I'm asking the same ? I asked in the alesis forum.How do I hook my 3630 comressor and my microverb 3 into my FD-4,and will I have to switch the cords around depending on if I'm doing a final mix or single track compressing?
Here's how I did it on my FD-4. I have my compressor hooked up to inserts on channel 3 & 4 and the effects going through aux 1. I send just about everything through channels 3 & 4 when recording, if it doesn't need compressing on the initial tracks I defeat (bypass) the compressor. When I mixdown I send to tracks L & R. I then exchange tracks L & R with tracks 3 & 4. I then Master 3 & 4, allowing me to use both effects through aux 1 and the compressor through the inserts to get an awesome Master. I format my Orb drive in Master Mode 1 allowing me to use the L & R tracks as real tracks. Normal will allow this also but Master Mode 2 does not. If you are using a Zip disk you will be limited to Normal and Master Mode 2, so if you want to be able to mixdown all 4 tracks to tracks L & R (virtual DAT machine) you will have to use the Normal mode which samples at a lower rate (32kHz vs 44.1kHz) I have no idea if it has any great audible difference in sound, but I would guess yes--much in the same way analogue tape sounds better when run at faster speeds then slower. Hope that helps. By the way, when I do master I master to quality hi-fi VHS tape and it sounds great.
