MBOX and ext. compressor on the master fader?

[bryanbassett]

Is there anyway to patch an ext. compressor on the master channel through Mbox ala 001 & 002 ? It seems the inserts are only for the input channels.
I'm thinking not but just wondering.
My workaround is to patch the mbox output through the compressor and record to another computer.
Any other suggestions?
Thanks.
BB

[albee1952]

You have it right. You would need to record to another unit(computer, DAT recorder, standalone CD recorder, Alesis MasterLink). Unless its a really high quality compressor, I would use a plugin. I would not send my mix thru a Behringer or DBX (maybe a 160SL), but would consider a UA2-1176 or a Manley. I always bounce without a master fader and import the bounce to a new session that gets trimmed, faded and Waves L2 to punch it up. Just what works for me. You might be able to send out via SPDIF and back but you would need converters to go D/A and A/D. The cost of the converters would be more than a good plugin compressor.

[bryanbassett]

thanks albee
I generally don't do this ..as you say unless it's an upscale unir (I'm drooling for a FATSO..it hardly is worth the effort. I have the waves master bundle and quite a few extra plugs I usually use. I am doing some mixes and would like to match some others that were run thru The Finalizer setting on a DBX unit. It would save me a lot of tweaking and ab ing if I just run the mixes through the same setup. It did a pretty decent job on the mixes I'm matching.

What difference do you see not using the master fader?
I know there are summing issues discussed from time to time
bb

[tvent]

I don't have an Mbox, but why couldn't you, instead of a master fader, bus all tracks out of the Mbox's outputs, then have a stereo audio track setup to record from the Mbox's inputs and run the Mbox out to your compressor and the compressor out to your Mbox. Would be tough to monitor while making the pass, but I would think this should work ( you could setup some sort of Y-cable so you could branch out to your monitoring system maybe - or if you had some, any d/a converter you could monitor off the SPDIF out). A bit cumbersome, yes - but should work and be well worth the efforts if the unit is high quality enough and you don't abuse it.
There are probably other ways to do this.
hth.

[bryanbassett]

Good idea to try tvent..i hadn't thought of looping back into the same session. Funny I used to do something similar on my old 2" tape machine to keep a running rough mix. I could keep the stereo record channel playback muted as not to make an I/O loop. It will either work great or blow up ..i'll give it shot and report the result. Could be quite useful for those who want to patch analog with the MBOX.
BB

[bryanbassett]

A thought about being able to monitor the above setup...I could just go MBOX into the DDP into my powered monitors...adjust to taste...and then repatch the DDP back into MBOX to record the pass..
wouldn't be able to monitor the rec pass but could monitor level ,which is fine as I have already checked the mix. Thanks for the post.