How do you use an analog mixer with Protools?

[Muddy-T]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

One of the very best things you can do with an analog mixer is to send your headphone mix along with an analog split of the microphone to a small, even really cheap mixer. This totally eliminates the issue of monitor latency so you can always use the largest buffer. Eliminating all latency can improve performances to a surprising extent.

^This!

Got myself a little Allen & Heath ZED14 and never worried about buffer sizes and latency ever again...

T

[mjslakeridge]

I do the same thing, using my Tascam M-320B mixer left over from my reel-to-reel tape days. If the singer want's some reverb in his headphone mix, I just insert an external Lexicon reverb unit into that Aux Send.

[Bob Olhsson]

You can feed reverb from the monitor mix because latency doesn't matter. Beware of reverb like old Lexicons that can shift the pitch and screw up people's intonation.

[mjslakeridge]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

You can feed reverb from the monitor mix because latency doesn't matter. Beware of reverb like old Lexicons that can shift the pitch and screw up people's intonation.

Thanks for the suggestion Bob. What do you mean by latency doesn't matter if you feed reverb from the monitor mix? Does latency only occur on tracks that are being recorded? So if I create a send from the vocal track and route it to an aux track, insert the reverb plug-in on the aux track, and route the aux track's output to the cue mix, the vocalist won't notice any latency, even at higher buffer settings?

I've been using Pro-Tools for about 15 years, but am probably stuck in my way of doing things, but am always willing to learn something new.

[JFreak]

I think he just meant that reverb on monitor mix can have as much latency as it wants to, because it only affects to "pre-delay" of the reverb sound. Usually little pre-delay is desirable because the reverb kicks in after transients (not immediately).

[Muddy-T]

Originally Posted by mjslakeridge

Does latency only occur on tracks that are being recorded? So if I create a send from the vocal track and route it to an aux track, insert the reverb plug-in on the aux track, and route the aux track's output to the cue mix, the vocalist won't notice any latency, even at higher buffer settings?

[sorry, typing up post while JFreak already replied]

There will be some latency of course but the singer won't notice, it's like having a couple of ms of pre-delay on the verb. If anything it'll sound even more natural with some separation between the direct sound and the onset of the reverb.

Been doing that for years. But I also have the option to patch in reverb on the board for recording sessions that don't have any FX in it (yet).

T

[mjslakeridge]

OK, thanks guys for the clarification. I will try fooling around with reverb on the monitor mix later today, using different buffer sizes.

[Bob Olhsson]

Originally Posted by JFreak

I think he just meant that reverb on monitor mix can have as much latency as it wants to, because it only affects to "pre-delay" of the reverb sound. Usually little pre-delay is desirable because the reverb kicks in after transients (not immediately).

Exactly!