Stoatworks Labs

Companion configs · Companion + TotalMix FX

SuperRack failsafe

Two Companion buttons for the moment SuperRack falls over mid-show. BYPASS loops the Dante inputs straight back out of the RME interface inside TotalMix, so the desk gets its channels back dry. RESTORE puts SuperRack back in the path once it's alive again.

I made it for a rig where the desk's inserts go out over Dante to a Mac running SuperRack Performer on a Digiface Dante. When the plugin host crashes, every inserted channel goes quiet together. Switching the inserts off at the desk works, one channel at a time; this does all of them from one button without touching the desk.

What the buttons do

TotalMix FX is a full mixer sitting between the interface's inputs, its outputs and the software playing through it. Normally each output carries its software playback, which here is SuperRack's return. BYPASS sends each hardware input to its own output at 0 dB, so what came in from the desk goes straight back out, and pulls the playback down to −∞. RESTORE does the opposite.

The order matters a little. BYPASS loops the input in before it takes SuperRack out, and RESTORE brings SuperRack back before it takes the loop away, so for the few milliseconds between the two you get both rather than neither. Muting the return matters more. A SuperRack that's only mostly dead can still be sending something, and a late second copy of a channel summed with the dry one is a comb filter (here's why).

What comes back in bypass is dry: no EQ, no compression, no de-feedback. Expect the levels to move, and keep a hand near the faders.

Build yours

The defaults are the rig it was tested on: pairs 5/6 to 15/16, TotalMix on its own default ports. Change them to suit yours and the file is made here in the page; nothing is sent anywhere.

Printed under BYPASS and RESTORE.
TotalMix shows these channels as
127.0.0.1 if Companion runs on the same Mac as TotalMix.
TotalMix listens on the first and replies to the second. Match its OSC settings.

Setting it up

  1. Put the interface on RME's driver. TotalMix can't see an interface running class compliant (the CC Mode switch in RME's firmware update tool), and with no device in its list it won't do OSC either.
  2. Turn on TotalMix's OSC (TotalMix FX 2.1 or newer). In Options → Mixer Settings, on the OSC tab, switch a remote on, point it at 127.0.0.1 (or the machine Companion's on) with TotalMix listening on your TotalMix port and sending to your Companion port, and set its compatibility to Global OSC. Then tick Options → Enable OSC Control. TotalMix only writes these settings to disk when it quits, so quit it once and open it again before the show.
  3. Import the page into Companion. In Import / Export, import the file. It's a single page: choose the page it replaces, then either link it to a TotalMix connection you already have or let it make one (Global OSC, with the ports you chose), and press Replace. It uses the RME TotalMix FX module.
  4. Check it before the show. Press BYPASS, select each output in TotalMix and look at its submix: its own input at 0 dB, its playback at −∞ and nothing else. Press RESTORE and check the reverse.

Things to know

  • TotalMix has to be open for the show. Companion talks to TotalMix, not to the interface, so with TotalMix closed the buttons do nothing.
  • It needs the Mac. If the Mac itself dies, TotalMix goes with it, and that one's a job for the desk's own insert bypass.
  • Port 7001 may be taken. On the Mac I tested on, an Autodesk background service already had UDP 7001, so TotalMix went on 7002. lsof -nP -iUDP:7001 says who has it.
  • After a driver change or a replug, check SuperRack. When the Digiface switched driver, SuperRack carried on running, kept showing level on its own meters, and sent silence until its audio device was picked again in its setup page. TotalMix's playback meters are the ones to believe.
  • The colours watch the first pair only. They tell you which way the buttons last went, not that every channel followed.

Status

Tested on 5 November 2026 with a Digiface Dante, TotalMix FX 2.10, Companion 5.1.2 and the RME TotalMix FX module 1.0.1 on macOS 26.4, with nothing live: pairs 5/6 to 15/16 in stereo, both buttons pressed and every crosspoint read back in TotalMix, then again after restarting TotalMix. It hasn't been used in a show yet. The file this page builds for those defaults has the same buttons and actions, and Companion 5.1.2's importer reads it.

The mono layout, other channel ranges and other RME interfaces haven't been tried. The builder writes the same actions for them, which isn't the same as having watched them work, so run the check above. The file is in Companion 5.1.2's format, and an older Companion may refuse it. Tried it on something else? Let me know how it went.