Monitoring external effects before recording

Hi there. New Octatrack owner here, this is my first post! (Have been lurking for a bit).

I am running an external effects loop (stereo guitar pedal) and it is working really well in studio mode - I can add a hint of the effect to recorded audio.

My question is: can I effect apply the external effect to audio just monitoring, but has not been recorded to a track?

E.g., I’d like to hear some effect while I compose (with the signal running through the OT mixer), and I’d also like to record with a touch of the effect, on the way in to the OT.

I can’d seem to find a way to send a touch of, say, A + B in, to the effects send, and then back in.

Any thoughts welcome!

There’s a few ways to configure routings, mixing, and recording on OT, lots more if you have an outboard mixer, audio interface, or both…

One way using just OT would be:
-monitor from a thru track instead and turn mixer dir to 0 for both inputs
-route the inputs that your sound source is connected to directly to the cue outputs by pressing cue+audio rec
-set up a thru track with both a b and c d as inputs to mix dry signal and fx return
-adjust fx return level with thru main page vol for those inputs
-record the audio by setting Src3 to the thru track number

If you’re external fx has wet/dry you could skip the thru track and just cue the inputs the sound source is connected to (cue+audio rec) and turn the mixer direct up for the inputs the fx are returned to, leaving the dir level of the inputs the audio source is connected to at 0…

Probably more ways…

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