Getting started

Wifi and login

• Network: Verizon_S7TNCL  /  Password: call5stub4bib
• Computer user: Very Friendly Studios  /  Password: vfstudiosdeanstreet

Powering up, in order

• Start by turning on the Furman in the left floor rack, which powers the console, all the outboard on the top and bottom of the left side (most of the preamps), and the desk lamp
• Next turn on all three Furmans in the right floor rack: top, middle, bottom
• Finally flip on the Barefoots and Mixcubes from the switches on the back of each. Always turn the monitors on last.

Powering down is the same process in reverse. Always turn the monitors off first.

Your DAW

Pro Tools, Logic, and Ableton are all on the house machine. Set your I/O to the Orion.

Getting sound out

Everything reaches the speakers the same way. The console sums to Main 1, a stereo bus wired out to Barefoot L and R.

MIX and EXT are the source selectors in the Control Room Monitor section.

• MIX listens to the console's mix bus. EXT listens to the DAW's stereo bus straight off the Orion, skipping the desk.
• If you are monitoring through MIX, make sure the channels you are using for your mixbus are hard panned left and right.

A, M1, and M2 are the monitor options. A is connected to the Barefoots, M1 to the Mixcubes. Nothing is connected to M2.

Orion LINE OUT 1-24 are normalled to console Input A channels 1-24, same numbers. Your DAW's stereo bus on DAW OUT 1-2 comes out LINE OUT 1-2 and lands on channels 1-2 unless you set it differently.

Mixing in the box: set your DAW or system audio output to the Orion, press EXT.

Mixing on the desk: set DAW output to the Orion, open your session, press DIR / I/P 2 in the input section to switch the desk to Input A, and confirm the green lights. Now your tracks are summing to the console's stereo mixbus, and that is hitting the monitors.

No sound?

Nine times out of ten it's the Orion routing.

• Open the Routing tab. Sources across the top, destinations across the bottom. Drag a source onto a destination to route it.
• Colors identify source type, so all DAW channels share one color and all line inputs share another. If you're curious what input is feeding an output, find the corresponding color and number, or click on the output to highlight the input.
• Is DAW OUT 1-2 routed to LINE OUT 1-2? That's the default, and it feeds the console.
• Is the right source selected, MIX for console or EXT for DAW?
• On MIX, are channels 1 and 2 on Input A with their faders up?
• Is the clock on Internal, and does the Orion's rate match your session?

Using the Orion

The Orion is the hub of the room. Every mic that reaches the DAW and every track that comes back out passes through it, so understanding the routing matrix is most of understanding the studio.

Start with a preset

We keep saved presets for the common setups: Tracking (Logic), Tracking (Pro Tools), Tracking (Ableton). Load the one matching your DAW and the routing is already correct, including EXT monitoring. That's the fastest way to get working, and it means you only need the rest of this section when you want to leave the default.

The basics

• Open Antelope Launcher, wait for it to find the Orion 32+ Gen 4, then open orion32_gen4
• The Routing tab is the main view. Sources run across the top, destinations across the bottom.
• Drag a source block onto a destination to route it. Colors identify source type, so all your DAW channels share one colour and all the line inputs share another.
• To find where a signal is going, click the destination and it highlights the source feeding it
• Once you see the Routing Matrix, the Orion is working and ready
• Confirm the clock is set to Internal and the sample rate is 48k, or matches your session

Sample rate

The house default is 48k, which matches the video system. Work at whatever rate you like, but set it in the Orion control panel first, then match it in your session. Setting the session first and the Orion second is how you end up with everything playing at the wrong speed.

What's normalled by default

• Orion IN 1-24 come from the console's direct outs
• Orion IN 25-32 come from the Millennia, bypassing the console entirely
• Orion OUT 1-24 go to console Input A 1-24
• Orion OUT 25-32 go to Live Room Sends 1-8

That last one is worth remembering, because anything you route to outputs 25 through 32 plays in the live room whether you meant it to or not.

The Gen 4 preset system stores routing, levels, mixer settings and monitoring all together. If you build a setup you'll want again, save it.

Moving your stereo bus off channels 1 and 2

By default your DAW's 2-bus lands on Orion OUT 1-2, which normals to console channels 1 and 2. That's fine when you're mixing in the box and monitoring on EXT.

It becomes a problem when you're mixing on the console, because channels 1 and 2 are now carrying your master bus while you're also trying to use them for individual tracks. And if you're printing the mix back, you can end up with the console's output feeding a channel that's routed back into the mix bus, which is a loop.

