Mixing While Recording?

[Sean McCoy]

Now that I've taken the plunge and am doing location recording, I'm wondering how I might be able to create realtime stereo mixes using more than two channels (and no hardware mixer, of course). I had thought it might be possible to merge digital input channels in TotalMix, but apparently it isn't. I can't think of a way to do this in SS. Is it doable? Or is this a job for SAC?

[Grekim]

How about doing a digital loop-back. Set monitoring type to playthrough so that the recorded signal goes though the faders and Saw fx and then out the hardware via a digital out. Then you come back in digitally and record the mix live to a new track.
Make sure the channel you are recording into is muted or assigned to a different output than tracks you are mixing!

[Dave Labrecque]

How about doing a digital loop-back. Set monitoring type to playthrough so that the recorded signal goes though the faders and Saw fx and then out the hardware via a digital out. Then you come back in digitally and record the mix live to a new track.

Sounds way complicated. Do what Bob does in his demo video. Same thing I did (I think) at a wedding a couple weekends ago (doing live sound mix and playing keyboards for the singer at the ceremony -- not recommended ).

All in SAW... Make the first few tracks your live input/live mix tracks. Make another bunch of tracks the recording tracks -- you can assign the same live inputs to those, too. Just be sure those aren't assigned to the outputs feeding your amps/speakers.

Use a tape-style monitoring setting, hit Record and go. Worked well for me.

You might want to do a test run before-hand to get a feel for workflow, buffer setting limitations and all around stability and familiarity with the setup. Then save an EDL and a preferences file. And an F-key file. Worked for me. First timer.

The only problem I ran into was unexpected/sudden feedback when I turned on the bride/groom/officiant wireless lavs. I hate when that happens.

[Grekim]

How do you mix the incoming signals then?

[Ian Alexander]

I'm surprised TotalMix won't combine inputs into one stereo input. The Lynx mixer applet will. That's not me saying, "Nyah, Nyah." I just think it might be worth another try. Not that have ever seen, let alone used, TotalMix.

[Sean McCoy]

What I would need would be three or four live input tracks all feeding a single stereo recording track. Would this setup work for that?

[Sean McCoy]

I'm surprised TotalMix won't combine inputs into one stereo input. The Lynx mixer applet will. That's not me saying, "Nyah, Nyah." I just think it might be worth another try. Not that have ever seen, let alone used, TotalMix.

I was a little surprised, too, but then, I've always had a digital console and digital patchbay for routing and monitoring, so I've never delved deeply into what TotalMix can or can't do. RME actually told me the only way I could do this using the 9652 would be via the digital loopback method. The 9652 isn't a great choice for a field computer, so I'm replacing it with a MOTU 2408 Mk II/PCI-424 for the monitoring options and to have access to some additional converters if I need them. I'll have to look into what its mixing template might be capable of. I've been using one on my Mac forever, but again, I've never needed to use its internal options.

[Ian Alexander]

I was a little surprised, too, but then, I've always had a digital console and digital patchbay for routing and monitoring, so I've never delved deeply into what TotalMix can or can't do. RME actually told me the only way I could do this using the 9652 would be via the digital loopback method. The 9652 isn't a great choice for a field computer, so I'm replacing it with a MOTU 2408 Mk II/PCI-424 for the monitoring options and to have access to some additional converters if I need them. I'll have to look into what its mixing template might be capable of. I've been using one on my Mac forever, but again, I've never needed to use its internal options.

Well, RME might know.

[Dave Labrecque]

How do you mix the incoming signals then?

On the mixer, of course.

What do you mean?

[Dave Labrecque]

What I would need would be three or four live input tracks all feeding a single stereo recording track. Would this setup work for that?

Well, I suppose you could use JMS' Aux plugin to mix several inputs to a single stereo track, but why not just leave them all recorded as discrete tracks and mix them later? That way you don't have to commit to a mix in real time; you can tweak a mix to taste later. Or do a simple unity gain mix, if you really want to.

The power here is that you can do a live multichannel mix and a discrete multitrack recording simultaneously and independently.