output sends and low-latency montoring

[pkcraft]

I got a brilliant idea this weekend.
Unfortunately, as with most of my brilliant
ideas, it didn't work. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

I picked up a multichannel headphone amp.
It has 4 inputs and 6 outputs. It also
has the ability to allow someone connected
to one of the outputs to mix the 4 inputs
to his or her liking.

The idea is that you put drums in A, guitars
in B, bass in C, and vocals in D, and then
let everyone have their own mix. Like I
said, brilliant, right?!

The problem is, in order to do this I need to
redirect the tracks to 4 different outputs.
When I tried to do this, I found that
sending the outputs to channels other than
one and two disables the low-latency monitoring
feature. Oh, yeah.. this is with a digi-001.

I'm guessing that I'm screwed and that this
is one of the limitations of the 001 that
I'm just going to have to live with..
But just in case, does anyone know of a
way to accomplish what I'm trying to do
(short of going out and buying an
external mixing board)?

Thanks

[blueroom]

you'll have to use the aux trks as if they were audio trks...for drums you'll need to create more aux trks(depending your mic count) and send them to another "one" mono or stereo aux trk using the same bus as an output.

let's say,this is your mic patch...
you have 5 mics for the drum kit and you are using inputs 1 to 5 of your interface...
guitar on input 6, bass on 7, and vox on 8

first,create 5 aux trks and assign your drum mic inputs. assign all 5 outs to bus 16

create another 4 aux trks and do the following:

a: aux 1 in=bus 16, out=bus 1
b: aux 2 in=analog 6, out=bus 2
c: aux 3 in=analog 7, out=bus 3
d: aux 4 in=analog 8, out=bus 4

now,create 4 audio trks and do the following:

a: audio1 in=bus 1 , out=a12s/pdif stereo,
create a send using analog 5(mix a)

b: audio2 in=bus 2 , out=a12s/pdif stereo,
create a send using analog 6(mix b)

c: audio3 in=bus 3 , out=a12s/pdif stereo,
create a send using analog 7(mix c)

d: audio4 in=bus 4 , out=a12s/pdif stereo,
create a send using analog 8(mix d)

finally, use the analog outs 5 to 8 of 001 to your headphone amp..

now you should be able to record in low latency mode with 4 different mixes...

sorry if it's too detailed...
thanx for the idea! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[where02190]

Create pre fader aux tracks and assign them to the outs you want to connect to the HP amp. remember, outs 3-8 are unbalanced and -10dbu, so you may have to crank the levels into the hp amp, and may experience some noise.

Hope this is helpful.

[J. FO]

i would and have gone the route of using aux sends set to pre-fader, but i did it through an external mixer. this should work for you too.

[marcusb]

sorry to disappoint you all, but you do realise that in low-latency mode you CAN'T use sends either to a physical output OR a bus input

it's annoying I know .. don't you guys try this stuff before you post it ?

cheers,
marcus

[blueroom]

really?!?!...i thought the same thing ...until pkcraft posted this idea .
try the routings i've posted...both of them...

[blueroom]

or you can assign the audio trk's outs to aux trks and create sends using analog outs to hp.
ex: bass is patched into input 1 of 001
audio trk1 : input=mic/line 1, out=bus 1

create an aux trk and assign: input=bus 1, out=a12s/pdif, and create a prefader send using analog out from this aux trk.

this routing is differnt from my previous one...but they will give you the same results..

the point of this is to be able to monitor/rec/send your ins using low latency setting...this way your sends don't get disabled.

[pkcraft]

Well, I tried all of the suggestions provided,
and it appears that marcusb is right. If
I try to send output to an aux-input with
low-latency monitoring, the send is automatically
muted. If I try to send the output directly
to something other than 1&2, low-latency monitoring is automatically disabled.

So here's a related question. The protools
documentation says that the latency can
be minimized by reducing the hardware buffer
size, but it will limit the number of
tracks that I can record at once. If I
set it to 128, the latency seems tolerable.

Has anyone tried reducing the buffer size to
this? How many tracks can I expect to
record at once, and what happens if I
try to many? Presumably, if the buffer
overflows, then there will be nasty
gaps/pops/noises in the audio. The question
is, will protools detect this and stop
recording (bad) or simply continue on (worse)?

The last thing I want to do is to spend a
day tracking, only to realize later on that
it's unusable.

[Blind Dog]

I was able to get around the low-level latency bypass by creating (2) tracks for the monitor. Both used the same input, but on one track I used Out 1/2 and track 2 used a bus as the path. I then created a stereo aux and used the assigned bus as the input. It works well to monitor with plug-ins and then to route to multiple outs for individual HP mixes.

Blind Dog

[Blind Dog]

Actually yes, but only on the FX track. The main track that goes directly to the output 1/2 has the low-latency pass through, so in the cans it sounds just like any other mix with some grease on it. I only do this for vocalists and guitarist (like me [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] ) who want to have some effect while tracking.

Blind Dog.