The fix: route your DAW's stereo bus to a pair of outputs you aren't using. Something in the 17 to 24 range works. Do this at the start of a mix session rather than discovering it halfway through.

Building a cue mix inside the Orion

The Orion has four onboard low-latency stereo mixers, each with 32 input channels, with level, pan and reverb per channel. They solve the problem of a singer wanting reverb in their headphones without you giving up console sends.

• Open one of the mixers and bring up the channels the singer needs, the backing track plus their own mic
• Add reverb on their vocal channel inside the mixer
• Route that mixer's output to an Orion output that feeds a live room send, 25-32
• The singer hears themselves with reverb. Your recording stays dry, and nothing about your console cue mix changes.

Because it's low-latency and happening in the converter, there's no round trip through the DAW, so no latency for the performer. Four mixers means four of these.

Other common reasons to open the routing matrix: reamping, hardware inserts, printing the console mix, and reference tracks.

Orion troubleshooting

• If the launcher isn't finding the device, unplug the power cable and the USB-C cable from the back of the Orion, wait 15 seconds, plug them back in
• If the Orion is on but you're not getting sound, confirm the clock is set to Internal and the sample rate is set to 48k at the top of the routing matrix
• The Orion runs standalone without a computer, with routing and metering from the two front panel displays. Useful if the machine goes down mid-session.

Studio quirks

• We use video instead of windows. The control room doesn't look into the live room. Instead there are cameras, and the video routes anywhere in the building. Screens in the control room show the live room, and the live room can see you back. Same for the iso room.
• Input A and Input B. The 8424 has two input paths per channel. B is what you track through, A is what comes back from the DAW. Same channel number the whole way, so live room line 7 is console channel 7 is Orion input 7.
• Everything is normalled. Plug a mic into the live room wall plate and it arrives at the console through a preamp with no patching.
• The Millennia preamps skip the desk. HV-3D outputs go straight to Orion inputs 25-32 and never touch the console. Cleanest path in the room.
• There's a record store. Flip through some crates.

Cue system

By default there is one cue mix going out to six headphones on the amp in the live room.

• Build the cue mix by engaging the ST-CUE control knob on each channel you want in the mix. Push the knob to engage the send, turn it to set level.
• Overall cue level is in the AUX & CUE MASTERS section. From there it feeds the headphone amp in the live room.

Getting up to three cue mixes

• Send common instruments (drums, pads) to the cue mix as normal
• Route your remaining channels to Aux 1, Aux 2, and Aux 3
• Customize the levels of each channel in each Aux, then route the Aux channels back to the room on the return channels
• Each Aux channel needs an XLR to TRS from the plate in the live room to the Aux jack on the front of the headphone amp. Note that these will be mono.

Individual mixers are coming, which will make this easier. You can also build a cue mix with reverb inside the Orion itself.

Notes on cue sends

• The cue send takes whichever input the channel is on, so when you're tracking on Input B that's what the band hears
• Cue sends are post-fader by default. To switch a channel to pre-fader, hold PAN in and tap ST-CUE. Worth doing before you start moving faders.
• CUE TB in the talkback section puts your mic into their headphones and dips the cue mix while held.
• Engineer headphones are under the desk and carry the cue mix.

Patchbay routing

We have six 96-point patchbays, or 48 pairs. The top row is always the source, or OUT. The bottom row is always the destination, or IN.

The bays

Preamp assignments on PB1

Default path

A mic into a line reaches the console with no patching, cascading down from the top.

line to preamp to Input B to direct out to Orion IN to DAW to Orion OUT to Input A to mix bus

It keeps the same channel number all the way down.

Good stuff to know

• The Millennia bypasses the console. HV-3D outputs go straight to Orion IN 25-32. Arm DAW inputs 25-32 for those.
• Iso room mics are not normalled. Iso 1-12 appear on PB2 top 33-44 as thru. Patch from there to a preamp input on PB1 bottom. This is deliberate: with 24 console channels and a lot of live room returns, the iso lines are patched in rather than taking permanent channels.
• Channels 23 and 24 have no preamp. LR A 23-24 go nowhere, and Input B 23-24 have no source. Only 22 preamp channels reach Input B.
• PB4 is half-normal. You can take a patch from the top row without breaking the feed to the Orion, which is what makes the reamp send work.
• Inserts are thru. Nothing passes on its own. Patch the send to your box and the box back to the return, then engage INS on the channel. The insert send is always live, so it doubles as a second pre-fade direct out.
• Control room XLRs are the exception to the top-source rule. They sit on PB2 bottom 33-40 but are outputs, not inputs.

