XO includes all the tools you need to get great loops for your tracks, but there are some cases in which your mixing can benefit from using the separate outputs method. This means sending the individual channels in XO to separate tracks in your DAW. Separate outputs lets you:
- Use a third-party effect on a single slot from XO. Perhaps you want to apply your favourite compressor to only a snare sample or use another third-party effect on only one/a few of the XO slots.
- Apply the same reverb that you have already used for other tracks, like vocals and guitar but only on some of the XO slots.
- Use one of the slots from XO, for instance Kick 1, as a side chain source in your arrangement
- Export the different channels from XO to separate audio files so that the tracks can be mixed by someone who does not own XO
- Send the different channels from XO, via an audio interface with multiple outputs into a mixing desk - for instance when using an e-drum kit or a percussion pad to trigger XO in a live situation
Enabling separate outputs inside XO
To route the XO slots to separate channels in your host, you must first enable the outputs inside XO. Simply open XO and click the “M” button (the M stands for Master) in the "Playback" column for every slot you want to route. You also get the option to choose between routing the slot with or without the Master channel.
The rest of this guide contains instructions on how to continue routing the outputs in your host software. This guide may not be up to date when you read this, so please refer to your host manual if you have any questions.
Select your DAW:
Logic:
1. Create a Multi-Output version of XO.
2. Open the XO interface, go to the EDIT page and click on the “M” in the "Playback" column. This gives you the option to manually route the output of the XO Slot you’re currently on to one of 8 output channels or you can auto-route all outputs to channels 1-8. You can route the channel either with or without the XO Master bus with its settings applied (see Enabling separate outputs inside XO in the beginning of this guide for more info).
3. Go to the Mixer in Logic and look at the track with XO, there’s a plus sign near the bottom if you loaded XO as a Multi-Output plugin. Clicking on that plus sign a number of times creates the Aux channels for the separate outputs in XO.
Another way to do this is to go to the Mixer in Logic and click Options > Create New Auxiliary Channel Strip (or press Ctrl + N). Do this for every channel you want to route. Click the input box for the these Aux channel, go to Inst 1 (or whatever the name of the XO track is) and select the input. XO 3-4 is Bus 1 in XO, XO 5-6 is Bus 2 and so forth.
Don’t forget to raise the volume for the Aux tracks as they are on zero by default.
Reaper:
1. Go to “Insert Virtual Instrument On New Track...”
2. Select XLN Audio: XO and click OK.
3. A “Build Routing Confirmation” dialogue should now pop up, prompting you to add
tracks for this effect. Click Yes.
4. Open the XO interface, go to the EDIT page and click the M symbol for every slot you want to route (see Enabling separate outputs inside XO in the beginning of this guide for more info).
Ableton Live:
1. Load XO on a MIDI track.
2. Open the XO interface, go to the EDIT page and click the “M” in the playback column for every slot you want to route (see Enabling separate outputs inside XO in the beginning of this guide for more info).
3. Insert Audio tracks for each channel you want to route. That’s 8 mono tracks if you want to route all channels from XO into Ableton Live.
4. In the “Audio From” input dropdown on the first audio track, select “XO”.
5. In the dropdown box directly below (it says Post Mixer in the screenshot), select the XO bus you want to send to this channel, for example BUS 1-XO.
6. One step below, click the Monitor [In] button to let sound through the channel.
7. Repeat steps 4-6 for the rest of the tracks until all channels are routed.
FL Studio:
1. Load XO on a track. Note that the AU version unfortunately doesn't work correctly with separate outputs.
2. Open the XO interface, go to the EDIT page and click the “M” in the playback column for every slot you want to route (see Enabling separate outputs inside XO in the beginning of this guide for more info).
3. Open the Wrapper Settings for the XO plug-in, then click the tab labeled Processing.
4. In the Connections tab, individual outputs from XO can be sent to different channel strips in the FL Studio Mixer. Clicking the "Auto map outputs" should automatically set this up. Make sure the tracks are enabled, if not click on the circle in front of them.
Cubase:
1. Load XO on an Instrument track.
2. Open the XO interface, go to the EDIT page and click the “M” in the playback column for every slot you want to route (see Enabling separate outputs inside XO in the beginning of this guide for more info).
3. In the Inspector view for the XO track you can activate the separate outputs.
In Cubase 12 XO is listed with a small arrow coming out of a box. Clicking on this will reveal the outputs available from XO. Select the ones you wish to activate and you should see new tracks created in Cubase in the mix console.
In Cubase 13 there's a multi-out return channel instrument dropdown (named XO 01 in the screenshot). Clicking on this will reveal the outputs available from Life. Click to select the ones you wish to activate and you should see new bus tracks created in Cubase in the mix console.
Pro Tools:
1. On a new Session create a stereo Instrument Track. Next add XO to that channel as a multichannel plugin.
2. Open the XO interface, go to the EDIT page and click the “M” in the playback column for every slot you want to route (see Enabling separate outputs inside XO in the beginning of this guide for more info).
3. Create Audio tracks for each channel you want to route. That’s 8 tracks if you want to route all channels from XO into Pro Tools.
4. Assign the individual XO buses as inputs to each track in the Mix View of Pro Tools. Select the audio channel, click on "no input" under I/O and select plug-in > XO inst X - Insert X and you should see a list of the buses from XO.
Cakewalk:
1. Click on Insert in the top menu, select Soft Synth and load XO into your project. When you do this make sure to select Instrument Track Per Output and Stereo Audio Outputs. This will route the audio outputs of XO to separate tracks in Cakewalk.
2. Open the XO interface, go to the EDIT page and click the “M” in the playback column for every slot you want to route (see Enabling separate outputs inside XO in the beginning of this guide for more info).
Reason:
1. Load XO into your project.
2. Open the XO interface, go to the EDIT page and click the “M” in the playback column for every slot you want to route (see Enabling separate outputs inside XO in the beginning of this guide for more info).
3. Toggle to rack rear (shortcut: ⇥).
4. Click on "Optional Inputs & Outputs) at the bottom of the back of the XO module.
5. Right click on Optional Audio Output 3 and select "Route to new Mix Channel". This connects Optional Audio Output 3 & 4 to the inputs of a new mix channel.
6. Right click on Optional Audio Output 5 and select "Route to new Mix Channel", and repeat the process for all available outputs.