CONSOLE 1 POWER-USER TIPS

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Piers Bates
5 years ago
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1 CONSOLE 1 POWER-USER TIPS 1

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3 Contents 4 1. Grouping tracks 2. Saving presets Deeper DAW Integration Using UAD Plug-ins 5. History Function (Undo/Redo) Solo Safe 7. Sidechaining 3

4 1 Grouping Tracks 4

T here s very little in mixing that s more frustrating than having to repeat yourself, adding the same simple processing manually, track after track.

5 T here s very little in mixing that s more frustrating than having to repeat yourself, adding the same simple processing manually, track after track. Even if you can copy/paste settings, it can waste good time and kill a creative feeling when you re working on big sessions with high track counts. Or start your mix by grouping all your tracks but kick and bass, and bring in a low cut to instantly free up some low-end space and energy. In seconds you can achieve unglamorous but essential results, which might take significant portions of your day working with plug-ins and a mouse, or with a regular large-format analog console. Far better to use Console 1 s group tracks function. Press and hold Group, and select all your drums/percussion tracks for example. Now apply your room-busting EQ curve, or your groove-gluing drive setting, to all the tracks at once, whether you ve got two of them, or twenty-two. Then using all the time you ve saved, ungroup and fine-tune to your heart s content. In seconds you can achieve essential results, which might take significant portions of your day working with plug-ins and a mouse, or with a regular largeformat analog console. 5

6 2Saving Presets 6

C onsole 1 is a perfect hybrid of hardware and software, giving the feel and workflow of a real desk, while retaining the convenience of working with software.

Hold Shift and press Save Preset and you can store the settings of an entire channelstrip, or any of its individual parts (gate, EQ, compressor etc.

7 C onsole 1 is a perfect hybrid of hardware and software, giving the feel and workflow of a real desk, while retaining the convenience of working with software. This is perhaps most apparent when it comes to recalls and presets. Hold Shift and press Save Preset and you can store the settings of an entire channelstrip, or any of its individual parts (gate, EQ, compressor etc.) for instant recall later, on other tracks, or even on a different mix in a different studio on a different day. Hold Shift and press Save Preset and you can store the settings of an entire channelstrip, or any of its individual parts for instant recall later. Let s say you re mixing a live orchestra, recorded in a big beautiful room, and you ve got the perfect combination of settings on your master bus an EQ curve which perfectly tames the brightness while adding body, and a transparent but presence-enhancing compression setup, with just the right amount of desk drive bringing everything to life. Save that strip, and at the touch of a button recall it across the whole album, even if only as a starting point to tweak knobs from. And then if you ever mix another project recorded in that same room, come back to the settings you know do the job. Because when you ve done some great work, you should make all the use of it you can! 7

8 3 Deeper DAW Integration 8

T he core mixing functionality of Console 1 works great in any major DAW just insert the Console 1 plug-in on every track you want to work with, then open the On-Screen Display and mix with your

The system automatically follows track name and number, so if you rearrange your session Console 1 keeps up with no further work for you.

9 T he core mixing functionality of Console 1 works great in any major DAW just insert the Console 1 plug-in on every track you want to work with, then open the On-Screen Display and mix with your hands and your ears. But in certain DAWs (for a full list, click here and go to the Console 1 page on our website) the advantages go even deeper. The system automatically follows track name and number, so if you rearrange your session Console 1 keeps up with no further work for you. Add hands on control of functions in the DAW itself, such as volume, pan, send levels, and more, and Console 1 becomes the no-question center of your flow. You can very quickly set up a static mix, balancing levels and pan positions, without ever touching a mouse, your head and ears constantly in the sweet spot between the speakers. Less frustration, less fatigue, better mixes. Add hands on control of functions in the DAW itself, such as volume, pan, send levels, and more, and Console 1 becomes the no-question center of your fl ow. 9

10 4 Using UAD Plug-ins 10

Simply hold Shift and press Comp to bring up a menu of your compatible UAD and Softube compressors. There are more than 70 plug-ins pre-mapped and ready to go.

