The Local Inputs Mixer

Setting up the inputs mixer is straightforward:

1. Adjust the number of strips using the +/- buttons or the dropdown menu that appears when clicking on the "Inputs" title (up to 8 stereo strips available).
2. Click on the settings icon on the top right.
3. Select the input type (mono/stereo) by clicking on the circles icon.
4. Select the audio channels for this strip (see below).
5. Close the settings popup by ckicking on the blue cross at the top right, or the "AUDIO IN" title.

For every input channel strip, you can click on the strip title to enter its name.

About audio channels: When using the application, audio channels shown in the channels selectors (and the number of channels available) are set in the audio preferences of the application. For the plug-in, the first two audio channels are the main audio inputs, and channel 3 and 4 are usually the side chain input (when available).

The Network Mixer

Although similar, the LLAN Mixer that manages network connection has a few additional fields:

1. Adjust the number of strips (busses) using the +/- buttons or the dropdown menu that appears when clicking on the "LLAN Mixer" title (up to 8 stereo strips available).
2. The first strip is for your own local bus, managing the local mix. You can click on the title (initially set to "YOUR NAME") to set your name. This is important as this is the name that will identify you with other Fader Hub instances you will connect to. Reminder: effects, panning and level on this personal strip do not affect the signal sent to other instances. It is only for local monitoring (see the signal flow in the introduction).
3. Clicking on the other strips titles or on the network icon will open the network settings to setup the connections.
4. An additional area in the middle of each strip lets you monitor the network connection.
5. Click on the gear icon in your channel to manage additional settings for the local instance (you can set the quality of resampling used for all networks connections: if the senders and receivers are using different sample rates, the software will automatically resample incoming audio. You can adjust the quality of the resampling. Keep in mind that higher settings will consume more CPU, and the "Best" setting may also add a bit of latency.

Network Connection (In & Out)

By default the LLAN mixer busses are configured to send and receive audio thru the network. You can however change this to connect to other applications on the same machine by selecting the "Local Machine" mode:

This can be used for example to stream your local mix thru a third party application such as OBS or record the local mix in a DAW etc.

Send Settings

The first thing you may want to setup is how and where the software sends audio data to another instance, on the same machine or on another computer.

If the receiver runs on a different machine, enter the hostname (Windows only), or IP address of the destination machine on the network. The IP address can be found in the network settings of the destination computer for local network connections, and it is the public IP address of the receiver when connecting thru the internet (more on that later).

You should then select the port number the software should be sending to (which corresponds to a physical network port). You can select any number that is not used by another application on the destination machine (you may have to try several numbers until it connects).

When connecting thru the Internet, additional limitations on port numbers may apply (sometimes only ports above 16300 are available or even above 32000). You may want to check on the destination Internet router and firewall if such limitations apply.

Note: these settings must correspond to the IP address and port for the destination machine, see the receive options.

Advanced Send Settings

Once the connection is established, you may want to optimize the network traffic to get a more stable connection. That's what the advanced settings are for.

By default packet size is set to "auto": audio data is sent as they are received by the software. You may however want to set a fixed packet size (in samples) to optimize the connection: larger packets will use less CPU and bandwidth, and will result in more stable connection. It will however increase the latency.

Just make sure that the packet size is smaller than the buffer length used in the destination. It is also a good idea in general to make it at least the same size as the host application's buffer size.

When the connection is not very stable or you need to reduce the network traffic, you can use audio compression (it is not active be default and raw audio data is sent). Lossless compression will not affect the audio quality (audio data will remain the same, bit for bit), while lossy audio compression may be audible when set to lower quality settings.

Note: audio compression will be more efficient with larger packet sizes.

Reception Settings

You have setup the commuication channel to send audio from your machine to the other machine. It is now time to set it up the other way round, to receive from the other machine for this strip.

To accept connections, select the port the plug-in should be listening to (which corresponds to a physical network port). When working with another musician, that's the port you want him/her to use to send audio to you.

