Using outboard equipment for mixing and mastering

what are some ways you can send the stereo bus or a stereo track in Sonar to a piece of outboard equipment (compressor) for mixing or mastering purposes then back into the Sonar project?

A primary consideration is to determine if you are using analog or digital outboard gear.

If you are using all analog outboard gear the round trip latency is compensated for automatically by SONAR. (with the caveat that many ASIO drivers need to use the manual input in the SONAR audio options dialog)

If you are using digital effects like multi-fx or reverbs you can also compensate for their latency which is usually a minimum of 1.2ms.

SONAR has some features for that... but I don't have any digital outboard so I don't know much about it.

You may also just nudge manually.

Additionally, some aficionados of digital outboard like the latency delay and relate it to the same effect they have in live play.

It easier to mix with all the other stuff if the delay is compensated for.



A good place to start is too patch up a loop and then do a round trip ping test to judge your system latency and correction and then you go from there.


best regards,
mike

If your tube pro channel is stereo and has line inputs you can simply "mix" through it or master through it.  Send the mixed stereo (it doesn't matter if it is a 10 track mix or a bounced stereo track) output through your interface to the said tube thing.  Patch a pair of cables from the tube thing ouput back into your interface and record that signal just like any.   

If you are mixing through it, you may have to alter your mix when you hear the tube thing on it.  If you are sending a bounced master file through it that is less likely but might happen.

If your tube thing is mono, things get a lot harder and less stable, since you are trying to balance a mix a channel at a time.
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AT - thanks for your post, perhaphs you can look at the back of the gear I running and see if what you discribed would work

Audio Interface


ProChannel Tube thing


and for giggles, my mixer



Currently I have a the ProChannel on Mixer Ch 8 which is link to Ch 8 on the audio interface. I use ch 8 for vocals

Just picked up an Alesis 3632 Dual Ch Compressor. Looking forward to hooking it up and doing some mixes

As you add more outboard, a patchbay really helps things.  Mixers w/o inserts are like ... well, I shouldn't say on a family site.  Same w/ preamps in an interface.  My TC unit doesn't have inserts which is a bummer, since the preamps are actually pretty good.

As Mike says, you need another tubey compressor for stereo work.  You can run one side of the stereo through your single channel at a time, but that introduces problems of its own.  Still, it has been done.  You can also use the EQ for some gentle shaping, while using software for more precise correction.

I've never heard of the Alesis as a mastering compressor. It is good for effect, pump and grind, but most music styles need something a little smoother for mastering.  You can definately use it to run some stereo tracks out in back into your interface as Mike describes.  I'd hook the channel strip directly into the interface and skip passing through the mixer unless you need it. 

Another place where a patchbay comes in handy.  See what you've gotten yourself into?  The costs never stop.

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AT, thanks. I'm sending audio out of channel 7 & 8 from my Audio Interface into the Alesis with TRS cables. Then out of the Alesis into my mixer channel 1 & 2 using XLR cables, which is kind of a bummer cause I would have to disconnect the two XLR cables that are coming from my audio snake every time I wanted to send the Alesis signal.

But now you got me thinking about using the input on my mixer, using TRS cables to connect from the output of my Alesis. On each channel on my mixer I have a XLR input, a balance/unbalance Input and an Insert I/O’s. The XLR and Input act as audio line in’s and wouldn’t that allow me to leave my snake XLR inputs alone? I've never used a patchbay before, I'll have to look into that $$$$$