I’m partially though building a small setup around a 16 track analog mixer with the Digitakt being the sequencer/brain. The mixer is a 4 bus which, including the main stereo bus, gives me 6 tracks to output to my DAW for recording. I intend to do most of my mixing live in the mixer but how would people suggest I make use of the 6 tracks output? Meaning which instruments/sounds would you keep as separate tracks for potential mix refinement in the DAW?
I have all 8 of the Digitakt’s tracks on individual mixer channel strips as mono sources + a stereo pair coming into the mixer from Ableton for a soft synth. A hardware polysynth takes up another stereo pair + a RD-9 with the kick, snare and hats coming in as individual channels (so I can EQ them on the desk) and the rest of the RD-9’s sounds come in as one mono source. For reference- my audio interface has 10 outputs (all of them occupied by the Digi + Ableton soft synth) and 8 inputs. Zero issues with latency (so far at least).
I’m relatively new to recording so don’t have a preferred method of mixing stuff- just wanted people’s opinions.
Can you tell us what mixer and interface it is? It sounds a lot like my previous setup with Mackie 1604VLZ4 and MOTU 828.
Am I understanding correctly that you have your Digitracks going into Ableton Live (via Overbridge?) and then back out into the mixer as individual mono channels?
It’s relevant to my answer because I based a DAWless setup around a Mackie 1604VLZ4 and a MOTU 828, with almost the exact same specs
Send me a pm if you’re interested to have a chat about my setup then. I started writing the below, but got possibly too detailed, and it’s just scratching the surface of what you can do with that mixer
Mackie 1604VLZ4 setup
In the end I found that EQ not particularly well suited for mixdown duties, and found that I’d prefer EQing and compressing in Live. I did enjoy using the mixer’s multiple sends and routing to make submixes with dedicated effects.
I would go full DAWless with some mono synths (Ch. 1-4) and stereo synth (Ch. 5/6) and a TR-8S with assignable outs (Ch. 9-16).
Ch. 1-8 are sent to MAIN, whereas Ch. 9-16 are sent to one of the SUB pairs in stereo mode. The output of the SUB pair is then routed back into Ch. 7/8. With six sends, you can dedicate a pair to just the drumbus, and even have one of the return pairs go back into the SUB channel.
The key here is to use the mono channel inserts to go in and then back out of the interface, so that you can record incoming audio as stems, mangle / EQ in the DAW and then potentially send it out back again to the mixer to apply external hardware effects, etc.
This all makes sense when it is physical outboard gear. But when it comes to your Digitracks I would probably set up a template in ableton for mixing those tracks in Live post-Overbridge and export that resulting “Digi-drumbus”, or alternatively just mix drums in the Digitakt.
But give me a holler if interested. I’d be more than happy to chat.
Here is a screenshot of the spreadsheet I used to keep track of my patchbays for the setup. It may give some indication on how it was used. All the orange cells are input or outputs of the mixer.
The basic functionality and interaction is done with the bottom three patchbays, which hook up the outputs of outboard gear gear (synths, drum machines) to inputs of the mixer, then using line inserts to optionally record and playback from the DAW via the audio interface (red cells). You’ll notice that I expanded the inputs of the MOTU 828x with some old MOTU 8Pre units via ADAT.
You can ignore the effect units at the top Patchbay, but the effects in the two middle patchbays are permanently hooked up to the auxes of the mixer channels.
What would be best to output on your 6 tracks is a creative choice and all options will have their pros and cons.
My suggestion would be to first try to record to one stereo out. Once you listen to the resulting recording, you might get more clarity about which elements in your music you would like to have availability of separate tracks for further mixing. And maybe you will find that you just only need one master track.
So the Digitakt is going in via it’s USB output to Overbridge then out of my audio interface as 8 separate mono tracks. It’s not dissimilar to a hybrid mixing setup in a recording studio.
yes I’m just being snarky. I assumed that, and see how you mentioned that a few posts later. it did confuse me for a second reading the original post…
curious to hear your opinion of the results versus mixing in Live. my outlook has always been it’s not worth the extra DA/AD conversion unless you’ve got a pretty high-end interface (and mixer). or you just don’t work well with DAW mixing.
Yeah I should probably actually try and mix & record something first- just use the main stereo output as if I’m recording to DAT machine. Maybe use the 4 buses for something else.
Unfortunately I’m not that keen on staring at timelines these days (was a motion graphics animator in a previous life). I’m seeking some moderate imperfection, getting more of a ‘live’ feel from my recordings. Being able to EQ and saturate drums on the board and play the faders + making the most of the extra grit and noise from the Mackie.
