Using ADAT for inserting external effects during mixdown

[Black Shadow]

Hi all,

I've had this idea on using ADAT to insert external effects during mixdown. Let's say I'd want to incorporate an outboard compressor on a stereo drums track. I would do the following:

1) Connect an external interface, ie an MR816, through ADAT to the DM 4800, clocking the latter to the former.
2) Send the stereo track in my DAW through the DM 4800's FW card to the MR816's ADAT outs 1-2.
3) Connect the MR816's outs 1-2 to the outboard compressor and connect the latter's outputs to the MR816's inputs 1-2.
4) Route the MR816's ADAT ins 1-2 to channel 1-2 in the DM 4800.
5) Enjoy listening to the compressed stereo drums track on channel 1-2.

In doing so, and provided I keep projects to 44.1 or 48 sample rates, this MO would mean I could run 8 channels (4 stereo) to external effects processors during mixdown, without sacrificing any of the AUX send/return channels I prefer using for send effects.

I have not tried this out IRL, so I wanted to present this idea to the community for feedback.

My main concern is latency, but if I can compensate for this in any way through the DAW, I think this could be a good workaround for the limited number of physical I/O the DM 4800 has to offer.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

 

[mixerizer]

You can definitely do that! And consider using the DM’s built in assignable inserts. That will let you put the effect on any channels or busses you might want, not just the FW ones

 

[Black Shadow]

Thank you mixerizer, that would indeed be a more flexible and therefore better option! I'll try this out and report back for future reference.

 

[mixerizer]

Awesome - Also remember to explore the “input bypass” feature of the ROUTING function. It will let u do things like route and reorder the external effects I/o and route stuff to those external effects without needing to use input channels, for example lining up some of those parallel stereo pairs in a chain (Compression, EQ and then modulation, for example).

 

[Black Shadow]

Thanks again mixerizer, that term didn't ring a bell at all, despite having read the manual a few times now

If I understand correctly, the insert bypass lets you route certain outputs directly to certain inputs without having them pass through the board, while still allowing you to use those I/O paths as soft inserts to board channels - is that correct?

 

[mixerizer]

Exactly it’s like a routing matrix independent of the mixing flow.

 

[Black Shadow]

Awesome. I wish I had known this while mixing my last project, it would have saved me some time printing effects Great advice!

 

[mixerizer]

The DM has some amazingly useful features, and combined w the new stuff like interfaces and their sub mixing, etc, you can do a lot, whether analog, both or all in digital! Enjoy experimenting with it!

 

[Black Shadow]

I have and will Furthermore, I just understood from reading a related thread that, as the insert signal stays in the board (instead of returning to the DAW), latency will probably not be much of an issue. Excited to try this all out next week!

 

[Black Shadow]

Just reporting back: I tried everything out today (using the soft inserts) and it worked as expected, no hassle or latency issues.

Time to sell the old patchbay

 

[mixerizer]