SouthSIDE Glen
independentrecording.net
It really all comes down to "cost vs. benefit"; i.e. at what point do the costs in conversion become too high to justify the benefit of the outboard EQ. That depends upon three main things; the actual quality benefit of the EQ, the quality of your converters, and how often you use that chain.shred_head said:
The easiest but most expensive way is to use top-shelf converters; then the issue becomes almost nin-existant. An alternative here would be yo use the Firepod for basic tracking and have an additional one or two channels of high-grade converters for "gold channel" tracking (vocals, pianos, etc.) or for lots of re-conversion like we're talking.
On the other hand, if you are just coming out to go to the EQ once for one or two tracks (or for 2mix mastering), then - assuming you have an EQ that's worth the trip, the re-conversion through the Firepod probably won't be bad.
Where the build-up can become audible is in the build-up. This can be in the form of multiple generations of re-conversion, where the artifacting can build up rather like tape hiss can build up over bounces. Even then, sometimes the cost is worth it *IF* you're EQ is worth that cost. It can also come in the form of build-up over tracks. This would be much like the "build up" of sound that can sometimes be had by using the same mics and mic pres on multiple tracks, where the "sound" of the gear get's a homogenous tone to it. There, obvioulsy, the greater the number of tracks and the more generations of conversion per track, the more audible the artifacting.
I'd personally recommend a nice balance. Use the outboard EQ judiciously; save it for the 2mix and use it during mixing only hwen the particular characteristics of that EQ are not just warranted, but definitely advantageous. I can understand to a degree your desire to not use many plugs in the box, ans many of them are of dubious quality, but there *are* many EQ plugs that are actually quite good. Additionally, every EQ - internal or exteranl - has it's strong suits and it's weak suits. I personally often wind up using several different EQs on one mix, depending upon the task at hand. I'd open up a little bit and not depend upon a single EQ to do all the work for you, even if it is a $3000 Manley tube box.
It depends entirely on how I patch things in. I am using a rather unconventional but quite easy set up in that I do not have any normalled signal path through the patch bay. I'm really just using it as "I/O central" for my rack gear, with nothing pre-connected. Then I just patch together what I want how I want like an old-fashoned telephone operator connecting incoming and outgoaing calls to different phone extensions.shred_head said:
Here's my actual patch bay layout. I have a 1U 24x2 Neutrik patch bay at the bottom of my rack. The devices/channels are laid out on the patch bay like this (with the top row for the device/channel outs and the bottom row for the device/channel ins):
1-2: DA-30 DAT L/R
3-10: ADAT-XT 1-8
11-12: QuadraVerb 2 L/R
13-14: Pro VLA compression 1-2
15-16: dbx 2215 EQ/Limiter/NR 1-2
17-24: MOTU 2408 analog 1-8*
*I also have ADAT lightpipe from ADAT as well as S/PDIF from the DAT going into the back of the 2408.
My mobile mixer (1604VLZ) sits on top of the rack (it's not mounted in in this case), and I use 6' color-coded snakes to run out from the mixer and into the bottom row of the front patch bay as needed/desired. I can then go straight to ADAT or straight to the MOTU (or any combination) just by plugging into their respective patch bay ins. Or I can build an intermediate chain in any order I want by simply patching the chain together right on the patch panel with short patch cables. This also allows me to use the processing as channel inserts on the mixer by running insert cables from the mixer to the patch bay instead of the standard snakes.
All it really is is a neat and organized way of being able to wire any and all the gear I want in the order I want without having to climb on my knees behind the rack with a flashlight and an assortment of spaghetti cables. Instead all the I/O I need is right here in the 1U patch bay; fully flexible, easy to get to, easy to modify on the fly, easy to see at a glance how it's wired, and easy to keep straight and neat.
G.
