Steinberg V-Stack Operation Manual

							V-STACKThe Mixer 7 – 71
The channel strips
A VST Instrument channel strip and a group channel strip. As you can see, these 
have the same controls except for the lower “e” button on the VST Instrument 
channel strip (which opens the control panel for the instrument).
• You can also extend the Mixer to include an upper area for the channel 
strips. This can show EQ, sends or insert effects. See page 76.
Level meter Level fader Pan control
Edit button (opens the 
Channel Settings window, 
see page 75)
Insert/EQ/Send indi-
cators and bypass 
buttons.
Channel output 
routing pop-up
Channel name field
This opens the 
control panel for 
the VST Instrument
Mute and Solo 
buttons 
						

							V-STACK7 – 72 The Mixer
The common panel
The common panel appears to the left in the Mixer and contains set-
tings for changing the look and behavior of the Mixer, as well as global 
settings for all channels.
Channel Settings Copy/Paste, see page 95.
Global Solo/Mute Off, see page 83.
These buttons allow you to determine which channel 
types should be shown, group channels and/or VST 
Instrument channels.
Show/hide Master section.
Channel Select pop-up.
The View Option buttons for setting what to display in the 
extended channel strip. Not visible in Normal mode.
View Options pop-up.
Toggle between normal/extended 
Mixer display.
This button allows you to save, load and delete 
Mixer View Sets, see page 80. 
						

							V-STACKThe Mixer 7 – 73
The Master section
The Master section allows you to control the output level of the Master 
bus (the main output bus). With the Mixer in extended mode, the Mas-
ter section will also contain the Master effect slots. This section can 
be shown or hidden in the Mixer by clicking the Show Master button in 
the common panel.
Master effect slots (shown 
in the extended mixer 
panel)
Master volume fader
Master level meters
Output routing pop-up
Click this button to hide or 
show the Master section.
Master Mono/Stereo switch 
						

							V-STACK7 – 74 The Mixer
The VST Outputs window
This is a separate window, opened from the Devices menu. If your au-
dio hardware has several outputs (more than a single stereo pair), the 
VST Outputs window will show one stereo bus for each stereo output 
pair. Use the settings in the window to activate or deactivate buses, 
route each bus to the desired output on your audio hardware and con-
trol the bus volumes.
Activate bus
Bus volume 
faderBus stereo link switch – deactivate this to set 
separate levels for the left and right bus channel.
Bus output routingBus name –
click to change. 
						

							V-STACKThe Mixer 7 – 75
The Channel Settings window
Each audio channel strip in the Mixer has an edit (“e”) button. Clicking 
this opens the Channel Settings window, in which you can make de-
tailed settings for a single channel (level, pan, EQ, effects, etc.).
The Channel Settings window always shows the settings for the se-
lected channel. Therefore:
•To show the settings for another channel, select that channel in the 
Mixer (by clicking the name field below the fader or clicking its “e” but-
ton) or use the Channel Select pop-up menu on the common panel 
(available both in the Channel Settings window and in the Mixer).
If you specifically want to open several Channel Settings windows, 
[Alt]/[Option]-click the Edit buttons for the desired channels. 
						

							V-STACK7 – 76 The Mixer
Mixer View options
The Mixer can be configured in various ways to suit your needs and to 
save screen space. Here’s a run through of the various view options:
Normal vs. Extended channel strips
There are two main modes for the Mixer: “normal” or “extended”. You 
switch between these modes by selecting the corresponding item on 
the View Options pop-up menu on the common panel, or by clicking 
the button just below it.
In normal mode, channel strips only show the fader panels with the as-
sociated vertical row of buttons. In extended mode, channel strips will 
show an extra panel above the fader panel.
Global View Options pop-up menu.
Show/hide extended Mixer. 
						

