Apogee Duet with mixer? Signal flow questions

BDub79

New member
Couple general questions about signal flow here. Bear with me.

I've been recording on PC using Sonar 8, and I'm pretty much fed up with it.

I'm planning on buying an iMAC 2.8 GHz Quad Core i7 8G RAM with Logic Studio and was reading that Apogee works best with this program. I can't afford the Ensemble, so I'm gonna go with Duet.

I am a multi-instrumentalist, with a Roland TD-9 kit, a couple Korgs, guitars, bass, and some Mics. I wanted to have all my instruments set up, so that I don't have to keep swapping out chords into the Duet everytime I want to record something new.

I was going to have the Korg synths hooked up MIDI through the Duet, But I was planning to run all my other instruments / mics, into my mixer, then run the Main Outs into the Duet. Is this the correct way to do it?

I ask cause I've read it's best to run your mics, instruments directly into the Duet. And I know that I should mute all the other instruments when recording a track.

So, will it make a significant difference from running direct into the Duet vs through a mixer? What is the purpose of having a mixer if you can't use it?...also, what about all the pre amps, equalizers, etc that people have in their studios? Don't they run through them before they run into the interface? The interface is the last piece of the puzzle, right? Sounds silly but I'm confused. I have an Art Mic Pre-Amp. Do I still use this when recording with my Mic or does the Duet have pre-amps built in that are better?

I'm a musician, not an engineer :)

just trying to get the best recordings with the least hassle of setting things up constantly.

thanks!

Brendan
 
I used this set up, actually I still do. If you want to use outboard gear you don't really have much choice. If your mixer doesn't put out a lot of noise you should
be good to go. I've been running an ancient Carvin MX series mixer into a duet and it sounds real good to me.

The only question you really got ask yourself is do you really want a Duet?
I wished I would have just went with an ensemble it's just to limited. It sounds great but your gonna want MORE channels and probably ADAT and SPDIF too.
 
So, will it make a significant difference from running direct into the Duet vs through a mixer? What is the purpose of having a mixer if you can't use it?...also, what about all the pre amps, equalizers, etc that people have in their studios? Don't they run through them before they run into the interface? The interface is the last piece of the puzzle, right? Sounds silly but I'm confused. I have an Art Mic Pre-Amp. Do I still use this when recording with my Mic or does the Duet have pre-amps built in that are better?

I'm a musician, not an engineer :)

just trying to get the best recordings with the least hassle of setting things up constantly.

thanks!

Brendan

The problem with using a mixer is that every electronic component that your signal runs through will add noise at some level. Most of the time on one track the noise is pretty unnoticeable but as you start to sum your tracks together in your DAW the noise added by the extra electrical components in your signal chain will start to add up. Most consoles will allow you to bypass the Dynamics section and summing amp by using a direct out from the preamp. The problem with this is that there is a direct out for every channel so it kinda defeats the purpose of using a mixer in your case. Also, many mixers allow you to insert and remove the dynamic section from the signal chain.

The general rule of recording is to get the cleanest most unaffected signal possible to tape or hard disk. Most engineers opt to use EQ, compression and such after they get a clean recorded signal. If you record an EQ or compression setting its there permanently.

Most consumer based interfaces have pre-amps built in so using an outboard preamp really isn't necessary, but if you prefer the sound of one preamp to another than just use a line input on your interface. Your interface is actually the first and last piece to the puzzle so... Choose wisely.
 
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