Signal Flow with Audio Interface + Mixer combo?!

Magical_

New member
How should I connect my audio interface and my mixer together to communicate with my PC? I Basically want to record through my mixer and use my audio interface as the sound card. where does my monitors plug into, the mixer or audio interface, etc??
 
Mixer>Interface>Computer, in general. Of course, we have no idea what specific gear you have, so it's hard to be any more detailed.

GJ
 
No, that would be soundcard/computer output, or interface. It would be great to have an idea of what equipment you're dealing with.

GJ
 
Yeah, there are multiple ways one can hook up a mixer & interface, depending on what you have and also how you want to work with it. But as said, you'd probably hook up your monitors straight to the interface, unless there's a good reason to go through the mixer again coming out from the computer.
 
How should I connect my audio interface and my mixer together to communicate with my PC? I Basically want to record through my mixer and use my audio interface as the sound card. where does my monitors plug into, the mixer or audio interface, etc??

When recording, the signal passes through the mixer into the audio interface.
When playing back the recorded signal, the signal passes from the audio interface into the mixer and from the mixer out to the speakers.

The monitors/headphones are connected to the console, not to the audio interface. Converters are kind of like EQ filters and it is not uncommon that the signal passes one ad-da-ad cycle and one da-ad cycle throughout a project, so hence 5 times of conversion can add up, but you compensate naturally so therefore whatever that ends up on the last ad is what it becomes, that's done with a transparent mastering converter. But because the last ad is so critical, it is wise to feed the signal to two other totally discrete signal chains besides the standard analog one, those are monitored digitally, meaning that the signal passes an additional ad-da route for the purpose of getting the color from it. If you are very serious you do this both during mixing and mastering, so you might have engaged 6 totally discrete signal paths on a production, 2 analog, 4 digital. But it is the 2 analog ones that are most important. All of the converters must have great headroom.

So what you want to achieve is to have the product of all of these signal chains as close to the truth as possible, so that even when they create an expanded view of the audio, that window is narrow enough relative to a true flat frequency response (audio dim. 1) and the signal that passes it is close enough to the center point of them all (audio dim. 2). Here is where the choice of converters and especially acoustics come into play, because both of the audio dimensions are negatively impacted by using poor converters in a very dense inaccurate monitoring environment. When you align the converters, the monitors, the acoustics well and the audio well against that, you get a great final result.

So in other words, when you work in the hardware domain, it is not only that you get more true audio processing in itself, but you work within a more true audio window as well. The combination makes the difference, especially when on top of that you are able to reference multiple sources at the same time and can adjust towards their combined sweet spot. These systems need to be time synchronized, not all choose that advanced monitoring route. Some prefer a more simple route by having just very high transparency in the final ad and then they monitor from their analog console. But I recommend the route of running multiple discrete monitoring paths and do so in various monitoring configurations for checking various things... When it comes to the headphones there are techniques of downgrading the signal on purpose at the connector, providing you an additional dimension of audio/perspective on every headphone set, not to mention that you can also combine multiple open or semi closed headphone sets both by using one can from each on each ear (then you can also use closed back cans or a mix) or by placing one of the sets around the neck. This combination of going this advanced with monitoring of course pays off, especially when you know what monitors and headphones to engage.
 
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And whether or not you choose to wade through DarkRed's convoluted walls of text, that particular post has little to do with your situation - your Behringer can hardly be called a "console", nor will you (or frankly 99% people making music in their bedrooms) be considering "6 discrete monitoring paths".

While in some situations it can be beneficial to route outgoing audio through your mixer, in this case the only advantage would be to have both your input and output volume control in the same spot. The disadvantage is that the mixer may degrade your signal, which is why I'm advising against it. Theoretically anything and everything in a signal path will degrade it, but obviously what matters in the real world is whether or not it's noticeable or important - in this case, it might be. You can of course try it out (although be aware that even small changes in volume can be easily perceived as changes in quality).
 
Wait... Everyone doesn't have at minimum a 32-channel SSL in their bedroom?

Oh, yeah, they don't.

GJ
 
And whether or not you choose to wade through DarkRed's convoluted walls of text, that particular post has little to do with your situation - your Behringer can hardly be called a "console", nor will you (or frankly 99% people making music in their bedrooms) be considering "6 discrete monitoring paths".

While in some situations it can be beneficial to route outgoing audio through your mixer, in this case the only advantage would be to have both your input and output volume control in the same spot. The disadvantage is that the mixer may degrade your signal, which is why I'm advising against it. Theoretically anything and everything in a signal path will degrade it, but obviously what matters in the real world is whether or not it's noticeable or important - in this case, it might be. You can of course try it out (although be aware that even small changes in volume can be easily perceived as changes in quality).

This is not entirely true. If you send out a good signal to a good analog console (and I'm not saying the Behringer is), although the headroom is the issue you still get a lot of really nice qualities into your mixing. It is very important early on in your mixing career, to learn to trust whatever hardware you have laying around, although the headroom is not there you start to get a sense of the natural qualities you have in the music that you lose with software. When you have limited headroom, what that mostly means is that you have to work in a different more constrained way with the arrangement, the volume, the pan knobs and the EQ knobs, you are still able to take advantage of the qualities you inherently have in the hardware - hence the better the recording the less of an issue the headroom becomes. But later on in order to really push your mixes up to the top with great arrangement flexibility, separation, resonance and size, then you have to have the headroom also. If you have a thick layer of background noise present in the signal it is going to get a "garage" type of vibe.
 
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And if I'm not mistaken, Krushing was pointing-out that the Behringer may add a "thick layer of background noise." Different people have different opinions and tolerances. I actually have no problem with using Behringer in many situations, but to be on the ultra-safe side, we only have a Behringer mixer in the control room at The Sonic Vault to route non-essential/non-reference material (i.e. foldback to talent for non-essential monitoring).

Once again, DR, take it from an analog-loving guy-- The bulk of the recording world is in the digital realm, _"In the Box"_. If every post you make is going to be telling people that they have to go analog or go home, then you might as well let us make this last one a "stickie" and save yourself and everyone else the verbiage from now on. Nobody is going to buy an SSL because of a post here on FP, when they are just getting started and have a laptop and an MBox. If your only solution to every problem is " go analog; because-- 'voltage,' " it is not being helpful. That is the epitome of the language-based application of the words "limit" and "brick wall."

GJ
 
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Assuming that you have some outboard gear that you would also like to monitor/mix I would say go ahead and hook up your monitors and headphones to the mixer and connect your audio interface output into the tape input on your mixer too while you are at it.
 
Assuming that you have some outboard gear that you would also like to monitor/mix I would say go ahead and hook up your monitors and headphones to the mixer and connect your audio interface output into the tape input on your mixer too while you are at it.

In the case of the Q802USB, you'd either use the USB or the 2-track inputs for this.
 
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