Can I do this?

[Chainsaw Dave]

Hi, I'm new to music production. I've been using a small home set up for a while with a laptop, midi keyboard etc. I want to start buying real euro rack compressors, equalisers and filters etc. How do I run the sound from my DAW into equipment in an actual rack, then back to the laptop DAW to record it? Does that make sense?!?

 

[krushing]

Are you actually talking about Eurorack (which is a specific modular synth format) or - no offense - are just using that term to describe rack equipment in general?

Basically (for the latter), you'll need a muiti i/o audio interface, and then simply take an output from the interface to the input of your compressor/filter/EQ. And vice versa - rack unit output back to a spare input on the interface. Then it's just a matter of figuring out how to route signals to those outgoing channels in your DAW & record the output from the processors onto new channels - most DAWs nowadays also have some kind of an "external processor" plugin, which basically makes the external processor behave like a plugin (so it's just sitting there in your fx chain, no xtra tracks needed) - but of course renders still need to happen in real time.