Common patch points

Printing isn't wired. MIX OUT L/R on PB6 31-32 normal to an empty destination. Getting the console's stereo output back into the DAW is a patch, not a permanent path.

Live tracking

Setting up

• Mics into any panel. LR A 1-32, LR B 1-16, or Iso 1-12. The iso lines are the exception, since they aren't normalled and need patching to a preamp on PB1.
• Gain and phantom at the preamp. Which preamp you land on depends on the line, by house priority. We default to BAE 1073s so those sit on Live Room Panel A 1-10, our fallback is API 3124Vs on 11-18, with API 312 on 19-20, then Radial PowerPre on 21-22, and finally Millennia on 25-32. Millennias bypass the console.
• Channels on Input B. The console boots this way, so you can just turn it on and start tracking. Flip channels individually, or use A/B CH IP in the master section to do all 24 at once.
• Choose how you're monitoring. Engage MIX on the channels you want to hear through the console. Your other option is to monitor everything through the DAW, which requires you to engage EXT, routing the return from the Orion directly to the monitors, bypassing the console.
• No routing to do. The signal path is already in place, so your tracks are sitting at the right inputs. Record-enable and go.
• Build the cue mix. Push ST-CUE on each channel the band needs and set level with the same knob. Overall level is in AUX & CUE MASTERS.
• Talkback. Holding CUE TB puts your mic into their headphones and dips the cue mix while held.

Monitoring through the console

MIX routes the channel to the console's stereo mix bus. That's what you're hearing, and it's Input B, which is what's reaching the DAW.

• When you monitor this way you're hearing the analog sum, including the colour from the Marinair transformers on the mix bus
• If you want that on your record rather than just in your monitoring, you have to mix through the console and sum to the mix bus
• Most people mix in the box and bounce from there, which is a different sound

Using backing tracks while tracking

If you want to use a backing track from your DAW, say you're cutting lead vocals after the band has finished:

• Set your 2-bus output to any two unused Orion outputs. Those land on the matching Input A channels on the console.
• Set those two channels to Input A, pan them hard left and right
• Send them to the cue mix by pushing the ST-CUE dial in so the singer hears them
• Engage MIX as well if you want to hear them on your monitors

Your live sources stay on Input B on their own channels, so you're balancing the backing track against the live mic on the desk.

Direct outs are always live, so signal reaches the Orion whether or not the fader is up.

Related: Mixing, Recording a DI track from the control room

Overdubs

As a general rule, your existing tracks come back out from the DAW on Input A on the console, and whatever you're recording sits on Input B. Both at once, on different channels.

Into the live room

• Set your channels to Input A so the existing tracks return from the DAW. A/B CH IP in the master section flips all 24 at once.
• Pick a channel for the overdub and flip that one back to Input B
• Mic the player on the LR A line matching that channel number, so the signal arrives where you expect it
• Engage MIX on the channels you want to hear
• Build the cue mix with ST-CUE on the playback channels plus the overdub channel, so the player hears the track and themselves
• In the DAW, arm the track on that channel's input

From the control room

• Existing tracks on Input A, overdub channel on Input B
• For a vocal or an amp mic'd in the room, use a control room XLR on PB2 bottom 33-40, patched to a preamp input on PB1
• For a DI, plug into DI I/P 1 or 2 under the front of the console, which routes to channel 19 or 20
• Engineer headphones are under the desk and carry the cue mix

The cue send follows whichever input the channel is on, so an overdub channel on Input B sends what's being played. Set it pre-fader if you want to ride your monitoring without changing what the player hears.

Mixing in the box

• Mix in your DAW as normal
• Engage EXT in the Control Room Monitor section to monitor from your DAW. EXT takes the DAW's stereo output straight off the Orion to the speakers, bypassing the console's mix bus.
• Bounce straight out from the DAW
• No patching, no channels in use

If your tracks are also returning to Input A, you can flip to MIX at any point and hear the same material summed through the desk. Worth doing once before you commit to a workflow.

Mixing on the console

Getting your tracks to the desk and summing through it is where the console really shines. This is how to get Marinair transformer sound on your record.

