TLDR: I set up this template today as an Ableton and DAW noob for capturing and augmenting my DT based hardware setup, did I get anything wrong, and is there anything I should consider adding or doing differently?
I finally committed yesterday and purchased an Ableton Live 11 Standard licence with the free upgrade to 12 when it releases. I’ve been doing all my recording directly from the outs of my Digitakt to a Zoom R8, which has been fine, but one of the reasons I got a Digitakt over anything else at the end of last year was the ability to use Overbridge to record the individual outs and to let me interface my hardware with software in the future.
I currently have a Quadrantid Swarm and a PreenFM2 going in to the audio inputs of a Circuit Tracks, with the inputs panned hard left and right to make them into two mono tracks. I then have the Tracks outputs going into my Digitakt’s inputs.
With the template I set up today in the image above, I have the DT VST hooked to the first midi track, and then for audio tracks I have:
Post Mix outs for the sound of my DT as it is but with any extras I decide to add in Ableton;
Pre Mix outs for the sound of my DT as it is at the time of recording or playing;
Tracks 1-8 individual outs;
L DT input, and R DT input, with a utility on each one to make them capture each input as mono;
Combined inputs, for if I want to capture stereo patches from my Preen or other gear.
With this setup I can add effects to my external inputs with the Track if I want to capture them wet, which is a bonus.
This seems to work very well, and I’ve figured out how to disable the VST when I want to work on the track after recording so I don’t keep triggering the DT to play all the time. I’ve figured out the muting so I can hear back whatever I choose as well.
After that long winded preamble, what I’m interested in hearing is what else should I consider setting up on my template to make my life easier in the future? I know I am going to want to put some sort of gain utility on all of the tracks to bring them back from the super quiet level Overbridge captures them at, but what is a good amount?
Is there a recommended chain of effects or utilities you use for a template? Do you have specific things set on your send channels across all your recordings? Anything I’ve done wrong that will bite me on the backside later?
Any input appreciated.