Confusion with mixing/mixers

[chamelious]

Just wondering, basically how it is that people *mix* their music recorded in cubase or pro tools etc on actual mixers. I use a mixer going into my pc but once the signals in my pc, im unsure how it is to use my mixer??

 

[dwillis45]

You would need to route tracks out of the computer back to your mixer and then on to an outboard recording device such as the Alesis Masterlink. The routing is done in your software where you specify the IN/OUT for each track. Obviously, it's helpful to have fairly good quality D/A (digital to analog) conversion and multiple channels (8,16, or more) to minimize the number of tracks that are grouped together.

 

[Farview]

What Dwillis said. You don't have to mix through your mixer, you can mix it in cubase. The quality of your DA conversion and your mixer will determine which is better.

 

[therage!]

Just wondering, basically how it is that people *mix* their music recorded in cubase or pro tools etc on actual mixers. I use a mixer going into my pc but once the signals in my pc, im unsure how it is to use my mixer??

Unless you have some awesome high end converters why not just stay in the box? I'm using a Delta 1010 and when mixing I run a left and right output to an Aux on my mixer so I'm using it for basically monitoring the mix that I'm doing inside my DAW software. That way I keep everything 24 bit until "final" mix-down. If you really feel you need faders etc, you can get a controller.