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Connecting conventional mixer to firepod?

i_got_a_mohawk

i_got_a_mohawk

Feb 9, 2005
17,483
505
40
Edinburgh & Dundee, Scotland
#1
Is there anyway to connect a conventional mixer to a firepod or similar firewire unit, so that after recording you could use the volume sliders etc on the conventional mixer for each channel?

Im guessing not, but i had a pretty funky dream last night where it worked, and it made things seem so much easier!

Im not mental . . .

Thanks!

-Will
 
#3
The firepod has manually knobs right on it... They aren't sliders but they serve the same purpose pretty much for line input. Typically these days you would automate volume changes in the software (Cubase in this example) and automate every instrument specifically without the need of a team of people doing it in real time (a la Pink Floyd).

A manual mixer like some by Behring ::shudder:: probably adds its own tone to the mix as well. Something you probably wouldn't want to do.

The device you sound like you want is something from the Mackie Onyx line, though it'd be FAR more expensive. I'd say use what you've already got, its probably plenty for now.
 
#4
You can do what you describe by connecting the Firepod's channel outputs to the inputs of your mixer channels.

To record the results of the mix, though, you'd need to send audio back into the computer (which you could do via Firepod) or into some other device.

Most folks mix from their DAW software to simplify the setup, save mix settings to memory, and avoid the extra D/A/D conversions.

It might be worth running to the mixer, if you've got a clean board and tasty rack processing that you want to use during mixdown. Otherwise, there's a reason the typical way of doing things *is* typical.
 
#5
I am not sure what exactly you are trying to ask. If you mean that you want to control the volume on a track after its been recorded, no you cannot do that with a normal mixer unless you just plug the individual outputs into the mixer, and it would only be mixing the mix on the mixer and not on the software or whatever. Using a mixer to go into the Firepod is pretty easy though... Just take the outputs and send em into the inputs. If you have an 8 bus mixer you can control the bus levels as the pod records them, but not after.
 
#8
Im actually at a bit of a loss as to what that thing does :P

After recording say 8 different tracks, it would be possible to assign a seperate slider to each channel for controlling volume of each channel individually?

If so, thats pretty much what im looking for! :D

I love the abilities it claims to have for when using synths etc too, excellent!

I'll just have to look about and see what its compatabilities with cubase are like!
 
#9
i_got_a_mohawk said:
Im actually at a bit of a loss as to what that thing does :P

After recording say 8 different tracks, it would be possible to assign a seperate slider to each channel for controlling volume of each channel individually?
Click to expand...

Not with a normal mixer, but you should be able to do it in the software you are using. If you want to do an external mixdown, the firepod has outs from each channel that you could mix with (and send to a recorder or monitors or whatever) your mixer, but it will not change the level in the software you are using.
 
#10
i_got_a_mohawk said:
It was to be able to add something like that to what i already have to control the levels in the mixdown process.

But it looks like that could be what im looking for.

Wonder if it would work with cubase along with the firepod . . . hmm
Click to expand...

Have a look here, about halfway down the page:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

It's got presets for cubase, which is a pretty good sign. I imagine that's a default setup which allocates the sliders to cubase faders, the pots to eq/pan etc.
 
#11
el_Kabong said:
Have a look here, about halfway down the page:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

It's got presets for cubase, which is a pretty good sign. I imagine that's a default setup which allocates the sliders to cubase faders, the pots to eq/pan etc.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that up :)

I had a scout about and found out its fine for windows and cubase :hyper:



I really want one now :hiding:
 
#12
What your trying to do is not impossible, but it will take quite a few channels. We had this setup in college. We used a 32 track board and heres how we did it. The sound comes into the preamp on the board, through the board, then out the direct out on each individual channel. Your board has to have direct outs for this to work, not all do. Then the source goes into your sound card, the analog to digital conversion happens here. Then into your computer, through its processing, then you can assign it and out, say out one. So you have 16 channels comming into the board and into your firepod, 002 or whatever will accept 16 channels. Then you assign the outs of the individual channels in your DAW to corespond with inputs on the mixer. You used the first 16 channels as ins, now your using 17-32 as outs 1-16 in your DAW. The sound goes out of the sound card, does its digital to analog conversion here, then you can basicall mix on channels 17-32. Then the sound source goes to your main outs, at this point it is captured by your media, whether it be a tape machine or back into your DAW. This is basically using the same mixer for tracking and summing/mixing.

As someone said before, unless you have a big fantastic sounding mixer you wanna avoid this many Analog to digital and digital to analog conversions. I just use my mixer as a slave, using the pres and eqs on the way into my pro tools. I dont mix on my mixer, but unless your board has automation its rather pointless to mix on. If you dont have a bunch of outboard gear this is rather pointless as well. You can benefit from the analog summing, but if the mixer is just so so the benefits will be cancelled out cuz of all the conversions.

What someone suggested is just a midi controller. This does not have outs and will only complete the second half of the equation. It will control your DAW. While this is nice, it has not bearing on the audio.
 
#14
If your looking for something that does not pass sound then there are like a billion other options. Those midi behringer midi controllers will work great im sure. The command 8 would work if your using pro tools, which your not. The new mackie control pro or something seems to be a popular choice these days. You could always go with a SSL duality controller but that may be a bit over your budget.:smug:
 

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