Audio Routing

Configure audio routing before using Power Studio on air.

Open Options and Settings and go to Audio Routing. Assign each player and function to the correct sound device and channel pair.

Common Routing Choices

For an automation-only web station, players can share the same output if the combined signal is sent directly to the stream encoder.

For a live studio, route players A, B, C and D to separate mixer faders. This gives presenters and technicians proper control over starts, stops and levels.

For Player A-D, the standard routing approach is to route the player's PFL output to the same physical output as the player's normal playout output. This keeps the player tied to the same mixer channel while Power Studio still treats PFL playback differently from normal on-air playout.

If the studio has a dedicated cue, monitor or PFL path, Player A-D PFL can be routed to that separate output instead. In that setup, make sure presenters understand whether they are listening through the mixer channel cue system or through a separate Power Studio PFL route.

For Playlist PFL, Track Browser preview and Mix Editor playback, use separate preview routes where available. These are independent helper players and should not accidentally reach the program output.

For voice tracking and recording, confirm both the input device and the output device. A presenter must hear the correct transition while the recorded voice is captured from the intended microphone or mixer output.

Audio Routing Screen

The Audio Routing page lets you assign:

Main output for the main program output.
PFL output for pre-fade listening.
Playout players for Playout Playlist playback.
Auxiliary players for helper players and preview workflows.
Cart players for jingle and instant-fire playback.

Some players can share a channel. Use shared channels only when the mixer or station workflow is designed for it. In a live studio, separate faders are usually easier to operate and troubleshoot.

Advanced Audio Settings

The Advanced audio settings screen includes low-level engine settings such as buffer size, internal sample rate, update period, streaming read timeout, streaming connection timeout, number of players, update threads, recording buffer size and driver mode.

Change these settings only when you have a clear operational reason. Smaller buffers can reduce latency but can also increase dropout risk. After changing advanced audio settings, restart Power Studio and test playout, PFL, carts, recording and voice tracking.

Power Studio favors modern Windows audio paths such as WASAPI where available. Legacy driver modes may still be useful for older hardware, but they should be treated as compatibility options. If a device has both modern and legacy drivers, test the modern driver first and keep the chosen driver mode consistent across production machines.

Recording behavior can also be affected by advanced audio settings. On older computers, offline recording processing can reduce CPU load during recording by applying encoding or processing after the recording has finished.

Driver Consistency

Use one driver type when possible. Mixing ASIO, WDM and WASAPI devices in one setup can make timing and troubleshooting harder.

When a device driver is updated, Windows may expose the device under a slightly different name. Re-check routing after audio-driver updates, Windows feature updates or hardware replacement.

If an audio driver fails to initialize, check both Power Studio logs and Windows audio-device status. A driver that works in another application may still expose a different channel layout, sample rate or device name to Power Studio.

Check The Setup

After routing:

Load known audio in each player.
Test each player output.
Test carts.
Test Playout Player PFL on Player A-D.
Test Playlist PFL, Track Browser preview and Mix Editor playback.
Test recording and voice tracking inputs.
Confirm that Automation Mode and Live Assist Mode both behave as expected.

Do this before the first production broadcast and after replacing audio hardware.