Open Dante Virtual Soundcard and Select the appropriate settings for each dropdown.

• For channel count, select the *minimum* amount of channels for your needs. For Ableton playback, we use 10 channels, so in that case you’d select 16x16 as we need more than 8, but less than 32.

• Latency can be set to the maximum (10ms for us) without issue. This will keep performance stable and should help minimize the chance for any audio dropouts. This will matter more the higher the channel count you’re using. (e.g. FOH multitrack recording which is set to 64x64)

• Network interface SHOULD only have one available option, so you’d select that. In the event that you’re using a computer with multiple ethernet interfaces, you’d need to make sure you were selecting the correct adapter (the one connected to the Dante network.)

• Click “Start”

Open Dante Controller

• Select your Primary Dante network interface. You’ll use the same one you assigned in Dante VSC. (IP Address should match.)

Go back to the routing window.

• Once you’ve selected the proper network interface, you should see a list of all connected Dante devices. (They have to be on, so you’ll need to turn on the console or whatever device you want to route to/from before you can do these steps.) There are two sides to the routing matrix. The devices across the top are Transmitters – where the signal is coming from. The devices down the left hand side are Receivers – where the signal is going to. I’ll guide you through the routing of Ableton for a typical service, but these concepts apply universally as long as you know the path you’re trying to create. The steps for routing from Ableton to the tracks channels of the FOH Console (Avantis/AllnHth-0e8e4e) are as follows:

  
  

• In the routing matrix, find your Transmit device - in this case it would be your Ableton laptop - and your Receive device - the FOH Console.

• Where these two devices intersect, you should see a “+” symbol. Clicking that will expand both the Transmit and Receive device’s available Dante channels.

• From here, you’ll choose whichever channels you want to route from Ableton to the console. At the time of writing, the current channel layout is: 1 - Click • 2 - Guide • 3/4 - Tracks • 5/6 - BGVs • 7/8 - Perc • 9 - Synth Bass • *10 - LTC. The FOH console tracks channels are currently routed 1:1 to Ableton. That would mean that we need to route the tracks laptop outputs *1-10 to FOH Console inputs *1-10.

• To do that, click on the box where each of those channels intersect. (e.g. Laptop 1 -> Avantis 1, Laptop 2 -> Avantis 2, etc.)

• If everything has been done correctly and clock status is normal, you should now see a green checkmark in each of those boxes.



*Note: It’s not necessary to route In/Out 10 unless you’re using linear timecode routed through the FOH console. For most services we’re not using LTC.

Open Ableton

• Click in the very top left corner of your screen where it says “Live”

• Click "Settings"

• In the “Audio” tab, select “Dante Virtual Soundcard” as your Audio Output Device.

• If this is your first time setting up the machine (i.e. you have not ever used this device to run tracks via Ableton) to output from Ableton over VSC, click “Output Config”

• Match your settings to the following:
Mono Outputs:  1&2 ,  9&10 
Stereo Outputs:  3/4 ,  5/6 ,  7/8 

• Everything else should be gray (disabled)

• Name the channels by clicking into the long darker gray rectangles next to each. 

• Close the settings window.

• Route your busses or individual channels to their corresponding outputs by selecting each, clicking the black dropdown (usually says “Master) and changing that to “Ext. Out.” 
For channels within busses, DO NOT route these to Ext Out. Leave them routed to their bus and only change the Bus output routing (e.g. BGVs, Perc, Band)

• A new dropdown should have appeared below that. It’ll default to one of the channels or stereo pairs of channels.

• Set that new dropdown to match whatever you have selected. Each item that needs to be routed to external outs has the corresponding channel(s) written in [brackets] at the end of it’s name. If you need a cheat sheet, the output layout is as follows:
  
  

CLICK [1] -> Ext Out. -> 1 CLICK
GUIDE [2] -> Ext Out. -> 2 GUIDE
PAD [3/4] -> Ext Out. -> 3/4 TRACKS
BGVs [5/6] -> Ext Out. -> 5/6 BGV
PERC [7/8] -> Ext Out. -> 7/8 PERC
MELODIC [3/4] -> Ext Out. -> 3/4 TRACKS
SYNTH BASS [9] -> Ext Out. -> 9 SYN BASS
BAND -> Ext Out. -> 3/4 TRACKS (Disable this bus for rehearsal/service)
MIDI/TC - LTC [10] > Ext Out. -> 10 LTC (If Using LTC)

• Set your volume levels for each bus to 0. Click may need to be trimmed down, so you can knock that down a few dB if necessary. Audio levels for each tracks channels should be trimmed to -5 dB at the console “preamp” so that they do not clip.

• Test your output by playing any section of the session. I like to play a section where I know all channels will have signal, usually a big chorus.