Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

Hello all.
I’m planning on using Carbon with a 500 series rack of preamps, compressors and effects. It has XLR and TRS connectivity on back of the 500 rack.

I am wondering what the best way to connect this would be... through the DB25 with a DB25–>XLR snake?
Would this bypass the mic pre circuitry and just go line in?

Also , is it possible to make a hardware insert from one of these I/O connections and insert a hardware 500 compressor for example on a pro tools track with no hiccups or latency Issues?

Thanks !!

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

....through the DB25 with a DB25–>XLR snake? either works fine and most likely there's no difference.

...is it possible to make a hardware insert from one of these I/O connections and insert a hardware 500 compressor for example on a pro tools track with no hiccups or latency Issues? My opinion only; re latency, I can't answer, but I would expect some due to the round trip thru converters. My personal preference is to use hardware on the way INTO Pro Tools(to get the sonic flavor), but keep mixing all in the box

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

I thought I read somewhere that the DB25 bypassed the mic preamp section on the way in.

I might be wrong

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

Hello,

Yes, you'll want to use DB25 cables to connect your outboard gear to the Line In and Line Out connections on the back panel. You can then connect any mic inputs to the XLR inputs. On the front panel, simply switch the channels between MIC and LINE input type depending on when you need line input vs mic inputs. If you want to bypass the gain on the Line inputs you can do that in Pro Tools > Hardware Setup > Line I/O. We made a number of improvements to automatic delay compensation for hardware inserts in Pro Tools with 2021.3, so it should be very solid now.

Hope that helps.

Kyle

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

Great, thank you Kyle.

What is the advantage of bypassing the gain on the line inputs ?
It that a cleaner line in to the converter section ?

And good news on the I/O delay compensation. I use the outs and ins all the time typically to create hardware efx sends/returns , parallel process , etc.

Thanks again !

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

Is it possible to use any of the physical outputs on Carbon as physical sends?

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

Personally I am running my 500-rack in to an Apogee Rosetta 800 and run ADAT out of the Apogee in to my Carbon. That way I am adding mic pre's instead of replacing the build in ones ;)

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

How many samples difference are there between the Rosetta 800 and Carbon? A simple simultaneous recording to both will give you that info. It'll be very interesting to see how much faster Carbon AD is from Rosetta 800.

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

Sure thing. Bypassing line input gain improves performance. See highlighted numbers in the attached.

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

Yes, it can function that way (just like with any interface in Pro Tools).

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

Great!
Makes sense to hook it up to the DB25 and have all options at hand.

Nice design feature too (true bypass) for line inputs.

Cheers.

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

So if am recording my vocal chain (mic-> pre -> comp) connected to one of the Carbon line inputs (for example line input 1) i can also route that signal to one of the outputs and send this to my external headphone amp?

Also wonder if my Omni has true bypass on the line inputs?

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

Yes I run two outboard FX units one Reverb and one Compressor and they are connected via the DB 25 connections and bypass the gain on the line inputs .That way for example the gain on the comp is controlled completely by the gain knob on the front panel of the compressor.

Another nice feature is that combi XLR-1/4" connectors automatically override the DB 25s so for example you could have an analog Comp, Reverb and EQ connected to the DB 25's (on say channels 3-8 ) But If you plugged in 4 mics into the Combi connectors on channels 1-4 they would automatically override the number 3 and 4 channels on the DB 25's, so you would not have to physically disconnect anything on the DB's

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

Interesting . Super cool feature!

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

What about MTRX Studio. Does it have true bypass on line inputs?

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

Hi Kyle - I love the Carbon, it's an beautiful and intuitive piece of tech. I'm looking at 500series to add to the carbon. I see that 500 series chassis come in DB25 and ADAT I/O flavors. All things considered, is there any advantage for either?

Thanks
Scott Compton / Berkeley

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

Basically the advantage to ADAT is they are in addition to the 8 channels on the Carbon itself . So either 8 or 16 additional channels (depending on the sample rate you use) so if you need more than 8 simultaneous inputs ADAT would be the way to go.

The DB 25 allows you to have up to 8 additional analog connections = 8 on the DB25 and the 8 physical inputs on the carbon BUT you can only use any combination of 8 total at one time (as there are only 8 converters in the Carbon).... So what I typically do is use 3 Carbon mic pre inputs, and 4 DB25 I/O's for external Hardware FX

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

It all really comes down to the conversion quality of the particular ADAT converter at the 500 chassis side.

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

Thanks XJensen, agree that is very true.

Re: Carbon with 500 rack- bypassing the preamps / connectivity
 

Thank you Kev for that scenario. Very helpful.
Scott