Routing (Alt+2)

Where every sound goes, and how loud. Four pages: Output mixes, Fader assignment, Levels and Master Mix.

• Output mixes: Every output (your headphones, USB to a computer, Chat to callers, the Bluetooth send to a phone) has its own mix, so changing what a caller hears does not change what you hear. Main Mix is everything. Mix Minus is everything except the output's own source. Custom lets you choose each source by hand.
• Why Mix Minus matters: A caller's voice comes into the desk on their own channel. Send them the full mix and they hear themselves a moment late, which is hard to talk over, so Mix Minus leaves them out of what they hear. To build one yourself, use Custom and untick the source marked "back into itself", which is useful with a second computer on USB 2.
• Mix presets: Save the output mixes under a name and put them back in one press. Each preset's name ends with what it touches: "(every output)" rewrites every mix, while "(Chat only)" changes just that one and is safe mid-show. Three are built in: Everything normal; Chat = my mic only, which keeps your screen reader out of a co-host's ears; and Chat back to normal.
• Reset all output mixes: Puts every output back to normal. If muting a channel no longer silences it in your headphones, a headphone output has been left on Custom, and this is the fix. It wipes your custom mixes, so save a preset first.
• Fader assignment: Choose the channel on each fader, physical or virtual, mic faders included. Picking a channel that is already on another fader swaps the two, and each channel's processing moves with it. Stereo linked inputs joins a pair of mics into one stereo channel on one fader; unlinking puts the second mic back.
• Levels: The levels with no physical fader: the virtual faders, with their mute and solo, and the monitor speakers. On the desk itself, the virtual faders are turned with the encoder, the dial on the desk. If the encoder stops changing them, a channel button has taken it over; press that button again to give it back.
• Output mutes and auto-mute: These silence an output, not a channel, so your mixes, the recording and your streams carry on. The Bluetooth output is what a phone hears from you; the Bluetooth channel, on Channels, is what you hear from the phone. Auto-mute silences the speakers, or the Bluetooth send, while a mic is live, so the mic does not pick them up and howl. Leave both on if you use speakers or take calls.
• Monitor mix levels: How loud each source is in one output, without changing the others or the recording. For example, turn your own mic down in your headphones only.
• Headphones: The amp type for each headphone output. High sensitivity is for quiet headphones and can be loud. On a Pro 2, only headphones 1 and 2 can be set.
• USB audio: On the Master Mix page. What this computer receives is either one mixed pair, or every channel separately so a program can record them apart; Send the separate tracks raw leaves the desk's processing off those, for processing later. What this computer sends is either one stereo input, or Expanded: four separate inputs, Game, Music, A and B, each on a fader of its own. Changing either drops the desk's audio for a few seconds, your screen reader included if it speaks through the desk.
• Using Expanded: Put music, a call, a game and your screen reader on separate faders, so you can duck the music under a guest, or keep your screen reader out of a caller's ears and out of the recording. It needs RODE's Virtual Devices driver, which the page can download and install for you after checking it is signed by RODE. While that driver is installed, the RODECaster ASIO driver stops working. Each input only appears in Windows while it is on a fader, so assign them on Fader assignment first, then choose one for each program in Windows Settings, System, Sound, Volume mixer. Going back to Standard takes them off their faders.
• Master output processing: Also on Master Mix, and it affects everyone. The Compellor evens out and glues together the whole mix, and output delay holds the outputs back by up to two seconds to line audio up with video.