Advanced Reception Settings

By default buffering is set "none", which means the plug-in will not perform extra buffering, to minimize latency. It will however not work well when connecting thru a busy network with jitter, especially over the Internet. So you will have to manually setup the buffer (in samples).

The larger the buffer, the safer the connection, but the latency will get longer. You can visualize the status of the buffer with the meter in the network channel strip (see the network monitoring paragraph). When dropouts occur, increase the buffer length until dropouts count does not increase anymore.

If the sender and receiver are working on different machines or different audio interfaces that are not in sync, drifting may occur (sample rates are not exactly identical), resulting in dropouts in the long run.

UPnP Fwd: ""Universal Plug'n Play Port Forwarding", used when receiving from the Internet. See the paragraph below about Internet reception.

Optimization Tips

The reception buffer length should always be at least the same or larger than the sender packet size. using multiples of the audio buffer of the application is usually a good way to optimize the latency.

If source and destination are running on different machines or audio interfaces, it is strongly recommended to use drift compensation, even if the drift ratio seems to be minimal: clocks my vary over time, especially with temperature. When communicating over the Internet though, the drift caused by the network communication may be worse, and drift compensation might not work properly, so you may want to deactivate it if you see the drift meter going crazy. with large figures.

Receiving From the Internet

When receiving data from the Internet (WAN), the Internet router has to send the packets received on the specified port to your local machine ("Port Forwarding"). It can be configured manually (as explained in this tutorial), but if your Internet router supports the UPnP IGD (universal Plug'n Play Internet Gateway Device) protocol, Fader Hub can do it automatically for you:

• Make sure that the router supports UPnP and that it is enabled (some routers may have it disabled by default).
• Enable uPnP Fwd in the Fader Hub strip(s) expecting to receive data from the Internet.
• Wait for a few seconds until the public IP address of the Internet router is displayed (or an error message in case of failure).

The public IP address is the address to type in the sender instance used to send the audio data on the other side of the Internet.

When closing fader Hub, the port will automatically be closed.

In case of failure, you may want to try other port numbers (some routers limit the range of ports that can be forwarded), and check that UPnP is properly enabled on the router. There is usually a section on the router to check the list of ports that have been forwarded using the IPnP IGD protocol.

Note: UPnP is only available for the "Network" connection type.

Network Reception Monitoring

Each channel strip in the LLAN mixer displays some additional information to monitor the network connection:

1. The title of the strip either displays [NOT CONNECTED] if not receiving audio or the name of the sender (as set in the sender's name field in its own instance) when the connection is streaming audio. You can also hover the mouve over the title to see a tooltip showing both the send and receive status of the connection.
2. Drift is displayed in ppm (parts per million) and is non zero if the incoming audio stream is drifting. See teh drift compensation option in the receive settings.
3. Dropouts count: shows the number of audio reception dropouts. Click on the field to reset the count.
4. Buffer fill meter: shows how the receiving buffer is filled. The nominal value is 100% (center). If the meter goes left, the reception buffer is being emptied, if going right, it is being filled and may overflow when getting close to the maximum.

Fader Hub also reports an estimate of the network latency upon reception with the current connection. You can visualize it by hovering the mouse over the network icon in the strip network settings:

This latency is only the latency caused by the network connection. Global reception latency may be higher due to buffering in both fader Hub and the audio interface.

The maximum full latency for reception can be estimated by adding the network and buffering latencies. The actual latency may be shorter, by the length of an audio buffer used by the audio interface.

Audio Recording

Individual strips can record separate audio files. To do so, simply arm the strips for recording. When using the app, clicking on the record button in the status bar will trigger recording for all armed strips as well as for the master bus. When using the plug-in, armed strips will record when the host application is recording.

In both cases, click on the blue folder icon in tyhe status bar at the bottom to open up the folder with the recorded files.

Input strips vs. LLAN mixer strips: when armed, input strips will record audio post-FX (effects included), whereas LLAN Mixer strips will record audio pre-FX (no effects applied).

Workload Meter

The workload meter on the bottom right of the user interface gives an idea of the amount of cpu used by the plug-in to process audio frames:

It measures the realtime workload, which corresponds to the time spent processing an audio buffer compared to its duration. This value may be impacted by other tasks running on the system.