							V-STACKThe Mixer 7 – 77
Selecting what to show in the extended audio channel strip
You select what to display in the upper (extended) area for each chan-
nel by using the View Options pop-up menu (the down arrow above 
the fader section of each channel strips). The following options are 
available:
•Selecting one of these options from the View Options pop-up in the 
common panel will change the view in the upper panel globally for all 
channels in the Mixer.
The global view options are also available as buttons in the upper part of the common 
panel – click a button to change the view in the upper panel for all mixer channels.
Option The upper panel shows:
Narrow Nothing (narrow channel strip).
Wide Nothing (wide channel strip).
inserts Five insert effect slots.
EQs The four-band EQ, shown with the controls as sliders (see page 85).
EQ+ The four-band EQ, shown with the controls as parameter dials 
(see page 85).
Sends The eight effect sends, shown with send level sliders (see page 105).
Sends+ The eight effect sends, shown with parameter dials (see page 105). Note 
that the send pre/post fader switch and edit button aren’t shown in this 
mode. 
						

							V-STACK7 – 78 The Mixer
Selecting what channel types should be shown
You can specify whether the Mixer should show VST Instrument chan-
nels, group channels or both. This is done by clicking the buttons in 
the lower part of the common panel – when a button is lit, the corre-
sponding channel type is shown.
•You can also change this setting on the View Options pop-up in the 
common panel.
Pull down the pop-up menu and activate or deactivate the “Group” and “VSTi” options 
to show or hide channel types.
Hiding individual channels
You can also hide individual channels in the Mixer. This is useful if you 
want to view the channels from a specific VST Instrument only, or hide 
additional unused channels for an instrument with multiple outputs. 
Proceed as follows:
1.Open the View Options pop-up for a channel that you wish to hide by 
clicking on the down arrow at the top of the channel strip.
2.Activate the “Hideable” item from the menu.
The menu item is now ticked, but the channel strip is still visible. 
						

							V-STACKThe Mixer 7 – 79
3.Repeat steps 1-2 for each channel that you wish to hide.
4.When you have activated “Hideable” status for all channels you wish 
to hide, pull down the Global View Options pop-up on the common 
panel and deactivate the “Hideable” option.
When the “Hideable” item is deactivated (unticked) on the common 
panel View Options pop-up, all individual channel strips that are set to 
“Hideable” status will be hidden in the Mixer.
5.To make hidden channels visible again, activate Hideable on the com-
mon panel View Options menu.
You can store different configurations of the show/hide status for channels by using 
the Channel View Sets function, see page 80.
Setting the width of channel strips
Each channel strip’s width can be sized to either “Wide” or “Narrow” 
mode from the View Options pop-up at the top of each channel strip.
•Narrow channel strips contain a narrow fader, miniature buttons, plus 
the View Options pop-up.
Only a blank panel is shown in the extended section for narrow channel strips. If you 
select to show parameters in the extended section of a narrow strip, the channel strip 
will automatically be resized to wide.
•When selecting wide or narrow channel strips from the common 
panel View Options pop-up, all channel strips are affected. 
						

							V-STACK7 – 80 The Mixer
Channel View Sets
Channel View Sets are user definable configurations of the Mixer win-
dows. If you are working with a large number of channels, it may be 
convenient to be able to hide certain channels (or channel types). Pro-
ceed as follows:
1.Set up the Mixer the way you wish to store it as a View Set.
The following settings will be stored:
• Settings for individual channel strips (e. g. narrow or wide mode and whether 
the channel strip is hidden or not).
• The hide/show status for channel types and for the Master section.
• Settings for what is shown in the extended view of the Mixer.
❐The Mixers’ display status (whether Normal or Extended mode is se-
lected) is not saved with the View Set.
2.When you have set up the Mixer as you want it, click the “Create/Se-
lect Channel View Sets” button at the bottom of the Common Panel, 
and select “Add” from the pop-up menu that appears.
By selecting from the items on this menu, you can create, load and delete View Sets. If 
no View Sets have been stored there will only be two items on the menu: Add and 
Remove.
The items at the top of the menu in the picture to the right are previously stored 
Channel View Sets.
3.A dialog appears, allowing you to type in a name for the View Set.
Do so and click OK to store the current Mixer View Set.