Input Libraries should also store/recall bus assignments

[CameronProAudio]

I took deliver on my Avantis yesterday. When storing inputs to the library, I was disappointed to discover that only channel parameters are stored/recalled and not bus assignments. I typically use an Avid Venue desk, and the channel libraries (user presets) store all channel parameters including bus assignments/levels. It makes setting up shows on the fly very fast and has been a workflow I’ve used for over a decade. When I’m setting up say a drum kit, the Kick and snare are auto assigned to the stereo group I have, toms go to their own stereo group, etc. Same with guitars, keys, horns, vocals, etc. And basic monitor sends for the drum kit are already dialed into the drum fill. Loosing this ability with the Avantis is going to make dialing up shows a lot slower.

This feature seems like something you could implement and I suspect would be very valuable to a LOT of professional engineers that use this workflow on a daily basis. I’ll restate as mix person that’s used such a workflow for a long time, it feels like a real step backward moving to the Avantis – a desk architecture that’s about 15 years newer than the older Avid Venue series.

Thanks for your consideration.

[SteffenR]

It makes setting up shows on the fly very fast and has been a workflow I’ve used for over a decade.

If you trying to stay with your workflow then you have to use gear that supports your workflow.
Choose the right tool for your task…

The Avantis has differences in some points, so get used to that workflow is the best solution.
The libraries on A&H consoles contain only processing data no routing information,
always… at least at the moment.
But I believe if in the future the routing is getting saved in a library it will get it’s own library.

Some aspects on the Venues are very cool, indeed, but the A&H consoles are just different.

[Brian]

The Avantis has a “show” library and a “scene” library. I believe the buss configurations are saved at the show level. Try saving these “templates” as different show files and see if that works for you.

[SteffenR]

The Avantis has a “show” library and a “scene” library. I believe the buss configurations are saved at the show level.

that’s not what he/she asked for…

Imagine… the recall of a channel library preset would recall all information related to the channel,
including routing… no matter which channel is the target for this…
but it could be difficult to implement, since the routing possibilities differ with the bus configuration.

[CameronProAudio]

Avid has been doing it for 15 years and it’s quite effective. They too have variable bus configurations. I rarely change the bus configuration on my Venue desks, so I’m not sure what happens if you don’t have sub groups and auxes laid out like when a channel was saved. I suspect they just don’t get assigned when things don’t lineup which would make sense. In any case, it’s a feature I’m already missing. If Avid can do it with 15-year-old Windows motherboards and DSP, I suspect it would be a cakewalk for the processing in Avantis. It’s a matter of engineering hours I suspect and feature priority. This one is number one on my personal list.

[CameronProAudio]

If you trying to stay with your workflow then you have to use gear that supports your workflow.
Choose the right tool for your task…

Some aspects on the Venues are very cool, indeed, but the A&H consoles are just different.

I though this was a feature suggestion forum? I’m merely suggesting a feature which I find to be important. Admittedly I was surprised this feature wasn’t already there. But I suspect A&H wouldn’t have implemented a suggestions forum if they weren’t looking for this type of feedback. I still have the Venue desk and will use it as “the right tool for the task.” But I would like the Avantis to also be more of the “the right tool” since it is a blanks slate as far as programing goes and could have this functionality implemented.

[CameronProAudio]

Follow up: I programed my first 30+ input show last night for an upcoming event this weekend, so really got see how the workflow went. This band includes 2 full drum kits. plus bass, 2 guitars, stereo keys, 5 vocals. I have to be honest and say that getting everything setup with all bus assignments, effect sends, pads, phantom power enabled, etc. took a very long time compared to setting up on the Venue with it’s user channel presets. And this is after I created input libraries on Avantis for my commonly used input types and recalled those. In addition to not having the ability to save/recall bus assignments, the inability save/recall things like channel name, color, phantom power, pad, aux send to subs bus/DCA/mute group/subgroup, etc. is really a bummer. it’s a lot of extra button pushes and menus to clean things up after you’ve done the library recall.

On my Venue SC48, I can setup that same show in about 2 minutes because the channel preset recall contains all that information – channel name, sends, bus assignments, pans, phantom, pad, mute groups, etc. This makes the setup lightning fast. Doing the same thing on Avantis because so many channel parameters aren’t recallable, it took me well over a half hour to setup the same show (I do this particular event annually). Granted, I’ll get faster at the desk since I’m new to it, but it won’t be a huge difference since there are many physical changes to make for every recalled input to get them setup correctly.

The copy/paste function also doesn’t capture and recall all channel parameters. So if I setup one vocal channel and want the other vox channels to be identical in name, color, assignments, FX sends, etc., I’m not able to copy/paste all those parameters to other channels, same issue as libraries. With a digital desk like this, that should pretty standard stuff in my opinion – especially comparing against a 15 year old desk. I really hope you guys at A&H can work on this. I really want to like this desk. There’s a lot to like about it. But this issue is definitely hampering my workflow and slowing me way down. I suspect other engineers that use Venue & other desks (an extremely popular desk in N. America) would probably agree. Thanks again for your consideration.

[SteffenR]

You can copy the routings and assignments already… use the mix buttons together with the copy, paste and reset buttons

[CameronProAudio]

Indeed you can. But there should be an option to copy & paste the channel in it’s entirety. Instead, there are multiple steps to duplicate a channel and it’s assignments as opposed to one step.

As an aside, on one of the Facebook Avantis pages, another user indicated their audio hire company is not adopting Avantis at this time due to these workflow issues. So there must be other users out there with the same opinion an not purchasing these desks because of this.

Thanks.

[Frosty]

+1 – YES PLEASE! – Would be good if the routing was stored and recalled from the channel library (like most desks I know!)

[Brian]

Wow…. I did clearly misunderstand Cameron’s original post (I think I read too much into the title of the post)…. I agree that need to be added by A&H.

In the mean time, if you use Mixing Station (3rd party app – https://mixingstation.app/), you can save any/all channel settings, including routing, as a preset and recall it later. These are saved on the device you are using (not the console) however. Even if you don’t want to mix using the app, have features like this might make set up easier. Again, I realize and agree that this is something that should be added by Allen and Heath, but people might be interested in the work around.

Another often requested “preset” option is the ability to save buss/monitor mixes and recall them. This is helpful if you have several different musicians that change out from event to event. Having a preset for each musicians monitor mix is much better than building it from scratch each time. Mixing Station has this ‘preset” ability as well.

[CameronProAudio]

I made a video yesterday of how fast I can set up a show on an old Avid Venue. A&H product manager folks, if you have not ever worked on a Venue and used this feature, I highly suggest you rent one for a few days and see what a difference it makes and workflow to have this capability. https://youtu.be/orX6jssSk3Y?si=DK_0iGIKC_SHr2Vs

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