In general the average value gives a good idea of the cpu usage of the plug-in, while the peak value is an indication of potential audio dropouts (if larger than 100% for too long), that may be caused by overall system load (not just the plug-in's audio processing).

The workload meter becomes orange then red when the peak load grows. Hover the mouse on the meter to see numerical values in a tooltip.

Browsing Presets

In order to browse both factory and user presets, you can either use the simple presets menu or open the full featured presets browser from the toolbar that remains visible until you close it:

Click on preset files and folders to open them, or use the arrows to navigate between displayed presets. You can navigate upward in the folders tree by clicking on the current folder at the top. Type in the search box to find presets by name (it also searches in folder names). The search is performed recursively in the currently selected folder (displayed at the top).

Search Tips: you can search for multiple terms by separating them with commas. Wildcards are also supported (with * and ? characters), but they are applied to the full path of the preset. For example, to search for all presets containing the word "phase", type *phase* in the search box. To look for these presets only in the factory presets, you can type Factory Presets/*phase*.

Using Built-in effects or VST, VST3 and Audio Unit Plug-Ins

Note: before inserting VST plug-ins, it is strongly recommended that you setup your main VST plug-ins directory in the preferences pane, as detailed later in this manual (this setting does not affect VST3 plug-ins).

Warning: in a 64-bit application you can only load 64-bit plug-ins, and in a 32-bit application you can only load 32-bit plug-ins, unless your are using a third party bridging application.

Each plug-in slot lets you insert a plug-in. When clicking on an empty slot, the following menu appears:

The "Select" item is enabled if you have previously saved plug-ins as favorites using the "save as" command described below. It lets you choose a favorite plug-in directly from the menu, instead of having to load it from the file system.

Selecting "Load VST" will open a standard system window where you can select the VST plug-in you want to load. If the preferences have been properly set, the window should open the appropriate location where you can find the VST plug-ins.

Selecting "Load VST3" will open a standard system window where you can select the VST3 plug-in to be loaded.

On Mac, an additional "Load AU" menu item is available to load Audio Units. It opens a file open dialog in the standard location for Audio Units on your system. Note: if you want to load the system Audio Units provided by Apple, you will need to open the CoreAudio component located in the /System/Library directory (/System/Library/Components/CoreAudio.Component).

You can also choose to paste an existing VST, VST3 or AU plug-in if previously copied into the system clipboard from another slot. When using the "Paste with Map" command, if the plug-in in the source slot had mapped parameters, these parameters will be added to the map until no more assignable parameters are available.

Once a plug-in has been loaded into a slot, a mouse click will display the following plug-in menu that offers various controls over the plug-in:

• Show (Hide) Editor: display or hide the plug-in's user interface.
• Bypass: toggle bypass for the plug-in.
• Presets: access the plug-in's factory presets if any, and load/save presets files in the plug-in's native format (fxb/fxp, vstpreset or aupreset).
• Cut: copy the plug-in and its settings into the system clipboard and remove it from the slot.
• Copy: copy the plug-in and its settings into the system clipboard. Onced copied, it can be pasted to any other slot, in any instance of the plug-in (even in a different application).
• Save As: save the plug-in in the slot and its settings as a favorite. Favorites are saved in the plug-in documents folder and can be organized using folders to appear later in sub menus.
• Center Editor: bring back the editor of the plug-in to the center of the screen, in case you cannot find it.
• Select: select a plug-in and its settings from the favorites list.
• Load VST: load another VST plug-in in the slot (will replace the existing plug-in if any).
• Load VST3: load another VST3 plug-in in the slot (will replace the existing plug-in if any).
• Load AU (Mac only): load another Audio Unit plug-in in the slot (will replace the existing plug-in if any).
• Paste: paste a plug-in and its settings from the system clipboard into the slot.
• Paste with Map: paste a plug-in, its settings and mapped parameters from the system clipboard into the slot. Parameters are re-mapped in order, until no more assignable parameter is available.
• Remove Plug-in: remove the plug-in from the slot.
• Params Map: lists the plug-in's parameters that can be mapped for automation, and lets you assign them to external controls (see the next paragraph).
• MIDI In: select the MIDI port(s) this plug-in is receiving data from (see below).
• MIDI Out: select the MIDI port(s) this plug-in is sending MIDI data to (see below).
• Audio I/O: opens the audio i/o routing window for this plug-in (see below).
• Oversampling: select oversampling ratio and quality for the plug-in (see below).
• Rename: rename the instance of the plug-in. Setting an empty name reverts back to the plug-in's default name.
• Set Color: open the system color dialog to select the color for the plug-in slot.
• Track Undo: toggle undo tracking for the slot. If enabled, inserted plug-ins changes will be inspected and added to the plug-in/app undo history when possible. Please note that some plug-ins may not work properly when this feature is enabled. It is also recommended to disable this feature when controlling a plug-in with MIDI events generators such as Blue Cat's DP Meter Pro or Remote Control.

