Audio routing

The Router window patches any audio source to any audio destination: mixer strips and buses, audio device channels, network audio, recordings, streams and outputs. Patch and Matrix views, device setup, direct outs, AES67 and Link Audio endpoints, and ASIO on Windows.

The Router is a patch bay for every audio signal in Studio. Sources sit on the left: mixer strips, buses, the inputs of your audio devices and network audio you receive. Destinations sit on the right: device outputs, network audio you send, the room, outputs, the recording and the stream. A wire from one to the other sends that sound there.

Use it to send a direct out of each microphone to a multitrack recorder, feed a separate mix to an in-ear system, or take channels from an audio interface that is not your default microphone.

This audio Router is its own window. It is not the Router view of the Outputs window, which patches video.

The Router window on Mac in Patch view: source cards on the left, destination cards on the right, with wires between them — The Router in Patch view on macOS.

Open the Router

On the Master strip of the audio mixer, open the Mixer settings menu and choose Router.... The Router window opens beside Studio.

The toolbar switches between Patch and Matrix, and has Zoom out, Zoom in, Fit and Grid for Patch.

What you can patch

Group	Side	What it holds
Strips	Source	Each input strip of the mixer.
Buses	Source	Master, each bus, Headphones and Follow. Follow is an output's own source sound and patches only into Destinations.
Devices in	Source	The input channels of each audio device you enabled, as In 1, In 2 and so on.
Network in	Source	Network audio you receive. See Network audio.
Devices out	Destination	The output channels of System default and of each enabled device, as Out 1, Out 2 and so on.
Network out	Destination	Network audio you send.
Fanout	Destination	What the room hears.
Destinations	Destination	The sound of each output in the Outputs window.
Record	Destination	The sound of the recording.
Stream	Destination	The sound of the live stream.

A Fanout, Destinations, Record or Stream card takes one source at a time: patching a new source into it replaces the old one. Any other destination mixes every source wired into it.

Patch

Patch shows each source and destination as a card with its ports.

Make a wire: drag from a source port to a destination port.
Move a wire: drag one end of it to another port. The move is one undo step.
Remove a wire: select it and press Delete, or choose Disconnect in its menu.
Wire menu: right-click a wire for Mono, Stereo, Gain and Disconnect. Gain steps are +6, +3, 0, -3, -6, -12 and -24 dB.
Arrange: drag cards to move them. Fit shows every card and Grid snaps cards to a grid. Zoom runs from 0.3x to 2x.
Card positions: mixer cards keep their place in the show, so moving one is undoable. Device cards keep their place on this computer.

Matrix

Matrix shows the same routes as a grid. Each source is a row and each destination a column, grouped as in Patch. A filled cell is a route; hover a cell to see which source goes to which destination, such as "Program to Out 1". Click an empty cell to add that route, or a filled cell to remove it.

Audio devices

Settings > Audio > Routing lists your audio devices. For each device it has these rows:

Row	What it does
Device	The audio device.
Inputs	Which of the device's input channels Studio uses.
Outputs	Which of the device's output channels Studio uses.
Sample rate	The device's sample rate.
Buffer	The device's buffer size.
Clock master	Which device sets the clock.

Dante Virtual Soundcard, Dante Via, AVB and BlackHole show here as ordinary audio devices. Enable one to route its channels. A device offers as many channels as it reports.

If a device you enabled is unplugged, Studio says "{device} is not connected. Its routes come back when it returns." Studio opens up to eight audio devices at once; past that it names the devices it did not open. When another input already uses a device, Studio says "Another input already uses this audio device."

Direct out

A Direct out sends one strip straight to a device output. Pick a device port, or Off, then Pre fader or Post fader. Pre fader sends the strip before its fader, so a recorder gets it whatever the mix does. Post fader follows the fader. A direct out is an ordinary wire in the Router.

Network audio

Studio sends and receives audio over the network as network endpoints. An endpoint appears in the Router, in Network in (receive) or Network out (send). Add one with Add network endpoint.... Use Edit network endpoint... and Remove network endpoint on an existing one. On Windows, add endpoints from the Router's toolbar.

Field	What it does
Name	The endpoint's name.
Direction	Receive or Send.
Channels	How many channels the endpoint carries.
Engine	AES67 or Link Audio.

A new endpoint starts as Receive, 2 channels, AES67.

AES67

AES67 sends and receives up to 64 channels per endpoint.

Field	What it does	Default
Multicast address	The stream's address.	Empty
Port	1 to 65535.	5004
Encoding	24-bit (L24) or 16-bit (L16).	24-bit (L24)
Packet time	125 µs, 250 µs, 1 ms or 4 ms.	1 ms
PTP domain	0 to 127.	0
Source address	The sender's address.	Empty

Link Audio

Link Audio carries 1 or 2 channels per endpoint. Its one extra field is Peer channel, which picks a channel that a Link peer offers, for example "Bass (Live 12)". See Ableton Link.

ASIO

ASIO is for Windows only. On macOS, use the audio devices that macOS provides.

ASIO drivers appear as audio devices. Each pair of driver channels is a device named <driver> (ASIO) 1-2, with the channel numbers of the pair.

Studio opens one ASIO driver at a time. An input and the output on the same driver share that one open.
The driver must run at 48 kHz. If it does not, Studio shows "The ASIO driver does not run at 48 kHz. Set it to 48 kHz in its control panel, then pick it again."
If the driver does not open, Studio shows "ASIO Device Not Available" with "The ASIO driver could not be opened."

Control routing from outside

External Control can change routes too. Each action is one undo step.

Action	What it does
`studio.route_connect`	Adds a route. A Fanout, Destinations, Record or Stream card has its source replaced.
`studio.route_replace`	Makes the route the destination's only source.
`studio.route_move`	Moves a route to another source or destination.
`studio.route_disconnect`	Removes a route.
`studio.route_gain`	Sets a route's gain, up to +12 dB.
`studio.route_clear`	Removes every route into a destination.
`studio.net_add`, `studio.net_set`, `studio.net_remove`	Add, change and remove a network endpoint. A new endpoint gets the next id, `net:1`, `net:2` and so on; an id is never reused.

Plan

Routing Master, the monitor mix, the headphones mix or an output's own sound to Fanout, Destinations, Record, Stream or the system default output works on every plan. Every other route, network audio included, needs Studio audio processing and buses. See Plans and limits.

Windows and macOS

The Router, the audio settings and network audio use the same views, rows and wording on both platforms. ASIO is on Windows only.

Audio mixer

Strips, buses, processing and the Master strip.

Outputs

Record, stream and output destinations.

Plans and limits

What each plan includes.

Stage (Beta)

Stage (Beta) is a 3D previz window for Studio: import a venue model, place screens, projectors and cameras in the room, and see your outputs play live on them. Lighting, surface mapping, four views and camera look-through. On Mac and on Windows.

Scenes and Looks

Build picture-in-picture, side-by-side and floating-card layouts from your inputs with scenes, the Scene Editor, templates and hero looks.