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Originally Posted by Full Clip Audio  I have been thinking seriously about adding a high end summing solution to our system but I'm not exactly sure the best way to go. Right now we have dedicated Apogee converters for every piece of gear in the studio so they all just show up as hardware inserts nicely labeled in PTs. To me this is ideal but it does man an extra set of conversions compared to using inserts on a summing mixer. How much of an issue is this do you think?
What I was thinking of doing is adding another DA16X dedicated to the summing mixer. My thinking is that I would still keep my outboard as inserts in PTs so I could still track/work with the outboard stuff inline without having to use the summing mixer until the end. this way I dont have to set all my outputs and groups as we are tracking and up until the final mix stage. Can anyone think of reasons why this is a bad idea (other than the large number of converters needed)?
Lastly, since I wouldnt need to have inserts on the unit, what would be the best unit? Possibly the Folcrom with a couple Chandler Pres? |
The biggest argument you'll hear against the method you're suggesting is that you're doubling the number of times your audio has to go through DA and AD conversions. With decent modern converters, I think this takes a back seat to workflow, but it still seems thoroughly unnecessary to me. Why not just have the converters and the outboard gear and the summing device available on your patchbay, so you can reroute things as you see fit? Normalling things to suit your "standard" setup can save a lot of hassle, but the ability to easily rearrange your signal routing to accommodate other ideas is, to me, absolutely essential to a studio that doesn't impede the creative process.
When it comes to the summing mixer, remember that the idea of "inserts" goes out the window. Inserts are for applying processing in-between stages of a mixer (like after the mike preamp). Since a summing box doesn't have multiple stages, channel inserts make no sense. The practical equivalent is your patch bay. You patch in your outboard gear on the way into the summing device. Channel inserts on a summing device would literally serve no purpose other than using up some extra cables and connectors.
Of course on some summing devices, it might make sense to have a stereo insert point between the output of the summing amp and the master fader, but that's very different from having inserts on the input channels. In the case of the Folcrom, your stereo buss "insert point" would be after the mike preamp you choose for makeup gain. Again, this would be in your patchbay as opposed to an arbitrary extra set of connectors on the unit itself.