Once a plug-in has been loaded into a slot, the following buttons are available:

Clicking on the power button on the left will bypass/unbypass the plug-in in the slot. The button on the right can be used to show/hide the plug-in's editor.

Missing Plug-Ins

In some cases, it may happen that you are working on a workstation that does not have all plug-ins that were previously loaded into your session. In this case, Fader Hub will display a "Missing Plug-in" message on corresponding slots. You can still continue working on your session: Fader Hub will retain the state of the missing plug-ins as if they were here. The session can be saved later: the data for missing plug-ins will be saved as well, and the session can be restored later without losing data.

For VST and VST3 plug-ins, if the plug-in is missing because of a path issue (the plug-in is located in another directory, or the 64-bit version has a different name from the 32-bit version...), you can choose to relocate the plug-in:

This lets you find the plug-in on your workstation and re-link to it. The state of the plug-in that was previously saved in the preset or the session will be restored, making sure all data is kept.

Note: the plug-in chosen with the relocate function has to be compatible with the plug-in that was originally loaded in this slot. Relocation will fail otherwise.

Mapping Parameters (One To One Quick Mapping)

The "Params Map" item in the plug-in menu lets you map sub plug-in parameters so that they can be automated or controlled with an external control surface. It also lets you view existing mapping for this plug-in if any:

• Map All Params: assign all parameters of this plug-in to remaining controls (in the same order as exposed by the plug-in). The maximum number of parameters that can be mapped is 40.
• Learn Mode (on/off): when learn mode is on, touching a control in your plug-in's user interface will automatically add it to the parameters map (if the plug-in supports it). Once you are done with parameters assignment, you may want to disable learn mode to avoid mapping unwanted parameters.
• Reset All Assignments: removes all assigned parameters from the params map, for this plug-in. This frees all controls used by previously assigned parameters (for this plug-in only).
• All parameters available for assignment are then displayed in the menu. Clicking on a parameter toggles mapping on or off. When a parameter is mapped, the name of the external control (as displayed in the host application) appears next to it, inside parentheses.

Parameters Mapping works the following way: 40 parameters are available for mapping in Blue Cat's Fader Hub. They are named "Control 01" to "Control 40". When a sub plug-in parameter is selected for mapping, the first control available within Blue Cat's Fader Hub is used. Once mapped, the sub plug-in parameter and this control are linked together, so that any change to either of them is reported to the other.

This enables the sub-plug-in to expose its parameters to the outside of the Fader Hub plug-in. You can for example use these external controls for automation, MIDI control , control surface assignment etc. in your DAW.

If assigned controls are shown in Blue Cat's Fader Hub ("Show Assigned Controls" button), new knobs will appear when new parameters are mapped, until the maximum number of 40 controls is reached.

It is possible to choose the style of the knobs using the menu, and set the name of each control by clicking on it:

These custom names should be displayed in the host application in place of "Control 01, Control 02..." if it supports it.

