Digital hardware mixer equivalent to ITB mixing?

[massimo]

Being absolutely unwilling to use any computer with music in my personal studio, I record direct to a dedicated hardisk recorder (Fostex D2424) then go lightpipe into my old trusty Yamaha 03D for mixing only. I avoid its micpres and converters completely (except for effect send/returns), and use outboard. I am a musician and do acoustic/classical music, which generally fits a minimalistic 8 tracks total. Besides tactile feel, I like the routing and memory scene repeatability of the digital mixer.

My silly questions are: has mixing this way the same sonic disadvantages of ITB mixing, about which I read extensively in these columns? Instead of going from the stereo AES/EBU out of the mixer into my Masterlink, should I better consider taking the 8 track lightpipe out of the mixer into a good multichannel DAC and then into a summing box? Would this improve the sonics, and would the panpot, volume, send/return etc. levels of individual channels, which are set and stored as individual songs on the mixer itself, govern the summing process?

thank you
Massimo

[Sharp11]

Originally Posted by massimo

Being absolutely unwilling to use any computer with music in my personal studio, I record direct to a dedicated hardisk recorder (Fostex D2424) then go lightpipe into my old trusty Yamaha 03D for mixing only. I avoid its micpres and converters completely (except for effect send/returns), and use outboard. I am a musician and do acoustic/classical music, which generally fits a minimalistic 8 tracks total. Besides tactile feel, I like the routing and memory scene repeatability of the digital mixer.

My silly questions are: has mixing this way the same sonic disadvantages of ITB mixing, about which I read extensively in these columns? Instead of going from the stereo AES/EBU out of the mixer into my Masterlink, should I better consider taking the 8 track lightpipe out of the mixer into a good multichannel DAC and then into a summing box? Would this improve the sonics, and would the panpot, volume, send/return etc. levels of individual channels, which are set and stored as individual songs on the mixer itself, govern the summing process?

thank you
Massimo

Don't buy into all that ITB vs summing solutions one- is- better- than- the- other BS. A summing box will introduce color and distortion to your sonics (a sound you may like), but won't necessarily make it "better".

I recently sold off my beloved Sony DMXR100 digital mixer and have gone completely ITB with PT HD Accel, I couldn't be happier.

Ed

[T_R_S]

Try an SSL Axiom.