Question about adding outboard gear when mixing

[hmnp]

A couple of weeks ago I received my Apogee AD-16X from mercenary. In a week or so I'll be ordering the DA-16X. I hear alot in the forums that engineers like to record everything as unprocessed as possible so when its time to mix they'll add the compressors, EQ, effx, etc. I plan on mixing "Outside the box" by using a SPL Mixdream Summing device.

My question is what are the steps to applying the ouboard gear while mixing??

Let say I have a Distressor and Im planning to use it for the vocals, the snare, the bass guitar and the room mics. Will I have to get 5 Distressors for that ??? Or I could just go processing track by track??

The problem as I see it it, I dont want to solo, let say the bass guitar, and make it sound terrific all by it self. Iwant to process it while hearing the rest of the instruments.

But If Im going track by track, how would that be done?? Im planning on getting another PC to transfer the new processed files onto it. Will they align in the new PC ? Is this a good Idea, how do you guys do it?

Ive tried using the search but nothing that I found helped me. If something is unclear let me know, this has been a torment of mine for quite sometime and I know you guys can help. Thanks alot!!

JP

[Mark Alan Miller]

If you have open tracks (or are on a DAW or somthing with virtual tracks) you can set up a unit like the Distressor for a channel, record the processed version to another channel (save the unprocessed one in case you don't like the processing in context later - you can make changes that way) and move on to the next track you want that unit on.
If they need to be processed at the same time (no open tracks to bounce to, or you're running analog and don't want another generation of tape on each processed track, or you're running digital and don't want another generation of A/D/A on each processed track) then you'll need on channel of processing for each channel desired...

[Albert]

The problem as I see it it, I dont want to solo, let say the bass guitar, and make it sound terrific all by it self. Iwant to process it while hearing the rest of the instruments.

But If Im going track by track, how would that be done?? Im planning on getting another PC to transfer the new processed files onto it. Will they align in the new PC ? Is this a good Idea, how do you guys do it?

You can listen to the whole arrangement, but send only one track out for processing at a time. Once that is recorded, then you select another track to process through the Distressor, while still listening to all the tracks in the arrangement. Time consuming, but it will allow you to hear your whole arrangement and use your best gear on every track. Of course, the drawback is that you will not be able to hear what all the tracks sound like with processing until you've finished recording them one by one. So then you might have to go back and re-record some tracks with different settings until you are happy with it. Time consuming, yes.

Otherwise, you need enough outboard to handle all your tracks at the same time.

As far as lining the tracks up, in some ways it is easier to do that if you record them back into the same PC. What you do is record the processed track onto a track that is adjacent to the original unprocessed track. Then you visually line them up. Or, chances are that each track will have the same amount of latency after being played back/recorded through the same converters, so you could just leave them alone and probably be pretty close. I personally line them up though, as you can do that with sample accuracy at high magnifications.

[hmnp]

thanks alot for the replys. Anyone else ?