Macro Controls: The Parameters Map Editor

It is possible to access more advanced options for parameters mapping and create macro controls assigned to multiple parameters from multiple plug-ins by launching the Params Map Editor:

The Map Editor is displayed in a separate window that you can re-size at your convenience:

Available controls are displayed on the left (you can add or remove them with the icons on at the top), and when a control is selected you can see the parameters that have been assigned in the pane on the right.

Assignments can either be created manually (using the "Add" icon and then selecting the plug-in and parameter in the menus), or automatically with the learn button at the top right of the pane. When this assignment learn function is engaged, clicking or moving a knob of a plug-in should add the corresponding parameter to the list. Do not forget to disengage it when you are done or unwanted parameters might be added when touching the plug-ins later!

It is also possible to learn parameters individually using the learn button on the left of each line.

Once parameters have been added, their range can be adjusted using the knobs on the right (or by double clicking on the value). To reverse the range, simply invert the min and max values (using a min value that is larger than the max value).

You can also change the name of the controls by double clicking on them in the list displayed in the left pane.

It is also possible to change the order / add parameters by dragging and dropping items in the left column (it works between different instances too).

Internal MIDI Routing

Blue Cat's Fader Hub lets you build your own MIDI connections between inserted plug-ins and the host application. Each slot can be connected to multiple ports to receive and send MIDI events:

• Host: this port connects to the host application to send (MIDI Out) and receive (MIDI In) events. By default, all slots have their MIDI input connected to the Host.
• Port A to Port P: these are virtual ports that can be used to connect sub plug-ins together.

For the MIDI input of a plug-in you can additionaly choose to filter events by channel so that it receives all events for one or several selected channels only. If you just want the plug-in to receive all events without any filter, choose "All Channels" for the selected port.

Using virtual internal ports is simple: connect the output of a plug-in to a port, and the input of another plug-in to the same port. The two plug-ins will then be able to exchange MIDI data (from sender to receiver). Multiple plug-ins can be connected to the same port (as input or output). MIDI events will be gathered from MIDI Outs and redistributed to to all connected MIDI Ins.

However, there is a limitation in which plug-ins can be connected together:

• It is not possible to create feedback loops.
• only a plug-in that processes audio data before another can send MIDI data to this plug-in. It means that a plug-in can receive MIDI data from plug-ins that are located earlier in the audio processing chain only. If the plug-in is located in a different strip, it can also receive MIDI data from plug-ins that are located in the strips before it (on its left).

These limitations ensure causality and perfect synchronization of MIDI data exchanged between plug-ins, without latency.

Note: when connecting a plug-in to control its parameters via MIDI, you may want to disable undo tracking on this plug-in, to avoid that to many undo steps are recorded by Blue Cat's Fader Hub and reduce CPU usage.

Audio I/O Routing

Using the "Audio I/O" command in the plug-in menu, it is possible to manually change which audio channels are processed by each plug-in.

Automatic Selection

By default, Blue Cat's Fader Hub will automatically detect the number of channels to use for each plug-in depending on its own configuration: effect plug-ins will process only the main audio channels and leave side chain channels unaffected.

About mono plug-ins: in automatic mode, mono plug-ins will process only the first audio channel, and the wet mono output will be copied to all channels of the main bus (aux and side chain unaffected). If you want to only apply the plug-in to one of the incoming audio channels instead, you can use the manual configuration.

Manual Selection

Automatic detection may however not work properly for some plug-ins, and you may want to change which channels the effect applies to (for multi-mono effects, or to process aux channels for example). That's what the audio I/O window is for:

By default, audio i/o selection is automatic

When selecting a specific number of inputs and/or outputs instead of using "automatic", you can choose which channels are connected to each i/o for this particular plug-in:

manual audio i/o configuration

Notes:

• if the same channel is selected for multiple outputs, only the last selected plug-in output will be audible (plug-in outputs are not summed).
• By default, all channels that are not used as outputs by the plug-in remain unchanged (copied from the same channels before the plug-in). For example, on a stereo configuration, if a mono plug-in is set to process only channel 1 and use channel 1 as output, channel 2 will remain unaffected. Select "mute unused audio channels" to mute these unprocessed channels instead.

