Hi gang…
Being seriously uneducated in music production equipment I have a simple question.
Can I use a mixing desk with N?
If so…what are the specs? Just a USB desk?
Cheers
Do you mean a control surface?
probably…yes. Faders, tone controls etc. x number of channels…if I draw volume envelopes the faders go up and down…
Actually I don’t think so no.
What do studios use when running pro tools and have those huge mixing
desks?
Yeah, man. You could use an analogue desk for easy access to however many instrument and/or mic in-puts and the same with a digital control surface but with the benefits of midi and all that jizz.
Get both.
So many options, but you want something fancy that functions as both a standard mixing desk and a control surface, i guess? I’d love that. You ought to go ask over at tapeop.com, those guys have lots of experience with this sort of thing. 
Thanks chaps…just thinking out loud really, and wondering if this would be compatible with N.
Alot comes down to how much money you want to spend. Next is what protocol do you want the mixer/control surface to work with, and do you really need motorized faders.
A bunch of folks has said good things about the Allen & Heath ZED-R16 firewire. Channel controls and transport functions are midi mapable. Then of course there is always Presonus StudioLive series and Mackie Control Universal Pro.
If you just want to have motorized faders and midi mapable knobs take a gander at the Behringer BCF2000. These are cheap compared to some of the others and they can be slaved to together. I have been waiting for a couple of these to come up on EBAY cheap. Would love to have 16 to 24 motorized channels with control over EQ, transport, pan, ect…Would be great not to draw in envelope evolutions.
Duff
Quote: (spreadercraig @ Jun. 15 2011, 5:39 PM)
Actually I don't think so no.
What do studios use when running pro tools and have those huge mixing
desks?
It could be something like an Icon which is a digital mixer and control surface in one idea. Either that or they are running a hybrid. A common setup with analog mixers is a patch bay between the DAW and the mixer such that the big mixer (SSL, Neve etc) can be configured to use for tracking (to use the built in pres) or mixing (to use a combo of plugins and hardware). Patch bays are a huge deal in these setups so you can combine things as you need. Then, automation may be done on the mixer, in Protools, or both.
For N... eesh, I would be afraid to try a control surface with it as... well... we'll skip that tired diatribe. You could go the analog mix route, but you'll need a multi-out sound card with enough outs to send each track to a mixer... an expensive and likely fruitless effort.
Quote: (duffman @ Jun. 16 2011, 9:01 AM)
Alot comes down to how much money you want to spend. Next is what protocol do you want the mixer/control surface to work with, and do you really need motorized faders.
A bunch of folks has said good things about the Allen & Heath ZED-R16 firewire. Channel controls and transport functions are midi mapable. Then of course there is always Presonus StudioLive series and Mackie Control Universal Pro.
If you just want to have motorized faders and midi mapable knobs take a gander at the Behringer BCF2000. These are cheap compared to some of the others and they can be slaved to together. I have been waiting for a couple of these to come up on EBAY cheap. Would love to have 16 to 24 motorized channels with control over EQ, transport, pan, ect....Would be great not to draw in envelope evolutions.
Duff
I looked into this a while ago, specifically a control surface which could be used to control n-track by way of MIDI. I looked at the ZED-R16 and I thought this just might be the ticket however the ZED only has a small section for MIDI control and the 16 faders "only" can be mapped, however all the little buttons and knobs above the fader are not MIDI mappable. This is why I didn't get the ZED. I wanted a total MIDI mappable mixing board to control n-track so I looked at the behringer line and thought well I could just chain 5 or 6 units together and have enough channels so I wouldn't have to switch presets but I discovered you can only chain 2 at a time through a midi interface meaning no more than 2 BFC's at a time. So that idea went south. I've been searching for a large totally mappable midi board but all I can find are just small one's with 8 or so channels with the option to switch channels which can give you more channels. However this defeats the purpose of having all the tracks and faders and EQ's for each track at hand. What I'm looking for is something like the ZED-R16 but is totally MIDI mappable, every single switch, button, knob and fader, everything. I haven't been able to find anything that can do that yet.
PACO
I use an analogue mixer. Soundcraft, 16 channels. But no control interface.
My various sources (mics pre’s, keyboards, guitar multi-effect) all go to their own channel.
The mixer has direct-outs - which are key to this setup - Each channel’s direct output goes to a different input on my recording interface (via a patch panel but it doesn’t do a great deal anymore).
The outputs from my interface run back into a pair of channels on the mixer and then out to the amp/speakers.
I also have a reverb unit on an Aux send so I can add 'verb (eg to vocals) while recording but without recording the 'verb.
So, I have direct mixing, easy setting of levels for recording and monitoring, outboard EQ (ie the mixer channels), reverb sends, no plugging and unplugging… works for me.
Mixing is all ITB except for coming out via the desk for monitoring.