9.5

Synchronization
Activating VST System Link
Hearing the network audio
If you are using an external mixing desk, hearing your audio really is not an issue – just plug the
outputs of each computer into the desired channels on the external mixing desk, start playback
on one of the computers, and you are good to go.
However, many people prefer to mix internally inside the computer and just use a desk for
monitoring (or maybe not use any external mixer at all). In this case you will need to select one
computer to be your “main mix computer” and send the audio from your other computers into
this.
In the following example, we assume you are using 2 computers, with computer 1 as your main
mix computer and computer 2 running 2 additional stereo audio tracks, an FX channel track with
a reverb plug-in and a VST instrument plug-in with stereo outputs.
PROCEDURE
1. Set things up so that you can listen to the audio playback from computer 1.
In other words, you need an unused set of outputs, e. g. an analog stereo output,
connected to your monitoring equipment.
2. On computer 2, route each of the 2 audio tracks to a separate output bus.
These should be busses connected to the digital outputs – let’s call them Bus 1 and 2.
3. Route the FX channel track to another VST System Link bus (Bus 3).
4. Route the VST instrument channel to yet another bus (Bus 4).
5. Go back to computer 1 and check the corresponding 4 VST System Link input busses.
If you start playback on computer 2, the audio should “appear” on the input busses on
computer 1. However, to mix these audio sources you need actual mixer channels.
6. Add 4 new stereo audio tracks on computer 1 and route these to the output bus you use
for listening, e. g. to the analog stereo outputs.
7. For each of the audio tracks, select one of the 4 input busses.
Now, each computer 2 bus is routed to a separate audio channel on computer 1.
8. Activate monitoring for the 4 tracks.
RESULT
If you now start playback, the audio from computer 2 will be sent “live” to the new tracks on
computer 1, allowing you to hear them together with any tracks you play back on computer 1.
Adding more tracks
What if you have more audio tracks than you have VST System Link busses (physical outputs)?
Then you just use the computer 2 mixer as a submixer: Route several audio channels to the same
output bus and adjust the output bus level if needed.
NOTE
If your audio cards have multiple sets of input and output connections, you can link up multiple
ADAT cables and send audio via any of the busses on any of the cables.
Internal mixing and latency
One problem with mixing inside the computer is the latency issue we mentioned earlier. The VST
engine always compensates for record latencies, but if you are monitoring through computer 1
you will hear a processing delay while you listen to signals coming from your other computers
(not on your recording!). If your audio card in computer 1 supports ASIO Direct Monitoring you
should definitely turn this on. You can find the setting on the VST Audio System device panel for
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