Auto vs Manual

In automatic mode, Blue Cat's Fader Hub will automatically choose the best configuration according to its own audio layout. This is very useful if you are saving your plug-in chains to reuse them with different audio i/o configurations.

In manual mode, the number of inputs and outputs of the selected plug-in is selected and will not change. It means that you may not be able to use this particular configuration later with another number of audio channels.

Oversampling

It is possible to have a plug-in process audio (and MIDI) at higher samplerates. You can select the oversampling ratio and resampling quality with the oversampling menu:

Oversampling can be useful for plug-ins doing non-linear processing (distortion, compression...) which do not have built-in oversampling capabilities and cause artefacts (aliasing). It may also benefit EQs (you can get smoother curves in the upper frequencies).

Oversampling may however result in other types of artefacts and will require more CPU to process the same amount of data. With high quality resampling, additional latency may also apply.

Warning: please note that some third party plug-ins may not support higher sample rates. Save your work before trying this feature on new plug-ins!

Note: The oversampling settings are saved when using the "Save As..." command to save the plug-in as a favorite.

The Preferences Pane

In the preferences pane, you can set the default VST plug-ins path by clicking on it or on the button labelled "...". This VST plug-ins directory is used for several purposes:

• It is the default directory that is opened when you want to load a VST plug-in.
• It is used as the root path when saving/loading presets that include VST effects: the path of VST plug-ins is saved relatively to this root path, so that you can reopen your sessions on different machines that may have different VST paths (typically on a Mac and a PC).

If you happen to have your VST plug-ins installed in several paths, we advise you to choose the VST path that contains most of your plug-ins. You can then use the "User VST plug-ins directory" to define an extra location for plug-ins. This extra path will be used by Fader Hub as an alternative root path to load and save the plug-ins.

Please note that these paths are used for VST2 plug-ins only - they do not affect the location of VST3 plug-ins.

If the "Restore plug-ins editors on open" option is checked (default), when Fader Hub is opened, inserted plug-ins user interfaces will be restored at the same position as when the Fader Hub plug-in was last closed. If the option is unchecked, all plug-ins user interfaces will be kept closed when re-opening the Fader Hub plug-in, and their position on screen will not be saved.

When the "plug-ins editors always on top" option is checked, the windows of the hosted plug-ins will be kept on top of all other windows. It can be useful when you want to make sure the hosted plug-ins remain visible all the time. Also, if you are using Cubase on Windows, you may want to check this option to fix the erratic behavior of Cubase's own "always on top" option.

Drag and drop support

The user interface supports drag and drop to manipulate plug-ins easily:

• drag and drop plug-ins between slots (copy or move).
• hold the alt key on Mac and Ctrl key on windows to copy (duplicate) a plug-in instead of moving it.
• drop the plug-in before another to insert it in the chain
• drag and drop plug-ins between several instances of the software or accross plug-ins (compatible with Axiom, Late Replies, PatchWork and MB-7 Mixer)
• drag and drop .dll, .vst, .vst3, or .component files directly from the Finder or Explorer onto plug-in slots.
• drag and drop .plgnfo files (previously saved from the software) directly from the Finder or Explorer onto plug-in slots.

The various elements of the user interface (knobs, sliders, buttons...) are simple and intuitive to operate, but more information about how to interact with them is available in the "Plug-ins Basics" chapter of this manual.

Operation

Network Requirements

Although Fader Hub does not require specific network features, it streams audio in real time, at pretty low latencies, which cannot be achieved on all networks.

Wired Network

Wifi or PLC networks are usually too slow (and have way to much jitter) to achieve low-latency audio streaming, so use high bandwidth wired networks such as Ethernet instead (gigabit Ethernet is preferred). Please note that this is not a question of bitrate (some wireless or PLC networks do have very large bandwidths), but a matter of latency and jitter (the variations of latency over time).

Internet Connection

For remote connections, high speed Internet via optic fiber is recommended. Wireless connections will not work at all, and it is likely that DSL will cause too many dropouts too.

Firewalls

When using the plug-in to transmit or receive audio data over a network, you may have to enable the selected ports in your firewall. Local transmission between applications usually do not require to open any port on the firewall.

