TraxDeck

Audio Routing

Stem Director's routing engine lets you send any stem to any output independently. A typical production has multiple destinations — front-of-house, IEM mixes for each musician, a recording feed, and a monitor wedge — each needing a different balance.

Concepts

Stems

A stem is a single audio file in a track (e.g. Click.wav, Keys_L.wav, Pads.wav). Each stem has its own fader, mute button, and routing assignment.

Outputs

An output is a physical channel on your audio interface. Stem Director maps directly to your interface's channels — if your interface has 16 outputs, you have 16 routing destinations.

Mixes

A mix is a named collection of stem-to-output assignments with associated levels. You can create one mix per musician (or group) and save it per track.

The Routing Panel

Open the Routing panel with the toolbar icon or by pressing R.

The panel shows:

  • Left column: all stems in the current track
  • Top row: output channels (named by you)
  • Grid cells: routing points — click to add a send, drag the level dot to set the send level

Each cell can be in one of three states:

  • Off: no signal sent to this output
  • On (full): stem sent at 0 dB to this output
  • On (custom): stem sent at a specific level (shown as a number in the cell)

Naming outputs

Click any output column header to rename it. Use descriptive names matching your stage setup:

FOH L | FOH R | MD IEM L | MD IEM R | Drums IEM | Keys IEM | Recording L | Recording R

Output names are saved in the show file and persist across sessions.

Creating a monitor mix

To build a drummer's IEM mix:

  1. In the routing grid, find the Click stem row and the Drums IEM column
  2. Click the cell to activate the send — the drummer hears click
  3. Find the Bass row and activate it in the Drums IEM column
  4. Optionally right-click the cell and set a custom level if you want bass slightly lower than click

Repeat for each stem the drummer needs. The drummer hears exactly what you've assigned — nothing more, nothing less.

Per-track mix snapshots

By default, routing changes affect all tracks globally. To save a different mix per track:

  1. Select the track in the set list
  2. Open the Routing panel
  3. Click Save as Track Snapshot

Now changes made while this track is active only affect this track. The mix automatically loads when the track loads.

This is useful for:

  • Acoustic songs that need a different stem balance
  • Songs with no click where the drummer needs a cue tone instead
  • Tracks where the keys player wants more of a specific stem

Live routing adjustments

You can change routing levels during playback without interrupting audio. Changes take effect within one audio buffer (typically < 10 ms). This is safe to do on stage — there is no dropout or click.

Keyboard shortcuts during playback:

| Action | Shortcut | |---|---| | Mute focused stem | M | | Solo focused stem | S | | Increase focused stem level | ↑ | | Decrease focused stem level | ↓ |

Example: 8-output production setup

Outputs:
  1: FOH L
  2: FOH R
  3: MD / Keys IEM L
  4: MD / Keys IEM R
  5: Drummer IEM (mono)
  6: Vocalist IEM (mono)
  7: Stage monitor (wedge, mono)
  8: Recording / desk feed (mono, pre-fader)

Routing:
  Click    → Outputs 3, 4, 5, 6       (IEMs only, not FOH)
  Keys L   → Outputs 1, 3
  Keys R   → Outputs 2, 4
  Pads     → Outputs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5   (everywhere except recording)
  Bass     → Outputs 1, 2, 5, 8
  FX       → Outputs 1, 2

Latency compensation

If your audio interface or routing introduces delay on specific outputs, you can compensate per output:

  1. Open Preferences → Audio
  2. Click Output Latency Compensation
  3. Enter the delay in milliseconds or samples for each output

This is useful when mixing signals from Stem Director with live sources routed through a digital console — you can align the playback timing precisely.