Connect Your Console to the SoundGrid Network

Before starting the application, connect your console to your SoundGrid network. It’s useful to make a chart of the connections, so that when you assign Racks to specific aux or insert channels, you won’t need to look behind your console.

MultiRack SoundGrid signal flow to and from your console is similar to what you’re used to with external hardware processors: Some connections will be from aux sends on your console, with returns on faders; others will be from channel inserts. You may also choose to connect via a patch bay or router.

Setting the SG Driver for DAW Recording and Playback

• Open the SG Driver Control Panel.
• Set the Driver Mode to ‘Networked’.
• Under Local LAN port, choose the correct Gigabit adapter.
• Click the Driver button to turn it on.

Setting MultiRack Preferences

• Open the MultiRack application.
• Using the Edit menu, access MultiRack Preferences.
• Under Local LAN port, choose the correct Gigabit adapter.

Setting Devices in SoundGrid Inventory

• Using the Edit Menu, access the SoundGrid Inventory.
• SoundGrid Inventory will list all available devices.
• Under the Assign column, assign IDs to your I/O devices.
• Under the Name column, name your I/O for easy identification.
• For DAW recording or playback, choose the desired channel count for SG Driver under channel column
• Under the Assign column, assign IDs to the servers.

Routing Audio (SoundGrid Connections)

• Using the Edit Menu, access the SoundGrid Connection.
• Double click to add a connection.
• Send I/O card 1 to MultiRack processing channels 1-16
• Send I/O card 2 to MultiRack processing channels 17-32
• Return MultiRack processing channels 1-16 to I/O card 1
• Return MultiRack processing channels 17-32 to I/O card 2
• Send I/O card 1 to DAW recording channels 1-16
• Send I/O card 2 to DAW recording channels 17-32
• Make sure all created connections are turned on.
• Click Apply, then Save.

Add Racks and Set Signal Flow

A Rack is a chain of plugins used to process audio signals, whether mono, stereo, or mono-to-stereo. With hardware, signals flow from a console’s channel insert or aux track, are processed with outboard gear, and then return to the console. MultiRack SoundGrid follows the same principle, except that processing takes place in virtual Racks filled with software plugins instead of hardware racks.

The first step in building a MultiRack SoundGrid processing setup is to create empty Racks, into which you load plugins. Set the input and output channels for the Racks you’ve created.

Add Plugins for Sound Processing

Once you’ve created Racks and assigned their I/O channels, it’s time to add plugins to each Rack. Each Rack can hold up to eight plugins, and the signal always flows from left-to-right. You can always rearrange the plugin order by clicking and dragging.

Using Sidechain

• Load a Sidechain-controllable plugin, which will be marked “SC”.
• From the Sidechain input menu, choose Key.
• Right click on the plugin and choose Enable Side Chain from the dropdown menu.
• The plugin's Bypass button will turn yellow.
• On certain Sidechain plugins you will need to enable External Key.

Create Snapshots for Easy Recall

Snapshots are used to save settings for songs and sections within songs. A Snapshot is sort of a “super preset,” a picture of all of the Racks in your Session. Snapshots are contained and saved as part of your Session file. A single Session file can contain up to 1000 Snapshots.