Even better: disable your firewalls and network filters if you can (especially on the receiving machine) as they may induce some additional processing and latency.

Typical Applications

With so many features, Fader Hub can be used for a wide range of applications. Here are a few examples of how this unique tool can be used.

Live Audio Mixer & Recorder

Fader Hub can work without any network connection as a live mixer with multitrack recording capabilities. Connnect up to 8 stereo instruments to the audio inputs of your audio interface, add audio effects with built-in or third party plug-ins, and the band is ready to go!

Using virtual instruments? You can get even more channels using unconnected LLAN Mixer strips as hosts for virtual instrument plug-ins (these extra individual strips are although not available for recording).

Multi Mixer & Recorder

This approach can be extended further with multiple machines and/or multiples instances of the Fader Hub app on a single machine. Each instance can create a sub-mix that is sent locally or via the network to a master Fader Hub mixer, resulting in a much larger number of channels.

With this approach it is also possible to have multiple people handle sub-mixes (for example the drum kit, all keyboards etc.). You can also use multiple audio interfaces and computers together, benefiting from extra processing power and audio inputs that you would not be able to get on a single machine.

On a local network you can achieve very low latencies (just a few milliseconds). To minimize the latency, it is recommended to use the same sample rate and audio buffer sizes on all machines/audio interfaces when possible.

Personal Headphone Mixing System

It is not uncommon these days to see bands on stage or in the studio with a laptop for almost every single musician, helping them managing virtual instruments, samples, audio effects, or chord charts and lyrics: software is everywhere! With Fader Hub and a simple Ethernet connection, these laptops can become personal mixers for musicians, managing their own sound with plug-ins, and their own mix for in-ear monitoring (IEM). No need for extra specific and costly hardware. That's the purpose of Fader Hub's peer-to-peer connection approach.

Additionally, the sound engineer can receive all audio streams on his own machine to mix and record the performance, while communicating with the musicians straight into their monitors thanks to the Fader Hub connection.

Playing With Other Musicians Online

Optic fiber networks are now fast and reliable enough to provide musicians with low latencies connections over long distances. Fader Hub can be used to play online with other musicians and record the performance.

You can even have both local and remote musicians play altogether, performing remotely with only a few band members who could not make it to the rehearsal or recording session.

For such remote sessions, it is recommended to use a microphone on an extra input strip to be able to talk to other musicians thru the low latency connection: if you are connected through a video conferencing system such as Facetime, Zoom or Skype, there is so much latency for audio that your voice will not be in sync with your instrument. Once connected thru Fader Hub's low latency audio network with your microphone you should disable sound in your video conferencing system. Audio quality will also be much better!

Note: because the speed of the audio signal thru the internet is limited by the speed of light in optic fiber, latency will increase with distance.

Thanks to uPnp port forwarding support, the connection between remote locations should be easy (UPnP has to be enabled on the Internet router).

Remote Recording

Most music is now produced remotely, transfering sessions back and forth via the Internet.

But what if you could record musicians remotely, straight into your recording sessions with your own plug-ins, hearing the performance in real time, and providing feedback between takes?

This is made possible with Fader Hub, either as a plug-in straight inside your DAW with a complete session, or as an application, playing a backing track with the file player plug-in.

As there is no real-time requirement here, you can increase the receiving buffer size to make sure the connection remains stable and you can capture the entire performance without any dropout and quality loss.

Live Stream Mixer

With it built-in inter-app connectivity, Fader Hub is also a fantastic tool to manage your audio mixes for live streams: you can mix several signals/instruments from your audio interface, and send the mix to another application such as OBS, that does the audio and video streaming.

Of course extra network audio sources can be added as well!

These are just a few examples. As you can see, Fader Hub is a flexible tool that combines audio and network audio in a simple way. It is up to you to adapt it to your own workflow and other audio tools.

Using The Plug-in

Fader Hub is not only an application but also a plug-in. The plug-in can do pretty much the same as the application, except that it has to be loaded in a third party application (or inside itself...), and it provides 4 stereo audio inputs (2 main inputs and 2 side chain inputs when available).

