Workflow Question: Using Farplay for Vocal Coaching with Pro Tools (Real-time Routing & Recording)

Hide
Participant

1 day ago

Hi everyone,
I am considering subscribing to Farplay for remote vocal coaching sessions and would like to confirm if my specific workflow is feasible.
Here is my intended setup:
1. Audio Routing: I want to play backing tracks from Pro Tools and send that audio to the vocalist via Farplay with the lowest possible latency. I assume I’ll need a virtual audio driver (like Loopback or BlackHole), but I want to ensure Farplay handles this smoothly for the listener.
2. Session Style: The session will involve frequent stopping and restarting of short phrases for detailed coaching. Does Farplay maintain a stable connection during this kind of “stop-and-go” playback from a DAW?
3. Recording & Reviewing: My goal is to review the vocalist’s performance with them during the session.
• Is it practical to record their vocal back into Pro Tools in real-time (phrase by phrase) via a virtual return? I understand there will be latency in the recorded clip that requires manual alignment.
• Or, is it significantly more efficient to use Farplay’s built-in multi-track recording for high-quality review, even if we want to listen back to specific sections immediately?
I am using Mac mini with RME fireface and a wired ethernet connection.
Any advice on the best routing configuration for this “DAW-to-Farplay” coaching setup would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

David Liao
Keymaster

19 hours, 26 minutes ago
Hi Hide,

Thanks for your questions. Yes, FarPlay handles audio routed from other apps smoothly. “Stopping and going” in a DAW works great. You can record live from FarPlay into Pro Tools using FarPlay’s Broadcast Output feature, available with Standard+ and For Teachers subscriptions. Depending on performance style, the student’s distance from you, and the student’s audio setup, the latency might be low enough that you won’t even need to re-align recorded phrases.

For most users, I’d recommend routing audio using BlackHole and FarPlay’s Input Mixer, which made it easy for the music teacher in this video tutorial to bring a backing track into FarPlay. However, your RME Fireface comes with excellent built-in routing, so I recommend that your studio route audio through your Fireface (no need to install Loopback or BlackHole):
1. Set up routing in TotalMix:
  - In the Hardware Outputs row (bottom), click to highlight the Phones track. In the Hardware Inputs row (top), drag all faders all the way down (-∞). In the Software Playback row (middle), drag all faders all the way down (-∞), except keep the AN 5/6 fader at 0 (unity). You’ve just set up the routing that FarPlay will use to send audio to your headphones.
  - In the Hardware Outputs row, click to highlight the AN 7/8 track. Click the Loopback button (should now be orange). In the Hardware Inputs row, drag all faders all the way down (-∞). In the Software Playback row, drag all faders all the way down (-∞), except keep the AN 7/8 fader at 0 (unity). You’ve set up the routing that Pro Tools will use to send backing audio and recorded vocals to FarPlay.
  - In the Hardware Outputs row, click to highlight the AN 3/4 track. Click the Loopback button (should now be orange). In the Hardware Inputs row, drag all faders all the way down (-∞). In the Software Playback row, drag all faders all the way down (-∞), except keep the AN 3/4 fader at 0 (unity). You’ve now set up the routing that FarPlay will use to send audio to Pro Tools.
2. Set up Pro Tools:
  - Go to Setup > Playback Engine…. Select your Fireface as your Playback Engine. Set the HW Buffer Size to 16 Samples (32 or 64 if you use a lot of plugins in Pro Tools or have a slow Mac). Press OK.
  - Find the audio track into which you’d like to record the vocalist. Click the input selector (first selector under I/O), highlight interface, and choose channels 3-4.
  - For both the track that will have the vocalist’s recorded audio and the track with the backing music, click the output selector (second selector under I/O), highlight interface, and choose channels 7-8.
3. Set up FarPlay:
  - Check that FarPlay is working with a basic setup using our QuickStart guide.
  - Go to Preferences > General Options. Set the Headphones to your Fireface. Set the headphones channel layout to Stereo and the headphones channels to channels 5-6. Press OK.
  - In a FarPlay session (just by yourself is fine), find the Devices subpanel and set the Microphone to the Input Mixer. Change the first track’s input device from No Audio to your Fireface, and use the channel selector underneath to choose channel 1 (assuming your talkback mic is plugged into input channel 1 on your Fireface). Click the circled plus to create a new track. In the new track, change the input device from No Audio to your Fireface, and use the channel selector underneath to choose channels 7-8.
  - Click Session > Broadcast Output. Set the Output Device to your Fireface. Set the Channel Layout to Stereo Mix (2 channels), and set the Output Device channels to channels 3-4. Set the Delay in ms to 0 ms (higher values like 500 ms are recommended when sending a pristine copy of FarPlay output to a livestream on YouTube, etc.). Press Start and then Close. When you leave a session, Broadcast Output stays off until you go to Session > Broadcast Output and press Start again.
If you’d be interested to meet to go through these settings together, please email us at support@farplay.io for scheduling.

Thank you,
David Liao
- This reply was modified 19 hours, 15 minutes ago by David Liao.
- This reply was modified 19 hours, 14 minutes ago by David Liao.
- This reply was modified 19 hours, 12 minutes ago by David Liao.
- This reply was modified 18 hours, 58 minutes ago by David Liao.
- This reply was modified 18 hours, 55 minutes ago by David Liao.