Bringing ITB Effects out of the Box

[bachelorb]

I was watching this fella, trying to learn a bit about my setup, and he talks about bringing in the box effects out to two channels. It looks to me like he is just making a buss for them, and bringing out only the effects??? Then using his faders to adjust the effect. The only way I can do it, is I have to assign a track to the buss (which may be what he's doing, but I'm not sure)

He talks about this starting at 8:30 and finishes up around 12:00



I'd appreciate any help on this,

Brad

 

[miroslav]

What is your hardware and software setup and channel capability exactly?

You can bring all your ITB tracks out to a console...and that would include taking the ITB effects and sending them to their own bus, and bringing them out along with the other ITB tracks...but of course...the number of ITB tracks you are bringing out can't exceed the number of individual channels on your interface.
So if you bring out 16 tracks...14 tracks + 2 tracks of effects...then you need a 16 channels of D/A on your interface.

Once you bring them out to a real console/mixer...each ITB track goes to it's individual channel on the mixer...and the effects go their own two, since usually the effects will need to be stereo (though not always). Once you have all that out of the DAW and at your mixer...then you can adjust the effects to taste at the mixer.

So when he talks about "just the effects"...it's not like you can just access the FX by running them out to the console...it just means that you don't premix them already in the DAW....like you don't apply them to a DAW track and then bring out that track w/FX already mixed. Rather you send the ITB track to the FX bus in the DAW...but you then receive the FX at your hardware mixer, and do the blending there.

It's more confusing to explain than it is to actually do. Just think about the routing. That's really what it's all about. You just have to keep straight the routing you have going on in the DAW...and then tie that into the routing out to your console...and then consider the routing you do at the console.
Best thing...start with just 1-2 tracks and work out that routing for a hybrid setup. Once you get that, then doing 30 more tracks is easy...but again, you need as many interface channels as the number of tracks you intend to bring out of the DAW. Whatever excess there is of tracks in the DAW, you have to submix in the DAW down to the interface capability.

 

[bachelorb]

Thanks Miro!! I only have an 8x6 interface, still bussing ITB and sending it out 4 channels, and leaving 2 for effects is intriguing.

So when he talks about "just the effects"...it's not like you can just access the FX by running them out to the console...it just means that you don't premix them already in the DAW....like you don't apply them to a DAW track and then bring out that track w/FX already mixed. Rather you send the ITB track to the FX bus in the DAW...but you then receive the FX at your hardware mixer, and do the blending there.

That's kind of what happened when I tried it, but I was hoping for the other . Still.... bringing it out to the console I think would be interesting. I'll give it a try again. I found a partial song I wrote about three years ago and I thought about finishing it and trying to develop it in a hybrid workflow. I'd like to try some voice (and instrument) double tracking..... things like that. I haven't worked in a DAW all that much, so I think it'd be fun...... If I can ever get this balky hardware straightened out....

Thanks again!!! That was a big help!

Brad