Getting set up

• Set your DAW outputs so each track lands on the individual channel you want. Orion OUT 1-24 normal straight to Input A 1-24.
• Put your channels on Input A, either one at a time on the strip or all at once with A/B CH IP in the master section
• Engage MIX on each channel if you want to route them all directly to the stereo bus
• You can also send individual channels to GROUPS, labeled GRP 1-4. Each group send is one mono channel, so for a drum bus, send all your drum tracks to GRP 1 and GRP 2. Important note: you must press the "IN" button in the INSERT section on each channel to successfully insert. If you don't, you will simply hear the channel as-is.
• Once you have all your channels and groups going out to the mixbus, you're ready to mix. The master fader controls the stereo output.

Note: twenty-four channels is your ceiling on Input A. If you're working with more than that, submix in the DAW and return stems instead of individual tracks. You lose some control on the desk but you still get the analog sum.

Analog mixbus processing

• The insert lives on PB6 33-34, send on top and return on the bottom
• It's full-normalled, so the mix passes straight through until you patch something in
• Patch the send to your box's input on PB3, then the box's output back to the return. Both cords are needed. Important note: you must press the "IN" button in the INSERT section on each channel to successfully insert. If you don't, you will simply hear the channel as-is.
• When you're done, pull the cords and the normal reconnects on its own

Printing back to the DAW

• PB6 top 31 and 32 carry MIX OUT L and R
• Patch those to a pair of Orion inputs on PB4 bottom. Channels 23 and 24 are usually the easiest to borrow.
• Record those two inputs to a stereo track

Bear in mind this is a real-time analog pass, so a print takes as long as the song does.

Hybrid mixing

• Hardware as inserts: mix in the box but patch outboard in as if it were a plugin. Your DAW's I/O insert plugin handles the send, the return, and the delay compensation.
• Analog summing: mix in the box but send the tracks or stems out to the desk, sum in analog, and print back. That's what Mixing on the console covers.

Hardware as inserts, step by step

Say you want to insert the Serpent bus compressor onto your mix bus in the DAW.

• Put the I/O insert plugin on your master bus
• Set it to send on a pair of Orion outputs. Orion OUT 23-24 is usually free.
• At the bay, patch PB5 top 23 and 24 down to PB3 bottom 28 and 29, which is SB4001 IN L and R
• Patch PB3 top 28 and 29, SB4001 OUT L and R, to a pair of Orion inputs on PB4 bottom. Use 23 and 24.
• Set the plugin's return to Orion inputs 23-24
• Run the plugin's ping (if applicable, they don't all have it) so it measures the round trip and compensates

The same pattern works for any piece of outboard gear and any track or bus in your DAW.

Where to put analog processing on the mixbus

VF RECOMMENDATION: If you want to really feel the effects of the Neve Marinair transformers, our recommended approach is to sum through the desk, print the stereo, then apply your further bus processing on the print. Leave yourself headroom on the print, somewhere around -6 to -3 dBFS peak.

Recording a DI track from the control room

For a clean DI only, with no amp.

• Plug your instrument into DI I/P 1 or DI I/P 2, the two quarter-inch jacks under the front right of the console
• Push the grey level button on Instrument DI 1 or Instrument DI 2. That routes the DI to channel 19 or 20 respectively, no patching.
• In the DAW, set the armed track's input to 19 or 20
• Record

Related: Recording through an amp via DI, Reamping

Recording through an amp via DI

The player sits at the desk, the amp is in the live room, and you capture both the clean DI and the mic'd amp at the same time.

• Plug the instrument into DI I/P 1 or DI I/P 2 under the front right of the console
• Push the grey level button on Instrument DI 1 or Instrument DI 2, which routes it to channel 19 or 20
• Engage DIRECT PRE on that channel, so the send to the amp doesn't move when you touch the fader
• On the patchbay, patch direct out 19 or 20 on PB4 top to a live room send on PB5 bottom 25-32
• In the live room, XLR from that send jack into the Redeye's rear re-amp input
• Set the Redeye to re-amp mode
• Instrument cable from the Redeye's front instrument / re-amp out into the amp
• Mic the amp on any LR A line, which normals to its preamp and back to the console as usual
• In the DAW, arm channel 19 or 20 for the DI and whichever channel the amp mic landed on

Why this works: PB4 is half-normal, so taking a patch from the top row leaves the normal to the Orion intact. You're recording the clean DI and feeding the amp from the same point at the same time.

If it hums, ground lift on the Redeye. If the amp is too hot or too quiet, adjust at the console's DI gain first.

Reamping into the live room

Sending a previously recorded DI back out to an amp.

The easy way: Orion OUT 25-32 normal straight to Live Room Sends 1-8, so routing your DI track to Orion output 25 puts it on Live Room Send 1 with no patching at all.

