WASAPI Multiple Stereo Hardware Outs, Track vs Bus Solo Issue

[Tez]

My 5.1 system has 3 hardware outs 1/2, 3/4 and 5/6. As a test of the soloing issue I created a test project with 2 audio tracks and a single master bus as follows:

Audio Track 1: output 1/2, 1 send 3/4 and 1 send 5/6.

Audio Track 2: output Master Bus.

Master Bus: output 1/2, 1 send 3/4 and 1 send 5/6.

 

Soloing Audio Track 1 the console view shows all 3 hardware outs active: expected result.

Soloing the Master Bus the console view only shows the output target, hardware out 1/2 active:  unexpected result.

 

Further if Audio Track 1 and  the master bus are soloed, and despite the fact that Audio Track 1 independently targets all 3 hardware outs, once again the console view only shows hardware out 1/2 active when playing Audio Track 1.

 

This appears to be a bus soloing bug related to multiple hardware outs...

Edited February 13, 2021 by Tez

[scook]

Are you using a surround bus as a master or a stereo bus?

[Tez]

33 minutes ago, scook said:

Are you using a surround bus as a master or a stereo bus?

Stereo bus...

[scook]

I don't work in 5.1 but doesn't it make sense to use the bus designed for the format?

[Tez]

Frankly I dunno... I'll take a look & see if it makes a difference, but FYI 1/2 = Front L & R, 3/4 = Center (L) & Sub woofer (R) and 5/6 = Rear L & R. So, console view allows specific control of each speaker...  

[Tez]

5 hours ago, scook said:

doesn't it make sense

Well for me it doesn't... I configured and checked out the surround bus as a master. A track or a bus targeting the master gets a surround panner, and that's flaky, the speaker mute and LFE solo don't  work. The panner algorithms for distributing surround channel  signals might be fine if you're designing a surround mix, but this is in contrast to the  hardware out levels in the console view which can also be adjusted. I'm only interested in a stereo render, and a stereo master with output & sends defined for the hardware outs is a better fit sound-wise, for the stereo bounce I'm after. It's a whole lot less fiddling around and more precise just managing the basic output levels in the console.  Yes it's possible to route everything to a pre-master bus or Aux track that targets a surround bus, eliminate the solo issue and only have a single panner to deal with, but the sound is not ideal...

Edited February 14, 2021 by Tez

[Glenn Stanton]

hmmm. it is strange. if i use a surround bus in 5.1 (with a stereo track feeding it), and route each channel to a separate physical IO channel (FLCR, Sub, RLR = channel 1-6 on my UMC1820) and it works as expected (i can pan it around a set of 6 speakers, for me to use my dedicated 5.1 cinema system, i have to encode it since it needs a Dolby (or equiv) stream).

presumably you could use a stereo track and sends to go directly - you set it up for main out to ch 1-2, c and sub to 3-4, and rear to ch 5-6 - i do this in my UMC1820 and it is different than a surround buss because there is no surround panner - i have to balance it via the main and send levels to position it.  i set up a stereo bus like a track - however - sending a track to this buss, there is no surround panner available (same as the track, no surround panner).

[Tez]

Hey @Glenn Stanton,  the stereo bus with the output & sends defined for the hardware outs works fine except when soloed,  as mentioned. There's a known issue with routing with patch point/aux tracks in Track Templates, that I previously ran into, which in my case involved hardware outs, and this was just more glitchy routing behavior I wanted to draw attention to.  The actual bus I use Ive dubbed "Audio" the real master sends to this as the final output so, I don't need to solo it.  The same thing occurs if it's an aux track instead of a bus, set up the same way with an out & 2 sends and is soloed.  A workaround is simple, 3 buses - Master, M1 & M2 as follows:

Master: output 1/2, 1 send M1 and 1 send M2,  M1: output3/4, and  M2: output 5/6 and simply group the solo buttons... Voilà

But as I said I don't need it, and a surround bus definitely doesn't serve my purpose, not to mention the additional resources it could potentially consume. 

Edited February 15, 2021 by Tez