TotalMix FX for Beginners - Routing & Layout Basics

TotalMix FX mixer interface is very simple and straight forward. On the top row are the Hardware Input channels, the Middle row of faders are your software outputs.The bottom row faders are your hardware output channels.

With the control room section in TotalMix FX you have advanced functions like speaker switching, talkback, cueing and front panel controls will work properly.

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[RMEAudio]

Do you have questions about TotalMix FX? Let us know!

[PixelZoft]

This is my view of what the problem with the TotalMix user interface is.

The reason TotalMix is so confusing is because in order to start using it you have to know several "hidden" user interface "secrets" that are impossible to know without googling or looking at videos like this.

If you don't know these "secrets" you simply cannot use the software. And it may take some time to find out what these "secrets" are because there is not so much as a hint of what they are in the UI. Therefore you might just give up out of frustration.

This situation usually arises in a UI because the software developers KNOW all these "secrets" and therefor they doesn't even realize that they are secrets. So they don't see the problem. I work as a software developer too and have done so for almost 30 years, and I have found myself in this situation many times over. But when this happens (you think something is simple but the end user complains it is not) you cannot allow yourself to think that your users are stupid. Instead you have to realize you have made a poor job as a developer of the UI. And you have to force yourself to find ways to make the UI more intuitive. There are ALWAYS ways to do that.

I think RME should take all complaints about the TotalMix UI seriously. It has some pretty basic and serious UI design flaws. It is designed almost opposite to how an intuitive UI should work.

One of the first "secrets" you have to learn with TotalMix is that you are supposed to first select an output in row 3 and THEN you can select how much of every input you want going into that output. And when you switch to another output by clicking it you also switch to COMPLETELY different input levels for every single input, that are only applicable to that one particular selected output. When you first start using the software and click around you may never realize this is how it actually works, which makes it super confusing. And that is just one of all actions you need to learn how to achieve in the software.

So, when you click on different output channels, do you change EVERYTHING in all input channels? No, you don't. You change only the level and panning, but nothing else! Also completely unintuitive. How are you supposed to know which parts of an input channels UI that are linked to an individual output and which input settings are not related to outputs? You have to KNOW this because there is nothing in the UI that reveals it. That is also less than optimal UI design.

I would say that every time a user has to KNOW something that cannot be easily and intuively understood from the UI design the UI developer should sit back and think hard about if there is any way to make it more obvious. And there are always ways to do this.

It is also not a good UI design to have to do something at the bottom first (select an output in row 3) and then something above it in row 1 and 2. It is not the way people are used to working. Normally you start at the top and work your way down or go from left to right.

It is also not obvious in the UI why some of the outputs in row 3 sit to the right and the rest to the left. When you KNOW it, it makes sense and is very practical, but a UI should not be designed like that. It should be obvious in the UI that the left and right outputs are grouped like that for a reason and this should not be a "secret" you have to learn. The reason (I am actually guessing now because I don't know yet) is that the rightmost group is there for easier access (called the "Control Room")? But how is it any easier than if they were in the left group? I have no idea. One more "secret" that I have yet to try to find out about.

It is also a UI "secret" (not obvious) that the rightmost of the outputs in the right group also has a very special role that none of the other output channels in the right output group have. That is the only channel that gets dimmed when the dim-button is pressed, for instance. Again, I could be wrong, but that is how it seems to me and it is not abvious at all in the UI.

The software IS powerful. I do understand this. It is just a pity that all this functionality is hidden behind an unintuituve UI that doesn't make sense until you have learned all the "hidden secrects" that you NEED to know to work with TotalMix.

I myself am right now in the midst of this learning process and it is actually quite frustrating, considering the simple tasks this software is supposed to assist with.

I know that I am not stupid and I have been working for 30 years as a software developer. I have been using music software for over 15 years. But this software makes me feel REALLY stupid. The UI just does not make sense to me - and apparently a lot of others feel this way too.

I think that once I have been able to learn how the UI actually works, I would be able to say how it SHOULD have been designed to be much more intuitive. But to what use by then?

