[DanRock101]

Originally Posted by Mike H

Sounds like you are familiar with the setup you have, so it is easier not to change it. I can understand that.

But, IMHO, you really need to be using patchbays to handle your outboard gear, if you are using a summing unit.

You usually won't have a single outboard unit on a track. You'll probably have both a compressor and an EQ on many tracks. You certainly don't want to go out-and-back through converters for the compressor, then go out-and-back again for the EQ. There is definitely some degradation each time you make a conversion pass.

The best arrangement is to send your tracks out to the patchbays through the DAC's (you only need to have enough DAC's to match the max number of tracks you use), then patch to outboard gear. The outboard gear would be connected back to the patchbays, where they are half-normalled (or patched) to the summing unit(s).

You also have to consider how you will send to reverbs/delays/effects.
The advantage of the 8816/8804 combination is that the Direct Outs from the 8804 can be connected back to the patchbays and then patched to reverbs/delays/effects. This puts the effects downstream of the processing units. Without Direct Outs, you would need to (a) half-normal from outboard gear to summing unit and (b) mult to effects at the patchbays. Direct Outs are simpler, and don't interfere with patching through the outboard gear.

I'll be happy to email you a copy of my patchbay layout, if that would help. My patchbay setup is pretty large because I have lots of outboard gear, but it demonstrates the basic concepts. PM me.

I go through DAC's only once, outboard process, sum, go to tape (usually), then go through ADC's only once with the stereo mix. I have 32 DAC's and one pair of ADC's. Having only one pair of ADC's enables me to afford a high quality pair of ADC's (Lavry Gold) so I maintain the quality of the mix I hear on the monitors.

If I used the DAW for "patching" and had no patchbays at all, I'd need probably three times as many DAC's and the same number of ADC's...........completely out of the question.

I understand life is simpler using the DAW if you aren't accustomed to using patchbays. But patchbays are pretty easy to use. And if you are going to/from most outboard gear in analog (rather than digital), using your DAW as your console/patchbay will mean a lot of conversion steps for a complex setup. But yes, it can be done.

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