Muting Track 8 - Lead Vocals in my situation

206joey

I have a couple hundred songs. I have also done a painstaking journey to upload of all my backing tracks that includes the lead vocal. If I didnt have the lead vocal stem I had my wife sing the track then uploaded that.

Reason I do this is for a few reasons. If I have a new singer (or sub) that is still learning the tracks gets off I simply hit the unmute on channel 8. The lead vocal comes over the mon's. He then hears the original track and is able to get back on 100% of the time. This has saved me many times. If the singer cant get back on the track most of us kill the track and go without for the rest of the song. Not fun. Also I use track number 8 when I practice by myself. I can have vocals, this is great. Ive even used the lead vocal in the track to soundcheck when the singer was late.

My issue is that every once in a while I forget to turn track 8 off before a gig and the example lead track plays. I then have to scramble to mute it and the singer gives me a nasty side eye lol. Its not life and death but it is annoying.

I wish there was a way that I could flip and "Mute individual track (8 in my scenario) across all songs". Then I would hit that and all lead vocals would be removed in my setup. I know the system already has "remember mute saves" so that is helpful if I could be counted on to always remember to turn track 8 off after practicing.

Thoughts?

Joe

AnthonyB

206joey I've got the same setup, and the same concern. I'm always worried I'm going to accidently leave the lead vocal stem on after a rehearsal at a gig 🙂 Not a major issue as I only have it routing to our IEM mix and not FoH, but it will still be confusing for the band.

As @jaytrax mentioned above, in ST3, the only option is to disable the routing assignment for that track in Settings -> Audio Routing -> Track 8 Output and set it to Disabled.

That's probably not going to work well based on the scenario you described where you are quite literally wanting to be able to turn it on and off during playback.
I also had the concern that because my X32 mixer presents 32 mono and 16 stereo channels tot he iPad, if I'm changing from disabled back to the Channel I've setup on my X32 for the vocal guide (in my case, Channel 31), I've got to make sure I remember the correct channel each time. So a global Mute On/Off would be much neater and safer.

I raised this topic with Peter for ST4 in the following thread and he advised that we will get the ability to Mute at a global level - https://support.stagetraxx.com/d/3331-global-track-mute-as-opposed-to-disable

jaytrax

So if your vocal is always track 8

Use the global disable option in audio routing for track 8

I believe version 4 with have global mutes and faders

206joey

jaytrax Yes, this is a solution. Its not the best solution for me as if Im practicing I turn track 8 on and sometimes during the gig I need to toggle 8 back on. Especially if the singer gets off because they are new. If track 8 is disabled its not possible to quick enable it during the song. But I turn on track 8 so I have vocals when I practice I will go through 10 songs flipping #8 on and off and so on and so on... And I get into the music I flat out forget to flip track back to muted when Im done with it. Then time goes by and we play a gig and surprise I have a lead vocal in the track where I shouldnt. I know its me and I know I could be more aware but Im a space case from time to time. Would be nice if I could flip ALL songs back to muting 8. That way if I have a need to turn on mid show I can just toggle 8 on then back off. Cant if its disabled in routing. This i would be classified under "nice to have" not critical Im aware but just thought Id mention it.

206joey

AnthonyB Love the "route to in ears" only option. I didnt even think of that. That would work great for one of my singers who does have IEMs. The new guy "who forgets" where he is in the song all the time is using a floor monitor. But a very good idea none the less, wish it could help me out. I want an option that says "mute one track over all tracks". That flips them all to off. If I have an issue with the singer I can flip it back on for this one instance. If I disable the track in routing Im not going to be able to enable mid song quickly. Not even sure you can do that anyways mid song. I think Ive seen it say "stop song to modify" or something to that effect.

jaytrax

So remember you also have a pet track basis mute
Even when song is playing etc

Or have a mute button on your mixing desk

206joey

jaytrax This would work as well. My issue is I do not ouput 8 outs to auxs. I use the option of click track left and music to the right side in my situation. If I mute its going to mute all the tracks at once.

peter

There is an option, to disable storing track mute changes which are done during playback: Settings > Playback > Store Mutes during Playback.

Make sure your Track is is dabled in multitrack settings and disable the above option. Now each song loaded into the player will use the initial settings and if you change track mute during playback, it will not affect the stored settings.

206joey

peter Yes, I do like this option. It doesnt help me though as I turn the track on and off for a variety of reasons. Then I forget to disable it and when I play a gig there is lead vocal in the track. Its mostly my issue but I love to flip track 8 on when I practice. I also like to toggle quickly if were mid song with a new singer and he forgets where he is in the song I quickly unmute 8, he hears the vocal and gets back on. Its nice. Cant do that if track is disabled.

Lishy

206joey you can flip it mid song. Another option might be to get a cheap midi footswitch and assign track 8 to it so you can do it at the touch of a button as opposed to trying to doing 3 presses mid song.