Outboard mixer uses & benefits?

[Vanity]

Hey all, i'm currently in the process off replacing my Motu interface with a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40. Wondering if its worth buying a small outboard mixer to go with it. Just wondering what benefits i would get with it if any? I'm planning on just using it as a more off a volume control as anything to have sitting on my desk.

Cheers in advance!

[Icetickle]

Benefit of twisting knobs and pushing sliders? da feeling...

[Vanity]

Haha thats what i'm saying! Didn't know whether or not it would come with any benefits or disadvantages like the mixer effecting audio quality from the interface?

[fragments]

From my own experience gain staging works very differently in analog. I feel like I benefit from mixing some projects in analog.

[Vanity]

Just thought actually, i would be converting the sound from digital, to analog then back to digital therefor reducing the sound quality, skipping the mixer would keep the signal chain in digital.

[test_recordings]

Ability to use analogue signal processing units to their full effect? Some things about DAWs piss me off

[nowaysj]

I really don't understand what you'd use the mixer for.

Lemme tell you why I need a mixer. I have a bunch of little hardware bits and I like to perform on them. Recordings of these performances is how I make songs. Right now my soundcard only has six inputs, so that is three sources in this stereo day and age. This is close to enough to get everything into the computer to record, but even then, it doesn't give me external signal processing flexibility like bussing and group processing. I also don't like having the computer on. Like I turn the computer on and my musical buzz fizzles. It is a battle to stay motivated on the computer, whereas with hardware sound sources and processing, I just lose myself and produce way more interesting beats. If I had a mixer, I could then record to tape without the computer even having to be turned on.

But if I was doing everything in the computer, and just bringing everything out, and then back in just so I could use faders to balance volume? That sounds mad to me. Granted, I feel I produce better balanced mixes when I'm mixing on a mixer. Just so much quicker to reach out and touch a fader, or several faders. (then again, automation on the computer has its benefits, enabling some really crazy things without the use of 10 hands.) There are automatable midicontrollers built for mixing, and I'd really like one for itb mixes. Imo you need dedicated faders 1:1 ratio, no paging around to find your bank of faders.

Also unless you're going to drop DUCKETS on a mixer, you're not going to get a sound boost (unless you are into a raw fuzzy noisy sound --- which I am).

[test_recordings]

You can process analogue sounds differently with a physical mixer. For example, wet signal routing can be split up in more ways

[nowaysj]

What do you mean by the test?

[test_recordings]

On most wet effects reverb etc you get a separate wet out that isn't connected with the dry signal so you can fuck with it more. Can't be done in a DAW as far as I'm aware, way more routing options that way. Also, analogue effects behave differently, often signal strength dependent, like plate reverb.

[nowaysj]

Aww shure matey can be done in the daw, and done better and easier. That is not a daw/hardware/software political statement.

[test_recordings]

Physical routing still has a lot more possibilities, for example delaying a delay with no original dry signal bleeding in to the second delay. That way you can make cool complex echo effects, guitarists do it a lot such as John Frusciante on 'This Is The Place' (I think it's that song, maybe it's the 'Don't Forget Me' solo).

Just try it. Take something like a synth saw wave with a single note repeated then set a delay in another channel, aux send the synth to the channel to the delay. Standard things. Then, for the comparison, turn off the delay and solo the aux channel - any dry signal you can hear is bleed through that wouldn't be present if you used physical routing. If you then try an put another delay in to delay the delay, you get that bleed through in the second delay which fucks up the effect.

[nowaysj]

Maybe a picture would help.

[fragments]

Physical routing still has a lot more possibilities, for example delaying a delay with no original dry signal bleeding in to the second delay. That way you can make cool complex echo effects, guitarists do it a lot such as John Frusciante on 'This Is The Place' (I think it's that song, maybe it's the 'Don't Forget Me' solo).

Just try it. Take something like a synth saw wave with a single note repeated then set a delay in another channel, aux send the synth to the channel to the delay. Standard things. Then, for the comparison, turn off the delay and solo the aux channel - any dry signal you can hear is bleed through that wouldn't be present if you used physical routing. If you then try an put another delay in to delay the delay, you get that bleed through in the second delay which fucks up the effect.

I'm a little confused as well. Theoretically digital routing should be more flexible since it's all just math. I understand the delay effect you are talking about. I'd have to think about how to set it up in my DAW, but I'm pretty sure you can do it (FL Studio 10).

Also, remember, you'd have to buy the mixer that would let you do this plus the delay units. I fucking love hardware, but I'm not sure routing audio has ever been easier than FL Studio 10 (just speaking from within my experience, I'm sure other DAWs are routing monsters. I hear Abelton is beast at this).

[test_recordings]

What I'm talking about is simple.

Just make a track with some sound on it then send it via aux send to a channel with delay on it. That's your normal delayed sound, right?

Next, solo the aux channel so no original sound is there.

Then, turn off the delay so there's no effects on the aux channel. That sound you hear from the original track is what f*cking annoys me because it means I have dry signal in the aux channel.

[fragments]

What I'm talking about is simple.

Just make a track with some sound on it then send it via aux send to a channel with delay on it. That's your normal delayed sound, right?

Next, solo the aux channel so no original sound is there.

Then, turn off the delay so there's no effects on the aux channel. That sound you hear from the original track is what f*cking annoys me because it means I have dry signal in the aux channel.

Is the original channel sending dry signal to the master? Is that actually the problem. I feel like if I do what you suggest in FL studio I wouldn't get that dry signal.

[AxeD]

What daw is that in? Isn't it solo saving automatically by chance? Can you chance pre/post fader monitoring in it?

[test_recordings]

Ableton, I've got Reaper now but I haven't had the chance to try it on that. To be honest, I'm going to use outboard effects in the future because DAW designers don't seem to want to design in that kind of feature