Could someone explain to me..

[geet73]

..how to do my mixing with a board?

Some of you talk about using a DAW but still mixing with a board.. how the hell do you do this? Do you have to have enough output to go back out to the board? And after it's all figured out to go to the board.. where does it go from there?

I'm just curious how this all works.

[tmix]

{..how to do my mixing with a board?

Some of you talk about using a DAW but still mixing with a board.. how the hell do you do this? Do you have to have enough output to go back out to the board? And after it's all figured out to go to the board.. where does it go from there?

I'm just curious how this all works.}


geet73,
Yes! You are right. You have to have a multichannel sound card (digital to analogue converter). How many channels is up to you. I have 16 channels of input and output. I can run it to the mixer (to utilize my outboard effects) and then feed 2 channels back into the computer recording the 2 track mix on an open track in the same project I am mixing from. You have the option of course to mix to an different device such as analogue tape or a DAT or something likea stand alone CD burner or Alesis Masterlink. It just depends on what you want.
You dont have to necessarily have a one to one track per output type thing. I often submix drums in the box and send out 2 tracks to the board, the same with background vocals or the inevitable pile of guitar tracks. I have found submixing as many as 8 tracks to an output to have no significant change in sound. More so since I have switched from Cakwalk / Sonar to Samplitude. With Samplitude I have yet to hear an appreciable difference in sound quality by submixing large quantities of tracks. The purpose for mixing outside the box is mainly to take advantage of your outboard gear (if it is of any quality). But if your stuff is junk, stick in the box. (my opinion obviously)

Tom

[Track Rat]

That's how I do it. I track to an HD24 and get into Cakewalk through a MOTU 2408 mkII. After I'm done tweaking I send it back to my console using the MOTU/HD24 as a 24 channel soundcard. The two buss output of the console goes back to the computer. For me this is the best of both worlds as I can use outboard compressors/processors/effects and plug ins simultainiously.

[apl]

Check out Ethan's article on the subject.

[geet73]

I understand how to connect a mixer to the soundcard. I'm currently running a Behringer MX2004A into my Terratec Phase 88 soundcard. This soundcard has 8 inputs and outputs. I guess what I'm confused out is the routing of the the outputs back into the mixer after everything is recorded. Like.. how to set it up so that my mixing would be done with the mixer rather than the computer.

I'm not sure how to explain what I mean.. I dunno.

[apl]

Oh, is this what you mean?

Record a few tracks into the PC, run them out seperately, mix them down to stereo with your mixer, run the stereo mix back to the PC, and then burn a CD?

Seems like you lose all the advantages of using a PC.

If your really that enamored with using a mixer, maybe you should look at a control surface, which looks like a mixer, but only runs the virtual sliders in the computer.

[geet73]

I'm not really worried about actually doing it.. I'm curious as to how to do it. Heh.

I think I'm getting an idea of how it's done now. It seems like it's alot of work with routing and such.

[fretmeister]

The concept is that the SUMMING of the tracks for the mixdown is superior in an analog mixer than in your DAW -- the mixdown to 2 tracks. With a control surface, the summing is still done in the DAW. So, you've got to get the tracks out to the analog mixer, mix down to two tracks, then back into the DAW to record the stereo track. I'm trying to figure out how to do this in Cubase VST. If anyone knows how, please let me know.

[apl]

Originally Posted by fretmeister

The concept is that the SUMMING of the tracks for the mixdown is superior in an analog mixer than in your DAW...

Please explain the superiority.

Thanks.