Can i get simultaneous playback on both analog & digital outputs?

[topdiggy2]

Hello Guys:

I have a MX2424 that i have yet to incorporate into my setupt. But, before i get into it...im just curious. I mix OTB on a soundcraft series 5 console. During my live room tracking sessions, I want to be able to tape my direct outs off the console into the MX analog inputs 1-24 during recording. and during playback/recording i want to be able to return the signal into my DAW and the console simultaneously.

So bascially, im asking can you use both analog AND digital outputs at the same time on the MX? Im not taking about mix-and-match, im talking about simultaneous playback out the adat and analog.

Can this be done?

 

[witzendoz]

Quick answer is no, you cannot have simultaneous playback of analog and digital outputs. You can only have analog and digital playback in banks of 8 channels, for example tracks 1 to 8 analog and 9 to 16 digital.

I am actually trying to figure out why you would want to work in the way you are set up?
Alan.

 

[witzendoz]

Actually I may be wrong in the answer above, I know that you cannot record from both analog and digital at the same time, but I don't think I have ever tried monitoring both at the same time. The manual refers to input/output, but all the instructions are related to recording, not playback. Interesting, give it a go.

Alan.

 

[topdiggy2]

Yeah, im going to try to work it out this weekend when i get a chance. Im waiting on a new hard drive for my mx to come in.

What I am trying to accomplish with this setup is my own work around for a "poor man's" waves soundgrid server using my old Pro Tool HD rig & waves plugins. Ideally, I would have to purchase a $700 Waves Impact server + new plug-ins minimum $300 Waves bundle to achieve this properly. But I already have some gear i can make use of to achieve this the exact same thing albeit old, but, still useful.

The idea is to make use of the existing (cheap $150) G5 and a few PCIx HD cards ($300 for 3), hacked Waves mercury bundle for TDM, and use the Tascam MX2424 as a bridge between the analog board and PTHD dsp engine. What I am hoping is that my muscians can get realtime monitoring of the effects in the live mix instead of having to do offline processing and retakes.

So signal flow would go something like this:

Source (guitar cab mic) > soundcraft analog board > MX2424 ananalog in / track 1> MX2424 adat out > Protools 192 adat in > waves gtr3 plugin > adat out > MX2424 adat in/ track20 effects track > MX2424 analog out / track 20 > effects channel in on console.

The issue I suspect would be the latency. Sure, i can do each step offline. Meaning tracking. Then transfer *.wav files into PT session. Then apply effects and plugins. Then stream everything thing back into the mx2424. But, it woudl be nice to reduce the extra steps.

Anyway, just an idea.

 

[witzendoz]

I don't use protools, but one of the young engineers that sometimes uses the studio does. He brings in his laptop (with protools on it) and connects to the MX (in our case we have 2 x MX's) via an M-Audio Light-bridge and firewire. That way he can have 32 channels of record and 16 channels of monitor, or any combination of that. You can do the same thing with one machine and have 16 channels of record and 8 channels of playback at the same time. The MX's don't actually do any recording we have them in record armed and the audio flows through. So in fact the MX is just a multichannel analog / digital, digital / analog converter.

Alan.

 

[topdiggy2]

Thats a great idea....i didnt think of that. Just using it in "armed" position as a audio pass-thru into DAW. And the bring the adat return channels in on the board thru another set of 24 channels. Thanks for that!!!

i dont use protools anymore either. My main DAW is Studio One 3. But, i have this HD hardware sitting in the garage and wanted to put it to good use!

 

[witzendoz]

The MX has great analog to digital converters, it's worth having one just as a converter, for the price I am surprised that more people have not caught on to this.

I still tend to track on the MX, I am a bit old school and I rather mix from the MX through the analog console and racks, but I do sometimes track on the MX and export the files into different DAW's depending on the project. I also do a lot of tracking for home studio people that want to track real drum kits and loud guitars but can't do it at home, I then give them the files to load into their DAW at home.

Alan.