Using The Router
The Router is where you connect audio components together to create a signal chain.
Machines: Machines are logical blocks which generate or process audio. These are represented by boxes on the screen. If you create an empty composition you will see one machine is created by default. This is the master machine, where signals terminate. Any signals reaching this machine will be played through the speakers. To create a signal chain, you create machines that generate and/or modify signals and connect them to the mixer. To create a machine, right click on an empty part of the router canvas.
Wires: Wires are used to connect machines to create signal paths. These are shown as lines with arrows on them on the screen. The direction of the arrow indicates which way the signal is routed. To create a wire between two machines, press and hold the Ctrl key and then left click and drag the mouse from the source machine to the target machine. To delete a wire, right click on the arrow. When you right click you will also notice that you can change the 'channel' on a wire. This allows a machine's input signals to be treated differently in certain situations. If you change a wire's channel, the machine receiving that wire's signal can treat the signal separately to other signals on different channels.
The Dot: Wires also have the ability to alter the volume and panning of the signals passing through them. This removes the need for mixing on the machines themselves. When you left click on the arrow part of a wire, a grid with a circular dot will be shown on the screen. By holding the left mouse button and dragging your mouse you can move the dot up, for more volume, down, for less volume, left, for left panning, and right, for right panning.
Parameters: While machines can be completely stateless, the more interesting ones allow some control over the sound they generate, or the processing they perform. To make this possible, machines expose parameters. Parameters can be things like sliders, switches, notes or any other changeable control for the machine. If you double click a machine, a window will open showing controls to modify the machine's parameters.