Behrninger PowerPlay with Pro Tools..

[firmflange]

I've looked all over the Internet, including Avid and Behringer forums, and strangely cannot find a step by step tutorial on how to set up the Behringer PowerPlay with Protools HD Native, using the 192's.

I have been successful by routing the optical outs' from a 192 to 16 channels within the Powerplay by using the sends'. Just wanted to know if anyone has this setup and their experiences with it.

[albee1952]

Once you have the optical connection working, you now need to decide how to feed signals, and what you want to feed. Given the optical connection is 8 channel, you have 8 paths per lightpipe, so you might do something like this:
1/2-stereo drums
3-bass
4-guitar 1
5-guitar 2
6-acoustic
7/8-keys
9/10-piano
11-vocal 1
12-vocal 2
.....
16-click
(13, 14 and 15 can be left open or fill them as needed for any given recording project). Of course, the above is just a suggestion based on how I like to arrange things, so adjust to fit your preferences.

Then open your IO setup and create output paths to the optical outputs(a stereo path for 1/2, 7/8 and 9/10, mono paths for the rest). Now you need to decide how to get these signals assigned. 1 way would be to add a send to each track to feed the appropriate output. There are other options, but this is how I would do it. Open up a full band session and add the routing and sends, then grab some headphones and start dialing up to get a good starting point with everything(put on the phones and experiment). Pay attention to overall levels so you get a good available level on each source(not too weak and not overloaded and distorting). Once you get things roughed in, save that session(without media) as a tracking template. Then, when you create a session FROM that template, routing, labeling and levels(to the PowerPlay system) are at a good starting point. If you have a band coming in to do more than 1 song, when the first song is ready to save/close, save THAT session(without media) as a template for that band

Then, label the PowerPlay mixers nicely(no masking tape and ugly magic markers) so players don't have to scratch their heads. The more you can do to make things idiot-proof, the happier the players will be(making players happy is job #1 for the engineer). You might even print out a nice "cheat sheet" on how to dial up a HP mix, copy and laminate, and hang these near each player for reference

There is one more decision you have to make and that's whether to use sends that are PRE or POST-fade. Each option has merit so I leave that to you. There is one warning to remember, if you feed reverb/delay to the phones(drummers and singers love to hear some ambience), try to avoid hitting SOLO buttons. Even with PRE-fade sends feeding the headphone system, hitting a SOLO button will likely cut effect sends, making the reverb in the phones suddenly disappear, and that can be distracting to players, especially if they are "in the zone".

[firmflange]

Thanks Dave, that is a great description, and much needed.

I did the setup pretty much the way you described, but what is your method of routing reverb to a channel of the Powerplay? I'm have trouble doing that, because i'll send reverb to a channel that im listening to on the PP, while the same channel on someone elses PP will have a different amount of reverb.

[albee1952]

I would probably just send the reverb in the same path as whatever its used with(drum reverb would go out via the drum mix path. Vocal reverb would go out via the vocal path, which maybe should be stereo). I actually do my headphone mixes in a much simpler fashion, with much less gear. I fed 6 stereo outputs thru 6 headphone amps(ART Headamp Pro 6) and I dialed in complete mixes for my players. The beauty of it was that my template session was so well-dialed, that I rarely spent more than 1 minute getting all players happy. Less versatile, but totally functional There's also probably another several ways to get the desired result so its really a matter of experimentation to find what suits your needs best

[firmflange]

Very creative Dave. I used to go that route with a Jamhub before i got the Powerplay.