Hi all still pondering about buying a new V Studio 700 system.
I have a few questins which need answering so I hope some of you guys cam put me right.
 
Heres the situation, i have a  profesional studio currently and want to down size as i will be retiring to France soon. I have been looking at the 700 and on the face of it even with the compatability isses with X2 i am still interested. (i dont mind even having to downgrade to 8.5 if it works).
So heres my queries.
I need to be able to set up a headphone mix lets say for a singer. They will need to hear the backing however also need some FX on their vocals, but not have it printed to a track. Second i would like to record at the same time an acoustic guitar again with FX and a headphone mix, some what different to the singers mix. I can currently do all this and much more as i use a Yamaha 02r 96 and this is all at zero latency.
Question is can i do all this with the 700 system?
Many thanks for you help.
 

If you decide to go that path ... buying VS700 ... on your way to France stop by in Germany. I have a 6 month old VS700C with 2 VS700R for you (including 3 boxed SONAR Version) at a price you will not be able to resist.

Edit - describing wrong method. Will come back to this when I've thought it through.

Let me elaberate,
I only record live instruments, i dont use virtual instruments.
I have a three pice band to record, two acoustic guitars, one bass, and three vocals. Thes guys want to do it live, (record all at the same time). Each want their own headphone mix, each want reverb on their vocals.
I want to record each instrument and vocal to its own track in sonar without any FX reverb etc, so i can add it later at the mix stage.
Currently i can do all of this with my 02r96 system at zero latency. 
However i want to down size my system and I am looking for a smaller system such as the V700. I cant see how this would be done on the V 700 without incuring latency throug the drivers and fx processing.
 Can all of the above be done using the V Studio 700 at zero latency.
 

OK, so the problem here is that you can set up fairly sophisticated routing for headphne mixes and effects while recording so on via Sonar itself, but that means introducing latency. Depending on your computer and the complexity of the project, this may be low enough to work with; it's certainly worth exploring.

Using direct monitoring instead is possible, but with some limitations.

For direct monitring, you only have three output options, "Main", "Sub" and "Digital 1". These are all stereo.

You can't route individual inputs to different outs for monitoring, they're just either on or off.

I've done a fudge for recording singers with reverb in their headphones a few times. I have their mic coming in on one channel, and the direct mix outputs for both Main and Sub on. The singer is listening on headphones to just the Main output.

I then patch in a hardware reverb (I just use a cheap pedal for this myself) to the sub output and bring it back in on another input channel. The reverb is set to fully wet as you would for a bus effect. This then also apears in the singer's headphones.

You've probably already realised the problem with this, which is that the reverb signal coming back in will also be going out of the SUB output and back to the reverb and into an infinite loop. In parctise, I find that with low levels of reverb, I do ok, and it doesn't go into a big feedback howl.

The other obvious limitation here is that you end up with monitoring reverb on everything. I haven't figured out a way of doing it ore selectively.

So there you go; bit of a cludge, but it can be useful.

To be honest, for the scenario you describe, I would try to get your latency low enough and do it through software. That way, you have access to far more outputs, and can set up different headphone mixes. You don't really have that in direct monitoring (you can do two different headphone mixes, but that requires using the Sub output, so you can't do it at the same time as my reverb trick).

Zeth,

If you want to add the Octa-Capture to the set-up (extra 600 EUR) you get an integrated system (VS-700R + Octa-Capture linked via VS EXPAND mode). This gives you up to 5 different direct (zero latency) monitor mixes and for the 1st mix on the Octa-Capture you can use the build-in reverb (but unfortunately not for the other 3 mixes on the Octa-Capture, nor the one on the VS-700R).

But as John said, if you get your DAW latency low enough, you have far more options. It takes some tweaking and a few days to sort out all the options you have (w/ VS-700R + Octa-Capture) to find the best suitable combination. I do a lot of direct monitoring via the Octa-Capture, but usually blend in a few tracks with FX through the DAW ... works nicely as I can run fairly small ASIO buffers.

Let us know if you need more details on these options ...

Ah, that's a good point. You could direct monitor the instruments and software monitor just the vocals with reverb on. So the latency hit would be lower.

You 10 analog outputs on the V700R. That's 10 mono outputs or 5 stereo ouputs, 2 sub stereo outputs, 1 main stereo ouput. Using the 10 analog outs for headphone mixs is possible through routing in Sonar. You guys are talking about latency through Sonar as if it's large. It shouldn't be even noticable if everyone plugged in is on the same output chain. A small headphone mixer on each position will give you what you want.

Hi guys, thanks for the info.
It all seem a bit coveluted and not something you just throw together. One of my bigest problems in running a pro studio is time, with the setup i have 02r96 i just dial in whatever i need for the client (to make them feel happy it takes seconds) and away we go,  recording evertyhing totaly dry. Maybe the 700 is not the way to go for me. i think i need to explore other options. A very expensive unit i was realy hoping for more versitility no the recording side, however it look like mixing on the 700 would be a dream. All done in the box.
OH well :)

I think it is far more versatile than you think.  I have had zero issues with latency and headphone monitoring. If you are adding effects to a monitored signal, there is no such thing as "zero latency".  It doesn't matter if you are using VST or outboard effects. If you do anything to the direct signal in any system, it introduces latency.  It may be so small that you don't hear it, but it is there.  I have a Lynx Hilo interfaced with my VS700 that I use extensively.  I rout my monitor sends out to a alesis R12. These are then sent to a Presonus monitor controller in my vocal booth or to room sends. I also then monitor from the mix position from the Hilo headphone out.  I have other options if I take the Hilo out of the loop.  (However, the Hilo has an internal 32x32 mixer which is insanely versatile.)  The entire VS700 system has it's flaws with X2 that we have been promised a fix for.  Non-Versatility is not one of the units shortfalls unless you want to use it with a Non Sonar DAW such as Pro tools.