So on the bottom row of Total mix to the left I have HW outputs and on the right I have Control Room, this only has one fader named main, which seems to correspond to my headphones is this correct or should there be more in the control room ?

I notice that in some tutorials there are two faders in the control room ?

Guess you wouldn't have TotalMix FX, then you would have to route everything in the daw/application.
This has a major drawback, because then you have the full RTL (round trip latency) in each audio flow.

BTW, this behaviour you would get when changing TM FX operational mode to "DAW mode", then the middle row disappears.
But I can not recommend this, you loose a lot of flexibility.

Instead of this use the power of TM FX. Its very easy once you know the basic priciple of operation and then all is clear.

In submix mode you can create an individual submix for each of the HW outputs in two easy steps:

1. select a HW output e.g. "AN1/2" (bottom row)
2. observe faders positions of HW inputs (top row) and/or SW playbacks (middle row) to check current routing
3. move faders of HW inputs (top row) and/or SW playbacks (middle row) to modify the routing to your demands

After selecting the HW output AN1/2 in submix mode, you will see "AN1/2" at the bottom of each fader in top/middle row.
This indicates which HW outputs submix you are working on.
The level meters support you to see, which channels carry audio.

When inspecting a submix (for a selected HW output) you can press/toggle the little button "sub" on the right side under "Layout Presets", then you will see only those HW input + SW playback channels which route audio into the selected HW output/submix "AN1/2".

So in submix mode all routing settings/changes are related to a particular HW output / submix, hence te name submix mode.
This you need to know/learn, to see routing from a submix perspective "what do I want to hear on this output".
And this can be something from HW inputs (with near-zero latency) or audio from PC through the SW playback channels.

This way you can create very flexible submixes consisting of
- audio from HW inputs (top row) with near-zero latency and
- audio from PW/applications (middle row) with the typical RTL (round trip latency)

For a quick start in terms of routing you can use this combination of reset mix then you achive the same routing as if you would use DAW mode

1. TM FX -> Options -> Reset Mix -> Total Reset - 1st of all a total reset
2. TM FX -> Options -> Reset Mix -> Straight Playback (this is like DAW mode, route all in on PC with DAW/application)
    Then Audio from PC (middle row) is being routed to the corresponding HW output (bottom row), e.g.:
    SW playback AN1/2 -> HW output AN1/2
    SW playback AN3/4 -> HW output AN3/4

Should you prefer that everything is being routed to Main Out, then use:
2. TM FX -> Options -> Reset Mix -> Straight Playback with all to Main Out

Fuirther information here, this leads you to other valuable sources of information
- step by step setup primer which I wrote to achive a nice 1st time setup
- excellent RME TM FX tutorial videos that do not waste any time, simply good information
==> https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=34394

Assumed your main monitors are connected to HW output AN1/2
Configure a WDM device in RME driver settings for AN1/2 and select it as speaker device.
In windows sound settings you will see now this speaker device, make this to your Windows standard sound device.
Now all audio will be send to AN1/2 and in TotalMix FX you will see audio in SW playback AN1/2.

In cubase audio connections (F4), TAB "outputs", add a stereo channel and select AN3/4 as output.
You should save it as a preset as you most likely will need this also for any further project.
Best is to create a template with this settings.
In Cubase you need to use this output in your output routing, usually for your main stereo output.
I don't know your usual project organization, you might have channels which you send to different subgroups for drums, vocals, etc, which will have their output to another subgroup called maybe "mixbus".
There you can use mixing/mastering tools and the output of this mixbux might be finally "stereo out" which has finally an output routing to the defined output channel (-> F4 ...).
This audio you will see in TM FX under SW playback channel AN 3/4.

The rest is the standard TM FX routing, that every hw output has its individual submix/monitoring mix.
Select an output (bottom row) and the move e.g. faders of
- SW playback 1/2
- SW playback 3/4
to create the individual submix as you want/need to have, as I explained to you here:
https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 03#p188003

Please avoid to start different threads for the same thematic, thanks. Makes handling more easier, as everybody can see what has been told already to this topic to avoid redundancy as much as possible, as all explaining takes time.

There is no option for Phones 1 only Phones 3/4 ?

Gents .. if you klick to the ASSIGN button in the control room, then you see clearly predefined functions as
- Main Out
- Main Out B
- Phones 1
- Phones 2
..
- Phones 4
..
If you move the mouse to any of these predefined channels, you get another menue where you can select, which of the HW ouputs should be e.g. Main Out or Phones 1.

I find all this very confusing.

As you say if I click on the assign I get options but not exactly as you describe !

It would be helpful to have some guidance on what typical setups might look like.

For example, I have never had a control room setting before so I have no knowledge of what it should look like or contain

The middle faders are what you see in your DAW. Clicking on a bottom fader you then have to alter the middle faders for each bottom fader (physical out). So to be clear depending on which bottom fader you click on it will be a totally different middle fader mix.