Auto-Align Workflow Stereo mics and room mics

Auto-Align
1

Hello, I have the following question. I have a very nice piano recording with two U67 close mics and two room mics. What I want to do is align the stereo pair first and then align the room mics to the main pair. But Auto Align 2 doesn’t want me to do this (as I remember in Auto Align I could choose which track should be leading or “send” track. How do I do it here? I have the problem mainly that when I tell Auto Align that the stereo pair is a stereo pair, it takes the Aligning away and locks the pair as a group. To sum it up: How do I tell Auto Align that two mono room mics should be aligned to a before aligned stereo pair of tracks? Thanks for your help, Geret

2

Hi @geret.luhr ,

Thanks for your message!

Auto-Align 2 works differently than Auto-Align 1 — there are no longer send/receive buses and a fixed reference track.
Instead, AA2 aligns the entire group’s tracks against each other.
When you stereo link two mono tracks, AA2 treats them as a stereo pair and no longer aligns one side against the other.

If you’re working with four panned mono tracks (Close L/R and Room L/R), the recommended approach is:

  1. Stereo Link the close mics.
  2. Stereo Link the room mics.
  3. Hit Align.

This usually gives a good, wide result.

If you still want the room mics to align to a previously aligned close pair, it’s possible with some extra steps — for example, aligning the close mics first, committing the result, and then using the committed track and aligning it together with the room mics.

This approach won’t necessarily sound better than simply aligning two stereo pairs, so I’d recommend starting with the simpler workflow and seeing how it sounds.

If you have any questions, feel free to send us an email to support@soundradix. You can also attach your session, and we’d be happy to take a close look.

Best,
Oran