I think that with a bit of effort (maybe hiring a good and creative UI designer) RME could change this UI to be VERY easy to use and very intuitive.

This video is really a lot of help (and I will look at all of them) but a better idea than making videos to explain an unintuitive interface would be to redesign the interface so that you don't need to make videos about it.

[lincolnmicrophonellc]

RME user since 2011, first UFX but downsized into BabyFacePro.

[johnhunter]

A lot of people still don't get it because for some reason the video cuts away from the laptop screen at exactly the moment you really need to see what's going on! The point would be so much clearer if you could watch how the faders change position when selecting/highlighting the 'Phones 1' strip or the 'Main' strip.

[danielsolomon]

Great job of taking the camera of the Mixer screen and show me your nice room right when you went for the Main Out

[Ktiger]

why would you cut away from the screen capture at the most crucial time of the video when you select the main channel and begin fiddling with stuff?

[EnlightenedFridge]

RME, I love you, but I´ve never felt so stupid as when I try to get my head around Total Mix. I´ve owned my Babyface for surely ten years, but I still find myself spending hours trying (and failing) to route things in TE whenever I get some new gear I want to connect. I understand I´m not an advanced user by any means, and there are probably a couple of core concepts that I´m missing, but I´ve been into making electronic music since mid 90s, I´m not a total newbie. There must be a way to create an interface that is a bit more intuitive and still offers the flexibility of the current UI.

[itskane]

I give up on this interface. I'm so stressed. I just wanna record music

[SzymonWeiss]

Have been using RME UC for 5 years. Have seen this video 4 times. Never comprehended Total Mix.

[PrinceWesterburg]

I've got over 40 years in computing including being a tech reviewer and I do electronics. I cannot work your software out, it needs a complete UI make over as personally I would give it a near zero score as a software reviewer.

[adriancendoya]

@rmeaudio super beginner question but i cant seem to get the processed signal to play back the the speakers even though im getting signal into totalmix on Instrument 3/4… I hear it when i have it on “cue” but cant hear the processed signal with the amp sim on… just the DI signal. Can you help please?

[danteyoutu]

Finally a better tutorial. I’ve had RME Babyface for over 5 years and still don’t know how to use TotalMix. It’s so difficult to figure out and tutorials were terrible

[cl_audio_]

Finally a comprehensive tutorial series. I've been using TotalMix for years and didn't quite understand it 100%, even reading the manual several times. I hope you guys make the next manuals a little more comprehensible. Thank you for these videos!

[JoeMurphysGuitarlessons]

What often seems confusing to me is when I see a fader lowered right down, but there is still sound coming from it, why is this after all if you slide a fader down in any other situation it lowers the sound, why is it different in total mix ?

[boblazo]

I agree with others. I'd like to have more tutorials-from beginner to advanced would be cool. A series would be helpful. Thanks in advance. RME makes good stuff.

[djvex]

I hate every time I have to reformat and have to watch this video to figure out how to get reverb on my headphones and spend like an hour.

[joelonsdale]

Had a Fireface for 15 years and never understood the RME software....

[Slaegad]

Fire this guy “RME” and also the editor for this video.
No good to your customers

[KenHurl]

A baffling video. I have been using an RME FIREFACE802 for some years and I basically don't understand it although I can get it to function by poking and prodding. The plus points are: worked out of the box and pristine sound quality. Also, worked when units by some other major manufacturers did not, so clear technical superiority.This video does not help understand the functions. What are the ADAT inputs for? How do you get signals from input to outputs? Many other questions. Two other comments: the music in the background is extremely annoying and the presenter has the habit of circling the mouse at high speed, which is enough to make you dizzy. Furthermore, I have never been able to get a signal to the internal effects processing or get them to work. What is needed is a very basic video which explains the routing structure in simple terms.

[harrij.]

Hi RME Audio, how can I get both Headphones and XLR out to show up under "Control room" segment ? I can get only one or the other. In this video the host has both there.