PCIe-424 Internal Summing with CueMix?

[brucerothwell]

I have a PCIe-424 card in my Mac Pro.

I have four 1224's connected to the PCIe-424.

Currently, I output up to 30 channels of audio from the 1224's to my Shadow Hills Equinox, which then returns a summed mix back to Pro Tools.

I have been pondering the idea of being able sum to 4 groups of channels, and recording 4 stereo pairs back into my DAW -- 4 stereo stems.

So, I've been looking at how I can do that with a different analog summing solution.

I also have considered just mixing in Pro Tools, to separate stem tracks. But, I am concerned that, for the same reason I am going OTB to begin with, I would not be happy with DAW-computed stem mixes.

Is it possible to do internal summing using CueMix, to create 4 stereo stems all at once?

If so, would there be a difference in the sound quality, as compared to the DAW-computed mixes?

Any advice is welcomed!

[4stripes]

Does the 1224 have CueMix even? I don't think so.

CueMix is a digital mixer, just like a DAW, so there's no difference. If you want to know yourself, do a mix through each at unity, line them up together, flip the phase on one. They'll perfectly cancel.

You could do multiple stereo stems with something like XL-Desk. You could do two stereo stems from 32 inputs with X-Desk (cue and mix buses).

[brucerothwell]

The 1224's don't have the DSP functionality, but the CueMix utility is still part of the PCIe-424 install.

However, when I run it, it seems I only see faders/pans/etc for the 1224 _inputs_, not the outputs... so I am not sure how I can create stems in CueMix.

Not sure what XL-Desk (or X-Desk?), but I'll check that out.

Thanks for the response!

[brucerothwell]

I did a search on both XL-Desk and X-Desk... what came up were SSL hardware products.

Not sure why that is a suggestion here.

[4stripes]

Because you literally asked "So, I've been looking at how I can do that with a different analog summing solution." So you got a different analog summing solution as a reply. Seems reasonable. You can't do 4 stereo analog buses if your hardware (Equinox) doesn't have them.

Of course with CueMixDSP you can mix to multiple buses--you have as many buses as you have outputs, just like in a DAW. You pan channels to buses, you don't pan outputs. It's all right in there. Try chapter 11.

And as an aside, anyone doing summing should compare the summed device with a straight DA>AD connection to see if the analog summing is any better than the conversion itself, an extra step which many generally wanted to avoid before summing became fashionable.

[brucerothwell]

Thank you, 4stripes. Sorry if I appeared ungrateful. That was a statement, though... my question was about what I could with CueMix. No matter. My bad. You offered good advice and I appreciate it.

I'll check out Chapter 11 of the manual.

I did try creating stems in Pro Tools, and it actually turned out better than I thought.