Bringing a laptop into recording studio

Joner Jones

Joner Jones

New member
Hi, I've been recording an EP at my university lately, now I can do most of the editing and some mixing on the studio's Mac computer. But when it comes to the final mix I would like to use my laptop as I prefer my plugins.

The studio has been set up to accommodate this and has 1/4 inch direct monitor inputs in the patch bay, for us to connect to USB audio interfaces using TRS cables. My question is, will this affect the sound quality of my main output to a point that may be detrimental to the mixing process?

I ask this because the studio is using digidesign 192s, which I assume contain expensive, top-grade AD/DA converters, I would be bypassing this by using a Presonus Audiobox to get my laptop sound into the monitors.

Would using my laptop, and the inferior D/A conversion of the audiobox affect headroom? Would digital distortion be a problem?

Also, will bouncing down the final mix on my laptop affect the overall quality?

Thanks,

Joner
 
Er, a different thought...

Why go through a DA>AD conversion at all? Is there not a facility to transfer the tracks in digital form to a CD ROM (not music CD), DVD ROM or some kind of USB thumb drive? This would strike me as the better way to proceed.

Heck, if the school's gear is online, transfer everything to Dropbox and pick it up from there. Re-recording just doesn't strike me as the best way to go.
 
This was going to be my question.

And if the issue was in placing clips or something, consolidate to session start each track and then export those clips.

You put those in a new session and they'll all be in the right place immediately.
 
Bit out of my depth here so NOOB questions coming up!

The Audiobox is two tracks AFAICS so in order to do "a mix" you would need to import the tracks two at a time? Then what DAW software is involved at each stage?

I would also think the original tracks are recorded at 24bits and you would want to retain that until the last possible stage?

Dave.
 
TimOBrien said:
Far simpler to have the studio just give you 'stem' tracks (one .wav track per instrument rendered the full length of the song) on a cd or dvd or usb drive.
Click to expand...


To add to this, make sure each track is post processed so you get the plug ins you want for processing. Before I would do any digital to analog to analog to digital, I would just keep it digital. Not sure why your taking the long way as providing tracks to "import" for further mixing is really rather normal. Just make sure they are processed with your plug ins for the final sound.
 
I think I've been misunderstood but I'm not sure, my question was on whether there was a tangible difference between the D/A conversion of my Presonus Audiobox and the studio's Digidesign 192s that may affect the way I mix (due to any problems with headroom or digital distortion) as I want to mix from my laptop while using the studio monitors. I will be transferring all files digitally using a portable hard drive and/or dropbox between the mac and my laptop.
 
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