using external hardware for mixing

[liv_rong]

i always just use the plug-ins for mixing, but i was reading another post and it made me want to try to use some out board stuff to give it a try. i just dont know how to go about it.

i was thinking of sending an aux from my board/interface to the processor, then feeding the output of the processor back into a seperate track for recording. but, it seems like there would be a lag, or a time difference since the signal is going through so much stuff and the new processed recorded track would not line up correctly with the rest of the project. if this is so, could i just drag it back to where its supposed to be? is this even possible with my set up?

i have alesis multimix 16 firewire for an interface. can i even use external gear with what i have??

thanks for any feedback, it is really appreciated. i know its probably a stupid question

 

[mixsit]

Yes you can drag it forward to make up the difference. Align to a spike if it's crit'. You may find that if the lag is small enough and you're just doing verb or delay you can just tweak the effect time to compensate there. When I do verbs like that it comes back five or ten ms differences (once the track is recorded), sometime it's enough to mess with the feel, sometimes not.

 

[Somnium7]

I have an FX box with SPDIF in and outs and I find using it as a send from my soundcard works better with digital signals. I don't find any latency problems this way.

 

[liv_rong]

well, i have a digital out on the mixer, but no return, so do i then send it back as a normal track??

i do not want to invest in a soundcard at this moment

 

[Somnium7]

well, i have a digital out on the mixer, but no return, so do i then send it back as a normal track??

i do not want to invest in a soundcard at this moment

Yeah give it a try. Since I only have one pair of SPDIF I/Os The FX box and my sampler compete for the digital input on the card. When the samplers gets it I route the FX box back into my mixer and to an analog input on the card. Again, no problems with this that I can hear.

 

[Fishmed]

I mix down using the summing method, so I have multiple outputs from my DAW. On several pairs of the outputs I assign to busses within my software (Sonar) and send them into my FX units then to my mixer. I can control the amount of effects within my software, but the actual outputs go to the mixer at the same time the regular tracks do. I have also set the FX units' MIDI to my PC so I can recall the patches for each song.