section we can configure a channel as a MIDI Instrument, this will remove all audio input options and expose a MIDI device/routing selectors. MIDI messages from the selected device will be redirected to all capable plugins on that channel.

Note: To use MIDI to control the actual desk, please see MIDI and Desk Setup.

Inserts

There are 8 available inserts on each channel.

Press the plugin name to open the insert window. To insert a new plugin click on the arrows next to the name and select one of the available options.

Drag-and-drop the insert to move it to another box, or drag-and-drop while pressing the alt key to copy (including settings).

⌘+Click to toggle the bypass option on and off.

ctrl+Click (right click) to see options and when available configure the Side Chain input.

Side Chain Input

If a plugin has Side Chain support, the plugin menu will allow de user to select an input to be directed to it. Currently, all types of channels can be used for side chain with the exception of MIDI instruments.

Side chain buses are taken at the input stage of a channel, post signal generator but pre-all other channel processing. To use the output stage of a channel, we need to send it to an I/O bus first and set a new channel as the receiver, the created channel can then be used for side chain.

Note: This also means that if we set the side chain option to the channel where the plugin lives, the signal is pre any plugins that are placed above it.

Aux Send

The "Aux Send" view gives access to the auxiliary send options. Aux Sends, can either be pre or post-fader, pan, mute, solo and phase invert (for A-B pairs). When the channel is set to Stereo, the A-B pair represents the Left and Right channels as with the other I/O options.

Link: this option will link the A-B pair controls.

Also See: SoundDesk Aux Setup.