So one of the big puzzles (I assume for many) has been the ideal way of routing and processing audio signals. I’m definitely still on the learning curve and prefer to work fully pc/dawless. Not long ago I added a mixer to my Elektron heavy setup and recently I’ve been re-evaluating how to best set this up, while also considering adding a Analog Heat MK2 and maybe some RNC/RNLA compressors into the setup for warming/saturating/processing/sidechaining.
I’m using a Mackie 1202 (due to nice size) but I’m already discovering that might not be enough for this due to it not having Master inserts and if I’d want to add a heat and/or compressor on the master bus I would likely need another small mixer (Behringer Q802/Q1002) at the end in order to be able to monitor through headphones, have audio out to speakers and also have an audio signal out to a tascam recorder.
At the moment I’ve set it up by having all my synths and drum machines into the mixer, having ALT3/4 and Control Room going out into OT A/B and OT C/D and then OT back to channel 11/12 on the mixer. Alt 3/4 routes any track through OT onto channel 11/12, CR out into OT gives ability to record a loop for transitions (though this requires turning down all other tracks on the mixer while playing the loop to avoid duplicating). I have some fx pedal’s on both Aux sends and returns. Speakers attached to main out’s of the mixer, recorder to the tape-out and headphone monitoring through the mixer.
Now I’m thinking of changing this setup by throwing the OT after the mixer instead of it occupying a channel and causing confusing audio routings. This makes more sense to me as a performance/effects unit at the end of the chain, though by putting it there I would need to use Cue out’s (in studio mode) for the Tascam recorder and monitor on headphones from the OT rather than having all those easy outputs from the mixer. I was thinking of basically creating one synth bus on the mixer (3 or 4 mono channels for synths and two stereo channels for Digitone and A4 MK1, both of those with a modular and another synth connected to their inputs) which goes from mixer main outs to OT A/B and another drum bus (mono channel for kick drum if needed and stereo channels for Rytm MK1 and Digitakt) which routes from Alt 3/4 into OT C/D. Control Room out would loop back into Digitakt in case would want to sample there.
Now I could see possibility for just routing Digitakt through Rytm MK1 (or other way around) and skipping the mixer and connecting those straight to the OT, freeing up two more channels on the mixer for synths rather than routing this through Alt 3/4. Actually the longer I think about it the more I wonder what the use would even be routing this through the mixer since Alt 3/4 is pre-fader. Wouldn’t really know what to use the Alt 3/4 functionality for then though.
Now for the compressor’s I can see them being useful on the synth bus (for example connected between mixer main out and OT A/B), between a specific synth and the mixer, or behind the OT main out’s on the master bus. In case of adding compressor (and maybe heat also) behind the OT I would guess another small mixer would be needed to be able to have headphones, speakers and a recorder at the tail end. Maybe another benefit of having a mixer after the heat would be to also be able to route the control room out’s back into the 1202 mixer to be able to sample post-Heat on DT or OT.
Curious to hear how other’s are incorporating Mixer’s, Saturator’s/Compressor’s and their Elektron gear into their dawless setups!