Play­ing Back Audio From Pro Tools

This guide will explain how to play­back tracks recorded in Pro Tools through the mon­i­tors using Mix A on the SSL XL desk.

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Pro Tools:

1. In Pro Tools, check that the out­puts on the track cor­re­lates to the chan­nel num­ber on the XL desks e.g. out­put 1 from Pro Tools will come through on chan­nel 1.

2. On the Trans­port sec­tion of Pro Tools, press the ‘Play’ button.

3. The but­ton will turn green when Pro Tools is play­ing audio.

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Patch­ing from the MOTU to the SSL XL Desk:

1. On the ban­tam patch­bay, the out­puts from the audio inter­face are by default con­nected straight through to the DAW inputs on the desk i.e. out­put 1 is con­nected to the DAW input on chan­nel 1. There­fore no action is needed if this is suitable.

2. To route an out­put from the audio inter­face to a dif­fer­ent num­bered chan­nel on the desk, insert a ban­tam cable into the MOTU out­put socket to break the nor­malled con­nec­tion and route into whichever SSL DAW input num­ber (e.g. DAW input 9) to allow for the audio to appear on the cor­re­spond­ing chan­nel num­ber (Chan­nel 9).

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Set­ting the Chan­nel Input and Level on the Desk:

1. On the SSL XL Desk, find the chan­nels that the audio from Pro Tools is being sent to.

2. In the ‘TRIM’ sec­tion on the chan­nel strip, press the ‘DAW’ but­ton in. This changes the input of the chan­nel from mic/​line to DAW.

3. If the green LED on the bot­tom right of the ‘TRIM’ dial turns red, the audio on the chan­nel is clip­ping. Turn the ‘TRIM’ dial anti clock­wise to turn the audio down until the LED stays green and the chan­nel is no longer clipping.

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Rout­ing to Bus A:

1. Press in the ‘A’ but­ton above the fader on the cho­sen channel(s) to send the chan­nel to Mix Bus A.

2. Push up the fader on the chan­nel sent to Mix A.

3. Push up the ‘MIX A’ fader in the mas­ter­ing sec­tion on the right hand side of the desk.

4. The level going to Mix A can be mon­i­tored on the ‘MIX A’ bar­ graph in the meter­ing sec­tion on the top right of the desk.

5. Turn up the ‘MON­I­TOR LEVEL’ dial slowly to a safe lis­ten­ing level.