• In the DAW, route the DI track's output to Orion OUT 25-32
• In the recording room, XLR from the matching send jack into the Redeye's rear re-amp input
• Set the Redeye to re-amp mode
• Instrument cable from the Redeye's front instrument / re-amp out into the amp
• Mic the amp on any LR A line
• Arm a new track on whichever channel the amp mic landed on, and record while the DI plays back

If you need a different output, patch it from PB5 top down to a room send on PB5 bottom 25-32.

If it hums, ground lift on the Redeye. Watch your level into the Redeye, since it expects +4dB line level.

Onboard 1073s

Two mono 1073 preamps in the master section, with smart routing to channels 17 and 18 at the push of a button.

Via the patchbay, the 1073 line inputs and outputs are on PB6, pairs 35 and 36.

Analog parallel processing

The console lets a channel feed the stereo mix and a GROUP at the same time, which makes parallel processing straightforward.

• Route your drum channels to both the stereo mix and to GRP 1 and GRP 2
• Engage GRP PAN on those channels so 1 and 2 behave as a stereo pair
• Process the group, either via its insert on PB6 41-44 or by taking the group direct outs on PB6 1-4 through outboard and returning on spare channels
• Blend the processed group against the dry channels with the group faders

For series instead of parallel, disengage MIX on the individual channels. Now the only path to the stereo bus is through the group.

Four mono groups, so a stereo subgroup uses two of them.

Recall

The console stores switch settings, fader positions and pot positions in its own memory, up to 99 stores. Useful when a client is coming back for a second day.

Where it lives: the Services screen in the master section. A 16-character display with four menus, MAST, TALK, OSC, SYSTEM. Recall is under SYSTEM.

Saving

• Enter SYSTEM, select SAVE
• That stores every switch setting, channel trim, pot position and fader level, plus the whole master section
• Talkback level is exempt, along with a few other things

Loading

• Enter SYSTEM, select LOAD
• Choose a store from 1 to 99. ENTER steps through them, CTRL plus ENTER jumps ten at a time.
• The snapshot loads after a two second delay
• All the faders move themselves, channels, groups and master. Switch settings come back instantly.
• It then asks whether you want to run the recall procedure for the pots. OK to start, CANCEL if you're happy without them.

Auto scan, for the pots

• The console finds a pot that doesn't match and shows you
• Turn it until MATCHED appears briefly
• It moves to the next one
• If you only need one channel, press that channel's SOLO button during the scan and it jumps there

The rest of the Services screen

• MAST is global master options, including the input trim resets. ZERO IP B zeroes all the Input B trims at once.
• TALK covers talkback options, including whether the talkback mic also feeds return talkback.
• OSC is the built-in oscillator. Useful for checking a patch or finding a dead line on the bay.
• SYSTEM holds Recall save and load, plus a DHCP setting used when running firmware updates.

Troubleshooting

No sound at all

• Monitoring is always cut when the console powers up. Un-cut it before looking anywhere else.
• Right monitor selected, A or M1?
• Right source selected, MIX or EXT?
• On MIX, are the channels on the right input with faders up?
• In the Orion, is DAW OUT 1-2 routed to LINE OUT 1-2?

No signal from a mic

• Phantom on at the preamp, if the mic needs it?
• Channel on Input B?
• Right channel number? LR A line 7 is console channel 7.
• If it's an iso line, remember those aren't normalled and need patching from PB2 top 33-44 to a preamp input
• If it's LR A 23 or 24, there's no preamp on those lines

Signal on the console but nothing in the DAW

• Right Orion input armed? Channel numbers carry straight through, except the Millennia which lands on 25-32.
• Clock on Internal, sample rate matching?
• In the Orion's Routing tab, is the input routed to a DAW destination?

Signal in the DAW but nothing in the room

• On MIX, are the channels on Input A?
• Panned hard left and right if you're monitoring a stereo bus?
• Check the Routing tab for DAW OUT to LINE OUT

An insert isn't passing

• Inserts are thru, so both cords are needed. Send to the box's input, box's output back to the return.
• INS engaged on the channel?
• Insert sends are always live, so a dead send means a patch problem, not a button problem

Hum or buzz

• Ground lift on the box, if it has one
• If it's the reamp path, ground lift on the Redeye

Nothing in the cans

• Cue master up in AUX & CUE MASTERS?
• ST-CUE pushed in on the channels, not just turned up?
• Headphone amp on and turned up in the live room? Aux channels turned up if in use?