Direct Monitoring with MOTU cards. Help!

[tazman]

Hello, I use a MOTU 896HD. Currently when doing overdubs I set up a pre fader send from the Master output to outputs 1/2 which are connected to the headphone amplifier. This way I can control how much sugnal I send to the headphones and how much I send to the main studio monitors.

I would like to try and start monitoring using the soundcard built in DSP and CueMix. I am having trouble figuring out how to set it up.

Could anyone give some advice/directions?

Thanks,

[CorkyTart]

If youre listening to your stereo mix (doesnt matter if its headphones monitors etc) out of ouputs 1 and 2 on your soundcard, you will listen/monitor the new track being recorded on ouputs 1 and 2 on your cuemix. Cuemix allows you listen to tracks going into your computer.

[The dman]

If I'm understanding you correctly let's say you have your recorded tracks going to outputs 1 &2, in the cuemix software select outputs 1&2 and unmute whatever inputs you want to monitor with the recorded tracks. Don't forget to mute them again when your done

[Brian Middleton]

There are four stereo output mixes available in CueMix. Each of them is called a "bus" and has a tab assigned to it at the bottom of the window. (These have nothing to do with the buses in your DAW app.) Above the master fader at the right is a button that allows you to assign the currently selected mix bus to a hardware output. So if your headphone amp out is Analog 1-2, then in Bus 1 of CueMix, select Analog 1-2 with that button above the master fader. Now Bus 1 is your headphone mix.

The CueMix channel faders allow you to set level, mute and pan for each input. So let's say you're recording a vocal to analog input 1 of the 896HD. You would unmute Analog 1 in CueMix and set the fader to a comfortable level. Then go back to your DAW app and set that Analog 1-2 pre-fader send on the master fader to a level that works well with the input level, and there ya have it.

One important thing to note: since you haven't been using CueMix so far, you've probably been using some form of audio patch through or hardware playthrough in your DAW app. You now can (and should) disable these. The DAW handles monitoring of previously recorded material, CueMix handles monitoring of inputs....welcome to near-zero-latency heaven.

[tazman]

Thanks Brian. One question, how do you introduce things like reverb to say vocals while tracking?

Up to now I have been using "input monitoring" on my DAW and have been able to get 2.9ms latency. The problem is that a lot of the times, in order to get down that low I would have to disable some plug-ins. In most cases that does not affect the vocal or lead guitar or... performance, but I would like to take advantage of near 0 latency monitoring.

[tyro]

Originally Posted by tazman

Thanks Brian. One question, how do you introduce things like reverb to say vocals while tracking?

one way of introducing reverb is to NOT disable software monitoring/hardware playthrough in the DAW, but instead set the fader on the recording channel in your DAW to -infinity (that is, as low as possible), then make a pre-fader send on that channel to a bus with a reverb on it. the latency is not so important when it's only affecting the reverb; you still have your near-zero latency input monitoring going with the CueMix but you get the reverb from software monitoring. It's more a sort of pre-delay on the reverb, it works well and everybody I've recorded has been happy with this way of getting some reverb so far... sounds natural.

if you can't set up a pre-fader send on the recording channel, just a post-fader one, then you can either set the channel output to "none" or have the fader really low, but so you can hear some audio from it, and turn the reverb bus up. if doing the second suggestion, just don't forget to turn the reverb bus down when listening after the recording is done

[Brian Middleton]

Originally Posted by tazman

Thanks Brian. One question, how do you introduce things like reverb to say vocals while tracking?

If you want to do it with plugs, tyro has suggested a way.

Another, very easy way is if you have an outboard reverb unit and can spare an output and input pair on the 896HD. Then all you do is:

1) Connect the reverb's inputs & outputs to the 896HD--using say the Analog 7-8 pairs.
2) Assign Analog 7-8 as the output for one of the CueMix buses (say bus 4), and raise the input fader(s) for the channel(s) you want reverb on in that bus (if your vocal input is Analog 1, then bring up the Analog 1 fader on bus 4), until you're getting an appropriate input level on the reverb unit.
3) Bring up the Analog 7-8 input faders on your headphone mix bus. Voila! vocal reverb in the cans.

(It goes without saying that this scenario includes a potential feedback loop....be sure to mute the Analog 7-8 input faders on the bus that's assigned to the Analog 7-8 outs.)

[tINY]

If you need affected signals durring tracking, you are better off to get an old "outboard" unit. Don't record that unit while tracking, though.

Microverbs and SPX90s are handy here......




-tINY

[Brian Middleton]

Originally Posted by tINY

Microverbs and SPX90s are handy here......

Right--I use an Alesis Wedge.

[tazman]

awsome, thanks guys. I have our lead singer cominig in this pm and wl it a try. I don't have a reverb unit layong around (got rid of most of my outboard gear).

[tazman]

I tried it last night. Worked great with our vocalist. The only problem is reverb. I tried muting the track and only allowing the aux buss to be heard, but the latency was still too high. Not a biggy, he didn't care, but I'll have to experiment some more.

Thanks again,