Analog Summing Questions

I record through a console.  I tweak individual tracks and then tend to mix stems into SONAR buses ITB.  I've been running those stems back though the console and printing the stem to a track back in SONAR.  When I'm happy with all of the stems I once again go back through the console to sum a final mix.  I'm curious how others are accomplishing their analog summing.  Some of the things on my mind are:

1. Is there a best practice for how many times you should run your audio through the console?  In my case it's at the recording, summing an individual stem, and then summing all of the stems for a final mix.  Is there such a thing as "too much" analog goodness?  (I know that this is subjective but wish to hear your thoughts).
2. Is there an argument for recording direct to the box and reducing the number of times that your audio is hitting the console?
3. When printing back to the DAW do you drive the analog levels pretty high at the console and record the stem tracks or mixes at respectable gain staging levels within SONAR?
4. For those of you that are doing analog summing, are you using the console emulators on your tracks or are you letting your summing mixer (or console) add the warmth and character that we are looking for?

I've tried a number of different approaches but haven't yet sorted out my "standard process" (there are always exceptions though!).  Please share your methods, results, and reasoning if you care to participate in this thread.  I look forward to your responses!
 
Best,
 
Dave

As a general rule of thumb the less times you run through converters the better, each time there is a dimension of noise/signal degradation added etc,..really though "best practice" is whatever sounds best...I sometimes run stuff out to an external insert so I can use some real gear...its a pita though...I think what you have described in your own practice is pretty SOP for console driven studios you gotta go through the AD converter a few times no matter what unless you do it all ITB...the real issue here will be the quality of your converters and the resolution you use.. just watched a video with Rupert Neve where he makes a comment about UAD emulating his stuff (he never names them but it is the only plug-in company he works with) in it he makes a comment that at the higher resolutions the plug-ins were very very good and almost imperceptible to his real gear which I found interesting...point being I think if you do your conversion at 96k then you can negate a decent portion of the conversion loss issues...

Hi Dave,
I do analog summing, in my case I have a 16 channel SSL with their stereo bus compressor and stereo EQ and a bunch of other outboard processors.
re: your questions:
 
1. I don't think there is a best practice for this, other than "until it sounds the way you want". Keep in mind that you're adding distortion with every pass, so at some point it's gonna make things sound bad, but other than that it's a purely subjective thing. Also, if you've got anything resembling decent converters the amount of distortion you're adding with just conversion passes is pretty minimal, so I wouldn't worry to much about it unless you're doing lots of passes. Again, let your ears be your guide, but don't worry about it too much. Lots of folks still use outboard all the time, and if conversion passes were really messing up your sound that much no one would still be buying 1176's and Distressors.
 
2. I don't think so, at least not until it sounds bad.
 
3. Yep, my "print" track is fairly hot, but leave some room for the M.E./Film Editor/whatever if you're sending it out to anyone else. I try not to peak much higher than -6dbfs. Remember that if you're looking for saturation in your console you should be able to saturate your console channels and the internal mix bus and then theoretically turn down your master output to print at reasonable levels back into Sonar.
 
4. I don't use console emulators much. Sometimes I'll drop one on a track because I want to soften it a bit in a specific way, but it's not super common. Keep in mind that you should really mix through your console so you can account for its sound while you're mixing. If you're doing that then you essentially have a "console emulator" on each track anyway, only it's not an emulator at all, it's the actual console. If you want to do something in addition and the console emulator lets you do that, IMHO do what sounds good.
 
As far as my method goes, I route all tracks to more-or-less standard stems (drums, bass git, vox, bgv, fx, and what have you) and then send those out hardware outputs to my SSL. The SSL then sums and sends everything through the bus comp and stereo EQ and whatever other outboard I happen to be using on that mix. From there the SSL has its main out coming into my "print" track which is going to the Master bus in Sonar ("print" tracks are the ONLY things feeding the Master bus in this scenario). I enable live monitoring on my print track so that I'm listening to the signal coming into that track when I mix. The Master bus then has analyzers, A/B tools, metering and ARC?whatever on it so I can do measurements and comparisons. When I'm ready to print I record arm the print track, name it something like "OMG NEXT GIANT POP HIT 9-22-15 A" and hit record. If I make adjustments I create a new print track, change the track title to reflect current date, revision letter and, if necessary, usage ("OMG NEXT GIANT POP HIT 9-22-15 B, TV mix") and record again. This way each of my mix revisions occupies a separate track and I can A/B them or export them individually.
 
Dean

If it sounds good it is good.

Possibly the music might not suffer from running through the analog gear (in terms of tone, image and sound it can get better).
But the dynamics will suffer from the DAW importing and exporting (to my knowledge) and not stay fresh like the dry mix (less attack & drive due to latency from the im/exports).
At least, that's what I found A/B-ing a dry mix to one that I processed outside Sonar, the best way for me to hear that is quick A/B-ing  on studio headphones.