Using outboard gear with the Model 24

[IanG]

From what it seems to me, the only way you can outboard gear on this unit with a DAW is to send the Main or Sub outs into your processor, route them back into empty channels onto the board and then record it?
The MON aux are useless for outboard effects because they are pre fader sends, making the the fader of whatever you are sending out not change anything, unless you want to double the signal, which is not always my intention.
I am trying to use multiple outboard processors with the board, but I am having trouble figuring out how to.

 

[Matthew Fogel]

On this point, you are pretty much correct. You can kludge it, which in my case, I have done by using only one track for each MON aux, ensuring that the MON level is at 0 on the selected track, and then to ensure I don't bleed any of the track to main or sub, unselect those buttons on each of the channel and I actually have a piece of masking tape across the faders to remind me to use the MON1 and MON2 faders instead. So, not completely useless, but definitely kludgy.
Here I posted a pic on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJmRBLYjhTU/

Stephan Ringer has a video on using the MONs and FX for external effects, in his case, a couple of effects pedals. He's using them as 3 outboard effects buses.

Again, not ideal because you lose an inbound channel for each outboard you send back in. Of course for tracking you can also use the Inserts on 1 and 2. Still, routing options are limited compared to a purpose built analogue desk. The Model 24 is a compromise in design. I still love mine though.

 

[Hammarlund]

Yeah, pretty much right. None of these have any dedicated send/return loop other than the inserts. I am also running into things on my 12, and I'm also having to kludge it.

For example, since I only have mono signal sends to external effects, I treat the SUB channel as two mono channels by using the pan control, functionally gaining an extra send.

Similarly, I need to send a "chord base" to my harmonizer from selected channel(s). It doesn't return and fidelity isn't an issue, so I am planning to use the SOLO bus and send from a headphone jack.

You have even more options on the 24/16, i think. And If you really run out of sends, the insert jacks can be half-plugged and act as a duplicate post-preamp, pre-strip send while maintaining the original signal flow through.