Looking for advice on hardware inserts from Audient ASP880

[Norrie]

Hey guys by chance has anyone any experience with Pro Tools hardware inserts while using a Audient ASP880 ?

Only reason I ask here is that Audient will be shut till Tuesday for the Easter weekend.

I have my Apogee Ensemble Thunderbolt and ASP880 running together great apart from being able to use hardware inserts on the ASP880 using Dsub cables from the in and out of the Audient to my hardware.

I can track through my outboard with no issues but If I place a insert on a channel in PT my signal is lost nothing is running to the outboard no sound is heard and nothing on the meter in PT.

However if I have a mic connected to the ASP880 with no input selected and place the insert on the track in PT I get signal though my Hardware and into Pro Tools

I can hook up the Ensemble and use hardware inserts with no issue so thinking I might be over looking something in my i/o section

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Thanks for any advice on this one guys its probably something simple I am overlooking and a fresh set of eyes on it would be awesome !

[Darryl Ramm]

What are you trying to do? expecting to happen? and exactly what do you have wired up exactly how?

Maybe I am lost on what you are trying to do but an insert in Pro Tools had *nothing* to do with the pure hardware inserts on your Audient preamp/converter. If the hardware Inserts are not working it is usually a wiring problem, should be easy to track down, but that does not seem to be the problem.

It is not clear at all what you are trying to do with Pro Tools inserts. You realize that there is no magic here, a signal cannot just get out of Pro Tools to a hardware insert unless you have DAC/line outputs and an input/ADC receiving the wet signal back to it you are using them you will need to explain what outputs on your Ensemble you have wired up to what hardware boxes and how you are getting the outputs of those boxes back to Pro Tools again.

If you just want to use the Audient preamp hardware inserts you are in completely the wrong place messing around in Pro Tools track inserts, get your head out of Pro Tools and into the real analog world of your hardware rack. Otherwise tell us *exactly* what you want to do...

[Norrie]

My apologies if that came across vague I am mostly a ITB guy with a few bits of outboard

Basically I want to use the inserts of each channel on the ASP880 for various bits of outboard.

I want to be able to insert a hardware i/O insert in protools to use lets say a 1176 after recording so that would be during the mixing process that is where the above issue arises.

In this scenario I have the Ensemble and the ASP880 connected over ADAT with no issues running the 2 together and recording.

On the Audient I have Line out 1 (send ) going to the input on the 1176 and the return ADC input coming from the 1176 output. This would correspond to Insert 15 in Pro Tools i/o setup.

Just a basic send and return going on for trouble shooting getting the hardware inserts to work properly in Pro Tools during the mixing stage :)

I have no issues doing this with the send and returns into the Apogee however I do with the Audient that just arrived with me a couple of days ago.

Its a really nice unit with some cool features like ""Bring your outboard in from the cold

Ever wanted to add compression or EQ to your signal before going to the computer? Well with ASP880 you can. Simply insert any analogue processor before the converters - it’s as easy as that!

The A-D button allows ASP880 to function as an 8 channel mic pre while you use the converters separately in stand-alone mode.""

Thanks for the reply

Norrie

[Darryl Ramm]

Your Audient has hardware inserts intended for pure analog outboard inserts. And that is all goodness. But you can't configure those as Pro Tools hardware inserts--not without requiring you rewire things between when wanting to use the outboard gear as analog inserts on the Audient and a Pro Tools insert (e.g. swapping the preamp output ribbon cable from the Audient for an output cable from your Ensemble). And the Audient markein copuy here is pretty clear "before going to your computer..." exactly, *before*, not after coming back out of and going back into your computer.

It is usually an either-or decision. If you want to have hardware inserts usable from Pro Tools you would just normally have your boxes connected to the Ensemble using matched pairs of inputs and outputs (or whatever else you want to set up the IO to do).

[Norrie]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Your Audient has hardware inserts intended for pure analog outboard inserts. And that is all goodness. But you can't configure those as Pro Tools hardware inserts--not without requiring you rewire things between when wanting to use the outboard gear as analog inserts on the Audient and a Pro Tools insert (e.g. swapping the preamp output ribbon cable from the Audient for an output cable from your Ensemble). And the Audient markein copuy here is pretty clear "before going to your computer..." exactly, *before*, not after coming back out of and going back into your computer.

It is usually an either-or decision. If you want to have hardware inserts usable from Pro Tools you would just normally have your boxes connected to the Ensemble using matched pairs of inputs and outputs (or whatever else you want to set up the IO to do).

Thanks for the quick reply Darryl its appreciated

I feel like I am getting a bit confused and missing something by the FAQ on there site I just assumed I would be able to do so....

Q. Do the insert points actually bypass the mic preamps?

A. Yes, the Returns are routed straight to the converters.



Q. How do you make use of the insert points

A. Each channel on the ASP880 has a button (it lights up blue) labelled A-D which routes the signal at the ADC input connector straight into the ADC rather than directly from the microphone preamp. There is always signal from the mic preamps present on the Line Output (Send) connector just above the Return.

Using the unit this way means you don't have to keep disconnecting outboard gear to switch between using the preamps as normal and using it with outboard processing.



Q. What equipment can you use the insert points with?

A. You can use the insert points to send audio from the ASP880 preamps into external gear before bringing it back into the unit for A/D conversion. This can range from compressors, reverbs, EQs etc. However it is also possible to use the Returns with other external mic preamps. This flexibility and compatibility with other products means that you can still get the sound you want if you don't want to make use of all 8 of the Audient preamps but still want to use the excellent converters.

[Darryl Ramm]

Look, it's simple. A DAW needs to send audio signals for a DAW insert out of a physical output back into a physical input. How are you expecting to get the digital signal out from your DAW to the input of your outboard gear? The Audient is just an ADAT preamp. ADAT is a dumb one way digital pipe. No signal from your DAW can flow back to your Audient and somehow magically go out of it to any outboard gear (and the Audient has no DAC to convert that signal to analog, it is just an ADAT preamp).

If you want to use a hardware insert from Pro Tools it's your job to wire up an output from your interface to the input of the outboard gear. Simple as that, pressing buttons in Pro Tools can't magically make a signal appear at the input of some remote hardware box. If you want to use the Audent inserts as intended, that's great but that has nothign to do with a Pro Tools insert. if you want to do both, then you need to change cabling between doing so. It's your choice how you set up and use things.

I'm not tryign to be harsh, it's just when folks often run into signal routing problems with Pro Tools, its important to step back and visualize (draw a picture if needed) of how signals are actually flowing through an entire system, especially all the points were signals go from digital to analog and visa versa.

Nothing in the marketing copy you have quoted in any way contradicts any of this. They are talking about purely using outboard hardware inserts with the Audient, totally independent of any DAW. I'm noticing more folks on DUC using that preamp, and it looks pretty nice. What are you recording with it and how do the preamps sound to you?