It can thus be used in a similar way as the application, right inside your favorite DAW. But it can also be useful for other purposes as you will see below.

Multi mono processing

It is sometimes handy to process the left and right signal of a stereo pair separately with different plug-ins. This can be easily done with fader Hub using two input strips and panning the two signals accordingly:

Virtual Instruments Layering

You can use virtual instruments on individual channel strips, add effects and mix them together. Although not a virtual instrument itself, Fader Hub has a MIDI input, so you can control all the instruments from your DAW and get the resulting sound of the plug-in.

Tip: make sure to enable multicore processing when using several instruments: they will be processed on separate processor cores when available, greatly improving performance.

Adding More Remote Connections

If you find Fader Hub's 8 networks connections may be a limitation, don't worry: you can actually get as many as you want! Fader Hub is indeed available as a built-in plug-in (in the "Utils" category). Just insert another instance of Fader Hub on your "Self" LLAN mixer strip and get 8 more connections instantly!

You can repeat the operation inside the new instance if you need even more...

Connector Compatibility

Fader Hub is fully compatible with Blue Cat's Connector, so you can easily stream from and to Fader Hub or Connector at your convenience.

Connector can also be loaded as a plug-in inside Fader Hub if you need more advanced audio & MIDI routing or send the output of the master bus to another application.

Remote Connection Tips

Connecting remotely thru the Internet might require a few optimizations, especially if the machines to connect are far away. Here are a few tips to get the best experience out of Fader Hub.

A Simple Scenario

To make it simple, let's say you want to play with a single remote musician. If she/he is not too far away (typically less than a few thousands kilometers) and both of you have a fiber Internet connection, it should work fine, wit not too much latency.

1. It is easier to sync up if connected first by instant messaging, and even better with video and audio (a phone call works too), especially if it is your first time.
2. Launch Fader Hub on both sides and connect your instrument(s) and microphone(s). Setup audio effects and you own local mix. You can save the configuration as a preset by the way.
3. Set your name in the self-mix bus (click on the title called "YOUR NAME"). You are now ready to connect.
4. Add a network strip in the LLAN Mixer (if not already there), and click on the network icon (or the [NOT CONNECTED] title).
5. Activate reception ("RCV"), choose a port number, and activate UPnP Forwarding. If successful, it will display your public IP address. Give this IP address and port to the remote musician. In case of error, you may want to try other ports numbers, and check that UPnP is active on your Internet router (some routers also have range limitations for port numbers). manual configuration is also possible, as explained in this tutorial.
6. Now activate Send, and setup the port number and IP address as given by the other musician from its RCV configuration.
7. You should now both see each other's name (probably flickering with [NOT CONNECTED]) at the top of the network strip and maybe hear some sounds from each other. if not, you may want to check your firewall and verify port bumbers and IP addresses. You can also have an estimate of the connection's latency by hivering the moue over the "Network" icon.
8. To stop flickering, increase the buffer size in the RCV section until the connection gets stable. This will increase latency but avoid audio drop outs caused by jitter (note that you may still get occasional audio dropouts at this stage).
9. When conditions are not optimal, you may have to increase the packet size in SEND, and also experiment with audio compression. Both will reduce the amount and frequency of data sent over the Internet. When the connection is really stable, you can then decrease the RCV buffer length to reduce the latency.

Enjoy! You can save the entire configuration as a preset (or just the network connection) so that you can connect instantly next time (public IP address may however change).

Typical Values

Optimal buffering and packet size may vary a lot depending on your audio setup and internet connection. Here are a few values that seemed to work pretty well for us (sample rate at 44.1 kHz):

Packet size: 256 (up to 512 for very long distance).

Compression: "Lossless" for short distances, down to "Lossy HD" or "Lossy" for lower quality connections.

Buffering: from 256 in very good conditions up to 2048 or more for very long distances.

Drift Comp: active most of the time, but when the connection is really bad, sometimes disabling it helps.

And that's it for the moment. You can check our blog for more examples and tutorials!