Actually you just reminded me of another question which kind of ties in with the original - How does an analogue desk interface with a DAW? i.e. how would one go about having each channel on the desk have its own channel in the DAW? With interfacing digitally, that's simple, but I'm not sure how you would do it through analogue. I guess have an interface between the desk and the DAW with enough i/o to transport between the two? Or is it simply a case of doing EVERYTHING on the desk, and just sending it to the DAW through outputs onto one single track?
I have a MOTU 828mk3 with a modded Behringer ADA8000 and a Presonus Digimax FS. My board could handle 20 ins, so I ran 1-8 out from my MOTU, and 1-4 on my presonus for the Mono stripped channels. Ran 1-8 on my Behry for the 8 tape returns. Everything in my studio is patchbayed, so I can easily reroute other outs for headphone mixes and such.
I would submix some stuff and send that out to the console.
Some I could send straight out.
I pretty much do the same with my control surface, send a lot of stuff to busses and keep them close together as a group, so the surface acts like a small mixer.
Oh and with my setup, I had to add bits of channel delay to compensate for the difference in output converter latency.
Now I could have had my monitors set up to use the monitor section of my board. But I elected to have the master section go back into my DAW. Then I monitored through the main outputs of my DAW. The MOTU internal mixer allows me to route say inputs straight to the the main outs. So I would do that for latency, otherwise I set my buffers so high when mixing, I would have serious latency.
Then for mixdown, I would arm a stereo track and record it back into the session. Then you can grab that audio file from your audio folder, or I would just solo it and bounce it down really quick so I could trim it a bit for noise and such.
But that way I was monitoring through my converters. Well and I actually used a DBX Quantum for return conversion and a master bus compressor and limiter (for quicky mastering listens). Plus the tape emulation on it was kinda-ish decent for slamming a mix.
Workflow and cabling clusterfuck. Oh yeah and each insert I had patchbayed too so I could patch outboard. So probably some signal degradation through cabling.
So the sonics better be fucking worth it. With my modded console it was, especially since I already did all the work to test. But it wasn't enough to box and move an 80lb console, find a new home for it, and wire it up again. And now that I am sharing studio space, the recall nightmares would have been horrendous. But I do miss the sonic fingerprint.
New consoles like the GS-R24 really intrigue me. Seems like you can get a lot of the benefits without the hassle and be under 10k. The TOFT ones have intrigued me as well. Beyond that, you can get an API 1604 for $50k loaded. After that, yeah big bucks. Not to mention you need a machine room for the power supply. Hell and those consoles draw some juice as well.
At that level the sonics are definitely worth it. Most will let you rent time, these days for cheap too with no engineer. So try it some time, patch into their board and mix, makes a big difference. I just have to find a project now that isn't on a fucking shoestring budget. I already make less than a car mechanic and sometimes even less than a housekeeper. But that is another rant....
