I eventually went for an Analog Heat Mk2.
Second hand unit in mint state (still under warranty) at a very reasonable price.
I am going to put it at the end of my audio chain first to see how saturation and env follower behave.
I have been doing some A/B tests with the RNC and I like very much how the compression on this unit works on my mixes. So much that over the last year, I have been producing/mixing directly IN the RNC.
2 Likes
I am going to be trying basically the same set up, at least conceptually — in my case everything’s going to an A&H ZED18 mixer. I have a patchbay rigged so the Heat is normalled through post-fader aux outs on the ZED back to a stereo input channel, and see how that works as a master saturation and env follower/compression tool. Having it wired into the patchbay means I can also easily use it to process the output of any individual box to do more sound design-y type of stuff, or if it turns out to do better in the mix just processing one set of outputs at a time rather than the full mix. I looked at the OTO as well but also decided on the Heat. Very curious to hear about how things go in your rig!
1 Like
Will post some update whenever I set it up… It is on its way at the moment.
But sure I will.
At the moment I have bypassed (boxed) my MOTU UltraLite Mk3 to have only main outs of OT going into RNC. I will put the Heat in between OT and RNC to see what I can come up with 
I have decided to bypass (as long as I can) any additional mixer, patchbay etc… just to “limit” the amount of gear. Up until now it is more than feasible as I do not have that many sources (DT, DN, A4) going into OT.
1 Like
I am reading through the manual at the moment to familiarize with the device.
Plan:
I am going to use the Heat at the end of my audio chain. I will bypass my MOTU UltraLite Mk3 to use the Heat in USB Audio/MIDI mode and will monitor through headphones directly from Heat.
I might, sometimes, also have a VSTi synth track playing which I would like to have routed through the Heat FX as well.
Also the plan is to be able to record in Reaper.
Question:
The Heat should obviously be set to USB Audio/MIDI mode to serve as an audio interface.
- Analog IN/OUT will be set to AUTO as most of the time the host (laptop with Reaper) will be off.
- USB CC mode will be set to INSERT.
Am I correct?