My “studio” (home office) setup is very near completion (for now). Just waiting to take delivery of an OT2 on Tuesday. I will upload a pic once I get the OT connected into the rest of the setup.
Last night I put the finishing touches on audio routing (I think) to get ready for the OT. I was a bit intimidated, and there’s a quite a bit to remember about the audio signal path and how I want to redirect it from and to various pieces of gear. I find this to be one of the funnest things to do with everything. I am like a kid in a candy store, just thinking about all the things the audio is doing to get to its final destinations. I am reorienting myself to a new Mackie 1642VLZ4 16-channel mixer. I purchased this after my very old (25 years-ish) 12 channel Mackie Mixer started to sketch out on a couple of channels. I also wanted something bigger, and with more aux sends (this one has four, my old one had two). For extra channels, I bought a used Mackie 8 channel FX mixer (don’t care about the FX, just the 8 channels, and it was cheap). This submitter is also positioned so that I can get spread some of my desktop synths (MPC One and M:S) a bit further away from the main mixer. I am currently using the first aux send to go to the Eventide H9 pedal and the second aux send to the Strymon Bluesky. I am using aux sends three and four as stereo outs to a couple of 5 way splitters that then route out to various synth ins (MPC One, Analog Four, MatrixBrute, Mother 32, and next week, OT). I use the XLR main outs to go to the “monitor” ins on the Apollo Twin, then back out to the Yamaha HS8s. I use the ¼ inch main outs to go to the “line in” ports on the Apollo Twin for recording on my Mac.
Last night, after setting all of this up, I was having a blast using the Kronos as the midi controller for everything else, then sending audio from various instruments through other instruments, and then deciding whether to also run them through various effects processor. Probably my favorite experiment from the evening was running the Wavestate through the AF2, changing the sound parameters on both boxes simultaneously, then recording it into Logic and messing with it there. Can’t wait for the OT to join in the fun.
One thing I could not figure out (will need to check the manual) is how to hear the MPC One while it is recording. I got the signal, registering on the screen. I have audio coming out (can play pads), but while recording, no sound coming out of the MPC One. Can hear play back, but not while recording. This happened both when recording to an audio track and also while recording a sample to edit. Probably something simple and dumb that I just didn’t notice, but it was the one thing I just couldn’t figure out. Well, lots to learn, and that’s what makes it so fun.
