Saffire/MixControl/Folcrom questions

[jhcore]

I initially posted this in Listen to my stuff, so I apologize in advance for the cross-post. But I'm having a hell of a time figuring this out.

I just recently got my hands on the Folcrom summing buss, and have been playing around with it using some long-dormant mixes I have laying around. But I use Logic 9 with a Saffire 40, and the damnfangled Saffire Mix Control software has me all whacked out in terms of routing, playback, and monitoring. I have outputs 3-10 set to run into the summing buss, and can hear everything come back into Logic, but ONLY when I enable the pre-fader level button in MixControl.

But I FINALLY was able to route everything out/in, but the monitor level is acting as another gain stage; I left it at 5 to allow for appropriate levels. And now through all the MixControl trial-and-error wrangling, my headphone outs are dead!

Also, I realized that the bassist's intonation(?) was for crap--when he left the low E string, his levels all but vanished! But when you hear the original ITB mix, it's nowhere near as noticeable!

And FWIW, all pres were trim-wide-open, with input gain raised to attain the appropriate output levels.

In any event, here is the Folcrom into the wacky FrankeNeve 2-channel pre:
https://soundcloud.com/jhcore/schooled-otb-ffrankeneve

And through 2 Fivefish sc-1s.
https://soundcloud.com/jhcore/schooled-otb-fivefish

[Corey Y]

Have you ever set up alternate input monitoring mixes with Mix Control before? It's really simple, but it can get very convoluted if you're not familiar with it. If you're trying to send the inputs back from the summing mixer directly to the monitors, I would set your routing preset to CLEAR, then go to the Monitor channels, then Inputs, then the physical inputs you're using. By default they're usually set to DAW 1 and 2, which is the master output of Logic. It's the same for the headphone outs, they're generally assigned DAW 1 and 2, but you can change the routing to any physical output or input you want from your hardware. So just use an identical setting and then make sure you have the appropriate input channel assigned on the mixer in MC and you have the output of MC set correct to what you want. You can just mute the DAW OUT output channel. If you don't want to mess with your current settings, just do this in an alternate mix tab. You can also assign specific "mixes" in MC as outputs for monitors or headphones.

It might be easier and more productive to just route all your tracks/groups in Logic to one group for "summing OUT", send that out to your summing mixer and preamps, route the input signals to another group for "summing IN" and monitor from the DAW outputs as normal. Yes, it adds a gain stage between the preamps from the summing mixer and your output, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Especially because you can monitor the actual sound you're going to be bouncing down for your stereo track (which may help with your mixing issues), if you want you can get a very saturated sound from your preamps and dial back the gain to maintain headroom for mastering. If you're monitoring directly from your inputs and then bouncing down to stereo, you might be adding a gain stage and not accurately hearing exactly what you're bouncing down to your finished product.

I hope I'm getting your situation clear and making my points clearly. If I was in the room it would be easy as pie to demonstrate, kind of hazy explaining the details of signal routing between Logic and MC in text (for me).

[jhcore]

Thanks for your reply, Corey! Actually, since last posting, I did a bit more research and figured out that I needed to configure MixControl to have my outputs "greyed" (100% signal to the pres), thereby bypassing any hardware (Saffire) volume control. And I can monitor the summed channel in Logic by clicking MixControl's Pre-fader listen button.

That being said, I can't find a consistent way to monitor the summed stereo channel in real time with anything I might have on the Master Bus. It seems sometimes I can, sometimes I can't.....

It really might be a matter of my fat-fingering a button in Logic/MixControl and not knowing what exactly the Hell I'm doing!

[Corey Y]

I know the feeling. The first time I tried to set up an alternate input mix through a separate headphone amp for a drummer was a disaster. That's why every time I get something to work exactly how I want with MC I save it lol.