I am thankful for some advice on how to connect another interface to my 18i8 3rd Gen. I am playing with another person and want to record all of our individual tracks into Ableton on a Mac.
I will use the two line inputs on the back of my 18i8 to connect DT and DN. I will also use two inputs on the front to connect L/R outputs of effects pedals, which are fed by my SH01a. I will also use the third input on the front to connect a mic for vocals.
I have connected my 18i8 to my Mac via USB and set up three stereo tracks for the synths and one mono track for vocals with some Ableton plugin effects.
My partner has a DT and DN that I would also like to record as two additional stereo tracks in Ableton. Now how would I go about this? My thought was to use the ADAT/SPDIF inputs on my 18i8 to connect another interface. He currently has a 2i4 which doesn’t have these outputs, so he will have to get a new interface that has them. It would be optimal if he could also use this new interface for recording his solo stuff and just sell the 2i4.
Right now I’m having two ideas from reading here so far. But I’m not sure about limitations, which is where you could really help:
He could get a 18i8 as well. I could connect it via ADAT to my 18i8. Will it then be possible to record his tracks individually in Ableton? Or will my interface only receive his master out? Can only the 18i20 send individual tracks via ADAT? Sweetwater’s phrasing sounds a bit like that here.
He could get a 6i6. It doesn’t have ADAT, but supports standalone mode. If I understood correctly, I could send its four inputs to its four outputs in standalone mode and then connect them to the inputs of my 18i20. I think this is not a real solution though as I don’t have four inputs left on my 18i20. However, it also has SPDIF out and in. Could this help to send/receive individual channels?
Would one of these solutions work? Do I have to expect latency or other issues when recording in Ableton Live on a Mac Book Pro from 2014?
If none of these two solutions work, what would be a cheap alternative? Get something like a Behringer ADA8200, connect his DN/DT to four channels and send these four channels to my 18i8 via ADAT?
Please don’t suggest workarounds like using DN/DT inputs to pair synths. We did that last time and I now wish I had indiviual tracks of the recordings.
Whichever way you do it, I would say just taking an ADAT cable from your partner with his sources would be the best way to do it.
Your option 1. would work, or something like an ADA8200 would work too. You just need to make sure you have the Word Clock in sync across both devices.
Another option, which could be more expensive depending on the device, is for him to use a (small) mixer/recorder that can record separate tracks to an SD card (1010 Bluebox, Tascam Model 12, Zoom H6)… then you can just take a stereo line from him to record into Ableton. Then if you need the individual files from him later on, you can just import them… I’d say that would be the best route to take, and I’d probably use the Zoom H6 for all of the extra uses it could give you.
Thank you both for your adviecht, @m0ld and @CCMP!
Three follow up questions:
would 18i8 send individual channels to my 18i8 via ADAT so I can send all inputs of both 18i8s into Ableton as individual tracks?
setting up ADAT with two interfaces will be a pain or did you refer to the other method of using standalone mode?
Zoom H6 would have four inputs for my partners DN and DT and two outputs for connecting it to my interface, but record two stereo tracks onto its SD card?
Oh I just meant the Focusrite software is unintuitive and annoying to use. It took me way longer than it should have to set up a ADAT expansion. Stand-alone mode was easy to set up though.
It’s not that hard to do, and once it’s set up you can save it.
But, are you playing live like this? Or is it for jamming/recording?
Because, I would not trust the ADAT Digital Sync in a live situation personally… there’s no worse sound than a digital sync issue.
Yes, exactly this. It just makes it a lot simpler to start playing… and also, you get the stereo microphones for recording/sampling, and it acts as a USB audio interface when you want it to be.
The Zoom handy recorders are really good and convenient to have… I have all kinds of interfaces, mixers, mics, etc, costing a lot more money, but I’ve had my H4n for about 5 years now and it still gets a lot of use.
It would be for jamming/working out stuff in a room together. So not for live use. While the Zoom solution definitely has its appeal, it’s one more thing to think about. I‘m afraid we forget it at a point and it will be hard to sync the Zoom tracks later if needed. So I will look into the 18i8 solution. Thank the both of you so much, really appreciate your help!
I’m confused because it seems quite likely you’ve thought of it already.
Why don’t you record the DN and DT via Overbridge/USB? You can then record all tracks individually as well as the master track using Ableton.
You can still get the normal main outputs from the DN and DT while connected to Overbridge by setting INT to MAIN in audio routing to “ON” rather than AUTO.
So that would be this solution I suggested above, right?
“If none of these two solutions work, what would be a cheap alternative? Get something like a Behringer ADA8200, connect his DN/DT to four channels and send these four channels to my 18i8 via ADAT?”
Well, I want to record 2x DN, 2x DT, 1x SH01 through stereo effects pedals and 1x mono vocals. I don’t think I can record all of this via Overbridge? Isn’t it supposed to require workarounds for even recording more than one Elektron box at the same time?
With the ADAT, it gets recognized and slaved to the 18i20. And the channels get populated on a custom mix.
Having two 18i20s, I don’t know if both can be initialized.
Focusrite also makes a dedicated ADAT expansion. And you can call the tech support and tell them what you are trying to accomplish. They helped me set everything up.
I have a Scarlett 18i8 myself. For adding more I/O I’d probably get an Octopre or Octopre Dynamic - most likely just the regular Octopre as I can’t think of a use case for myself which would require analog compressor on every single channel. I realize a company called B*** makes an Octopre competitor, but I don’t trust that Focusrite configuration software will work properly with non-Focusrite gear.
