• Registered: 2017-12-26
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Topic: Routing Software Channels to Main Out (w/o repsecting Mirror)?

Is there a way to route software playback channels to the Main output without it also feeding channels that are mirrored to it? Something like Phone Cue but instead of replacing the Main out mix it would add the channel to the Main mix, excluding any mirrored outputs.

There are some situations where I want a metronome style feed to my master output without feeding into  "audience" submix outputs which otherwise need to follow the Main output mix.

There are ways I can do this with external hardware, but I'm curious about options within TotalMix.

  • bsfreq
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Re: Routing Software Channels to Main Out (w/o repsecting Mirror)?

Well.. if you’ve got unused outs and ins on your interface, then you could use a physical loopback cable. (adat, madi, aes, spdif, or whatever)

Mirror your mix to an extra submix/output without the ”metronome style feed”, connect a cable from that hardware out to a harware input on your interface and use another submix to mix this beforehand mirrored, then looped back signal now with your metronome feed and assign/ route to wherever you want to hear it.

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3 Reply by explodingPSYCH (edited by explodingPSYCH 2023-06-16 02:29:49)

  • Registered: 2017-12-26
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Re: Routing Software Channels to Main Out (w/o repsecting Mirror)?

bsfreq wrote:

Well.. if you’ve got unused outs and ins on your interface, then you could use a physical loopback cable. (adat, madi, aes, spdif, or whatever)

Mirror your mix to an extra submix/output without the ”metronome style feed”, connect a cable from that hardware out to a harware input on your interface and use another submix to mix this beforehand mirrored, then looped back signal now with your metronome feed and assign/ route to wherever you want to hear it.

Do you mean like this:

Main mix (without "metro") > ADAT output
ADAT output > adat cable loopback
ADAT input + "metro" > Main output
Streaming output (that doesn't want "metro") mirrored from ADAT output?

I think that'd work... I'll try it out. Would this work skipping the physical loopback and just using TM's loopback function? Or does  audio going into inputs from loopback not feed into the Main Outputs?

4 Reply by bsfreq (edited by bsfreq 2023-06-16 06:38:40)

  • bsfreq
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Re: Routing Software Channels to Main Out (w/o repsecting Mirror)?

explodingPSYCH wrote:

Do you mean like this:

Main mix (without "metro") > ADAT output
ADAT output > adat cable loopback
ADAT input + "metro" > Main output
Streaming output (that doesn't want "metro") mirrored from ADAT output?

Exactly

explodingPSYCH wrote:

I think that'd work... I'll try it out. Would this work skipping the physical loopback and just using TM's loopback function? Or does  audio going into inputs from loopback not feed into the Main Outputs?

TMFX’s loopback won’t work if you want to route using TMFX alone. The loopback feature only replaces the looped back signal on the driver side i.e. to daw. It doesn’t loop the signal back to TMFX/ hardware input.
You could have course use your daw to reroute the looped signal back to TMFX and use a software playback channel for the same thing as ADAT input in my example. However this introduces latency according to your buffer settings and will of course be affected by daw crashes etc, so it will be more prone to problems.

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  • waedi
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Re: Routing Software Channels to Main Out (w/o repsecting Mirror)?

If you just copy the main-out instead of mirror, then add the metronome ?

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  • bsfreq
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Re: Routing Software Channels to Main Out (w/o repsecting Mirror)?

waedi wrote:

If you just copy the main-out instead of mirror, then add the metronome ?

Of course then the mix will be static and doesn't mirror the adjustments of the other submix..

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  • Registered: 2017-12-26
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Re: Routing Software Channels to Main Out (w/o repsecting Mirror)?

bsfreq wrote:
waedi wrote:

If you just copy the main-out instead of mirror, then add the metronome ?

Of course then the mix will be static and doesn't mirror the adjustments of the other submix..

Exactly this! Want to keep the mix updated, just ignore the "metro" tracks. Going to test the ADAT loopback ASAP and see if it isn't too awkward.

  • Registered: 2025-08-22
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Re: Routing Software Channels to Main Out (w/o repsecting Mirror)?

Following up on this - is it in theory technically possible to have the Loopback-returned signal available again inside TotalMix for further routing (i.e. sent onward to another submix), rather than only being passed through to the DAW?

I understand the current behavior is by design to prevent feedback loops, but I'm wondering:
Is this purely a software-level safety restriction, or are there real latency/signal-processing reasons (DSP load, sync issues, etc.) why the looped-back signal genuinely can't re-enter the routing matrix?

If it's just feedback prevention, would it be possible to add this as an optional setting (off by default, with maybe a warning), for users who explicitly want to route a Loopback return onward and can manage the feedback risk themselves?
Currently working around it with a physical/converter-level loop instead, but it would be nice to have this natively in TotalMix without needing spare I/O for it.

9 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2026-09-07 10:40:24)

  • ramses
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Re: Routing Software Channels to Main Out (w/o repsecting Mirror)?

The loopback signal can only be recorded as this input but not routed further.
Only the original signal can be routed further to other outputs where you can use loopback again to record it.

                          (A)
                   Analog Signal
                            |
                            |
HW Input           AN1/2................... (B) loopback recording of HW Ouput AN1/2 (DAW)
                            |
                            +----------------------------------------+
                            +---------------+                               |
                            |                     |                                |
HW Output         AN1/2             AN3/4                        AN5/6
                         (Loopb            (A) Analog Signal        (A) Analog Signal
                          activate)         routed to this output   routed to this output
                            (B)

BR Ramses - HDSPe MADI FX, M-1620 Pro D, 12Mic, UFX III, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, Nuendo 15, Win10 IoT Ent