11 Simply hold Shift and press Comp to bring up a menu of your compatible UAD and Softube compressors. There are more than 70 plug-ins pre-mapped and ready to go. I f you re a real connoisseur of quality, no doubt you already own a few Softube or Universal Audio plug-ins. More than 70 of these top-notch processors are premapped and ready to go in the Console 1 system. So let s say you are loving everything about the included Solid State Logic SL 4000 E-Series console emulation for your snare drum, except the compressor section, which is a little too smooth or dry or something for the particular sound you re going for. You want an 1176-style compressor, is the point, for that track and that track alone. Simply hold Shift and press Comp to bring up a menu of your compatible UAD and Softube compressors. Cycle through the list with the volume knob, and press ok to select the compressor you want. Congratulations. You ve used Console 1 s extended functionality to start building your own modular desk to perfectly suit that specific mix. And don t forget, you can save your new Franken-strips as presets if they re especially great. 11

12 5 History Function (Undo/Redo) 12

13 S omething that s always been tough to navigate and enjoy when using plug-ins is returning to previous states or undoing mistakes. Because we re running so many different pieces of software from different developers, within a host application from another developer entirely, it s nigh-on impossible to develop standards and priorities for this kind of thing. So it s generally not an option. With Console 1 s history function, though, it s easy. Maybe you ve tried a crazy idea, and hearing it now, you re not sure it was wise after all. Hey, it happens! Better to try things out than to never grow, right? But you want to get back to your previous, tried-and-tested safe state as quickly as possible. You need only press and hold Shift, then hit the History button, to bring up a list of undo steps. Cycle back through them with the volume knob, and press ok to jump back in time. Now if only we could invent a Future function, right? You d have a perfect mix almost before you started. You need only press and hold Shift, then hit the History button, to bring up a list of undo steps. Cycle back through them with the volume knob, and press ok to jump back in time. 13

14 6 Solo and Solo Safe 14

If you want to do a global solo/ mute, just select all ( shift + ALL ), and press solo/mute once for on, and twice for off. S ome tracks are individual instrument tracks. Some are groups and auxes.

Your stereo-out, for example, is solo safe so that it doesn t get muted like all the other tracks when you solo your tambourine, for example.

15 If you want to do a global solo/ mute, just select all ( shift + ALL ), and press solo/mute once for on, and twice for off. S ome tracks are individual instrument tracks. Some are groups and auxes. Your DAW knows which is which, and has a lot of wiring hidden behind the scenes to make sure they behave in the way you d expect them to. Your stereo-out, for example, is solo safe so that it doesn t get muted like all the other tracks when you solo your tambourine, for example. Set up the same wiring in your Console 1 mix by applying the solo safe function to buses and groups in the relevant instances of the Console 1 plug-in. This way you ll keep your hands-on hardware workflow as simple and intuitive as possible, and never have a strange silent surprise. And better still, in the more deeply integrated DAWs, this happens automatically. If you want to do a global solo/mute (or un-solo/un-mute), just select all ( shift + ALL ), and press solo/mute once for on, and twice for off. 15

16 7 Sidechaining 16

17 A nother fabulous feature you can access in the clickable Console 1 plug-in interface is sidechain linking. Bring a percussion track in to key the gate on your synth pads for a pulsating rhythmic effect, or duck your bass using your main kick drum. Just tell the plug-in which input you d like your sidechain to listen for, as you would in any other plug-in in your DAW of choice. Then open the Console 1 On-Screen Display and use the External Sidechain button in the top right-hand corner of the hardware to send that sidechain input to either the shape section or the compressor. Use the External Sidechain button in the top right-hand corner of the hardware to send that sidechain input to either the shape section or the compressor. Again, you can now take intuitive hands-on control of a huge and creative array of possibilities the entire ethos of Console 1! 17

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19 CONSOLE 1 SOUND. WORKFLOW. CONTROL. Learn more at softube.com or try it now at your local dealer. 19

20 20 softube.com

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