User Manual

Chapter 6: I/O Setup 81
Factory I/O Settings
Pro Tools provides factory I/O settings for stereo
and surround mixing, and are automatically in-
stalled with Pro Tools. These settings provide new
sessions with generic path and sub-paths for either
mixing format.
Factory I/O settings are available in the I/O Set-
tings pop-up menu in the Dashboard.
Stereo Mix Settings
This Stereo Mix setting creates the maximum
number of stereo paths, as determined by the avail-
able system’s I/O Setup and hardware configura-
tion.
Surround Mix Settings
(Pro Tools | Ultimate Software Only)
The Surround Mix setting provides additional, sur-
round-specific Output and Bus settings files.
Downmix and Upmix Output
Busses to Outputs
(Pro Tools | Ultimate Software Only)
Pro Tools lets you “downmix” session output
buses to physical output paths with channel for-
mats of a lesser width. For example, you can listen
to a 5.1 mix on a stereo system without modifying
the actual session routing.
Narrower formats automatically map to wider ones
with one-to-one matching connections (for exam-
ple, L to L, R to R, and so on). In cases where cer-
tain channels do not match (such as mono to stereo
Left and Right, or LCRS to 5.1), Pro Tools lets you
upmix by distributing the mismatched channels of
an output bus channel to more than one physical
output channel. For example, Pro Tools let you up-
mix a mono output bus to both channels of a stereo
output path, or the Surround path from an LCRS
source to the Left Surround and Right Surround
paths of a 5.1 output.
To assign downmix or upmix Output bus paths:
1 Open the I/O Setup (Setup > I/O).
2 Select the Bus page (I/O Setup > Bus).
3 Click the Mapping to Output column on the row
for the Output bus that you want to remap to a
lower or higher channel format (from the avail-
able Output paths).
4 Click OK to save your changes and close I/O
Setup.
Using the “Stereo Mix” settings file has
the same effect as clicking Default for ev-
ery individual tab in I/O Settings. See
“Restoring Default Paths and Path
Names” on page 71.
See Chapter 52, “Pro Tools Setup for
Surround.”
It is not recommended that you mix while
monitoring the session through a downmixed
or unmixed Output path. Uses downmixed or
upmixed monitoring for editing and other
non-mixing tasks.
Selecting a stereo Output path for a 5.1 Output Bus
Selecting a 5.1 Output path for an LCRS Output Bus