Recording A Subgroup (Loopback) - RME Audio Multiface User Manual

30.5 Recording a Subgroup (Loopback)

TotalMix supports a routing of the subgroup outputs (=hardware outputs, bottom row) to the
recording software. Instead of the signal at the hardware input, the signal at the hardware out-
put is sent to the record software. This way, complete submixes can be recorded without an
external loopback cable. Also the playback of a software can be recorded by another software.
To activate this function, click on the white label in the third row while holding down the Ctrl-
key. The label's colour changes to red. In case the channel has already been part of a group,
the colour will change from yellow to orange, signalling that the group functionality is still active
for this channel.
In loopback mode, the signal at the hardware input of the corresponding channel is no longer
sent to the recording software, but still passed through to TotalMix*. Therefore TotalMix can be
used to route this input signal to any hardware output. Using the subgroup recording, the input
can still be recorded on a different channel.
* Note: Because of a technical limitation the input's level meter no longer shows the input signal of the hardware – which still
can be routed by TotalMix – but the loopback signal. This gives the false impression of the loopback signal being present at
the TotalMix mixer input, which is not the case.
As each of the 18 hardware outputs can be routed to the record software, and none of these
hardware inputs get lost, TotalMix offers an overall flexibility and performance not rivaled by
any other solution.
Additionally the risk of feedbacks, a basic problem of loopback methods, is highly reduced,
because the feedback can not happen within the mixer, but only when the audio software is
switched into monitoring mode. The block diagram shows how the software's input signal is
played back, and fed back from the hardware output to the software input. A software monitor-
ing on the subgroup record channels is only allowed as long as the monitoring is routed in both
software and TotalMix to a different channel than the active subgroup recording one.
User's Guide HDSP System Multiface © RME
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