central station needed?

[Shadowdog]

I was thinking about grabbing the presonus central station so I could switch between like my monitors and a boom box etc. I have an RME hammerfall dsp multiface an it has like 8 outputs. can I just use them instead of gettting a unit like the central station (none of my gear is actually hooked up yet.) can i use the interface for the rme to select the output to use and run 1 to the headphone amp, one to my monitors and one to a boom box or somehting along those lines and save myself $500?

[Adam P]

I'm assuming you mix "in the box"? You could probably just set your different monitoring devices up on different stereo pairs of outputs (monitors on 1-2, boombox on 3-4, etc). Then you'd probably have to switch the outputs in your recording software, which would work but be a little more time consuming than just pushing a button (for example, in Cool Edit you would open a channel's Playback properties, select the desired output pair, check the box that says "same for all channels" and hit OK). Using monitors and a headphone amp simultaneously might be a problem unless your software can send the output to more than one stereo pair at the same time (which I know Cool Edit, for example, cannot).

[Shadowdog]

yes I plan on mixing on the computer for now. SO with the rme then,if I set it up so 1/2 go to my monitors, 3/4 to other source, and then 5/6 to my headphone amp can I choose which one of those I am going to use? Is that what you are saying, but I would just have to do it thru setting rather than one button pushing? But you think I may not be able to do 2 at the same time? I am not sure when I would do that I guess, but why couldn't I? Sorry like I said I don't have this even hooked up yet so I am trying to imagine it all.

[treymonfauntre]

yea in your software each track will have an output setting. most of the time they're set to "stereo out" or "analog 1/2" or something along those lines.

[Adam P]

What software will you be using to track everything?

[Shadowdog]

paln on Cubase SX3. But isn't there software with the Soundcard that can control which outputs on that can be used?

[Adam P]

I'm not experienced with your interface, and I've messed around a little bit with Cubase SE, so don't take what I have to say as cold hard fact. However, with my Layla/Cool Edit setup, the interface's software was primarily geared towards setting up cue mixes; that is, setting it up so that what was coming in on a pair of inputs could be routed back to the corresponding outputs if desired, for sending to tape returns or spare channels on a mixer. You had to use the actual recording software (Cool Edit in my case) to determine which set of outputs the recorded material played back on, and any given channel could only be routed to one pair of outputs at a time. In other words, say I had four drum tracks: OH left, OH right, kick, snare. If I wanted, I could route each track to its own output (set OH left to output on 1-2, and pan hard left, aka output 1, set OH right to output on 1-2 and pan hard right, aka output 2). This would be most useful if mixing down through a mixer and not in software. Alternatively, I could set each of those four tracks to output on 1-2, and patch that into my headphone amp, and all of the drum tracks would be sent to the headphone amp. If they were all routed to 1-2, I wouldn't be able to simultaneously route them to, say outputs 3-4 connected to my monitors. I would have to pick one or the other.

That said, Cubase seems to have more flexible routing options than Cool Edit, and it may allow you to route a channel to multiple busses, and send each buss to a pair of outputs (ie Buss 1 = headphone amp on outputs 1-2, and Buss 2 = monitors on outputs 3-4). Someone who uses Cubase would have to answer that for you.

I hope that made some sense, but it probably didn't, so I hope I haven't confused you even further. I'll shut up now.

[treymonfauntre]

yea you can use sends in cubase. make a group channel for each output and send all the channels to whatever group you want. its not as easy as hitting a physical button but it would work

[Adam P]

There you go.

[Shadowdog]

cool, maybe I'll just wait and actually turn on a computer before I try to figure any more of this out.