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The only mixer I use in the studio is CueMix, with a Lexicon 'verb adding "talent" performers can monitor while tracking. Presonus Monitor Station handles my input and stereo monitor switching, plus it offers four headphone outs (on two separate stereo buses) for performers' headphone feeds. Surround speakers are fed via a Yamaha receiver, bypassing the Monitor Station. Feeding my 828mkII, a Presonus Digimax FS gives me a total of 10 mic ins and 16 analog line outs. Hardware compression (Aphex) on two Digimax inserts allows me to lightly compress two vocal tracks (duets) at once.

I have an AlphaTrack, but it hasn't been extremely stable for me, so it is currently not in use.

Let me mention the coolest thing that everyone (who appreciates the importance of playing in tune) loves: I hardwired an extra output from my 828mkII directly to the input on a Korg tuner mounted above my center surround monitor. Anyone who records in my control room can check his or her tuning anytime... the big Korg display is easy to see from anywhere in the room. I usually don't bus vocal mics to the tuner, though... Too distracting!

I've been mixerless for 2 years now, my 56 channel Mitec Verydesk is being used by a friend who's a die hard analog guy . The thing I've been experimenting with is the analog summing and the monitoring section. As far as monitoring goes I found that products such as Presonus Central station and Big Button from Mackie alter the sound too much for them to be used in mission critical situations. The two I did like are MTC from SPL and the Dangerous MONITOR ST-SR. Dangerous being a little to pricey for me I went with the MTC and so far it has been good to me. I'm still in the process of trying the analog summing and the Dangerous products are my favorite so far. I've also checked out the Neve and SPL products in that area. I also use the CueMix extensively during tracking ans there is one feature I'd like to see in DP. When you set up your 30+ track main mix, and are getting ready for the tracking and want to send a separate feed to the musician/s, you're faced with the same problem you would have with an analogue mixer. You need to open manually an AUX on every track and assign levels to them. What would be great is being able to assign, say aux bus 1/2 to every track, copy the fader levels from that track and put that aux in PRE mode. That way you only have to tweak that mix a little according to the talent's wishes. Once tracking done, it would be nice to just take them all off in one sweep.

HCMarkus wrote:Presonus Digimax FS

I thought I've look at everything.
This is what I've been looking for.
Thanx to everyone for posting details I've learned allot here.

wylie1 wrote:

HCMarkus wrote:Presonus Digimax FS

I thought I've look at everything.
This is what I've been looking for.
Thanx to everyone for posting details I've learned allot here.

I clock my 828 from the FS using the wordclock. A short BNC cable is all that is required. I use the FS I/O as my primary I/O, and it sounds very good.

That's great.
lots of options there I thought I was going to lose my inserts but now that I see this, replacing my board should be painless.
Although I'll still have to find something to lean on once the board is gone.

supersonic wrote:I also use the CueMix extensively during tracking ans there is one feature I'd like to see in DP. When you set up your 30+ track main mix, and are getting ready for the tracking and want to send a separate feed to the musician/s, you're faced with the same problem you would have with an analogue mixer. You need to open manually an AUX on every track and assign levels to them. What would be great is being able to assign, say aux bus 1/2 to every track, copy the fader levels from that track and put that aux in PRE mode. That way you only have to tweak that mix a little according to the talent's wishes. Once tracking done, it would be nice to just take them all off in one sweep.

I've used digital boards that have the "Copy Mix to Aux" feature and it is a wonderful time saver. The boards I've used allowed you to copy the mix to any Aux pair. I would love for DP to have that feature.

HCMarkus wrote:

wylie1 wrote:

HCMarkus wrote:Presonus Digimax FS

I thought I've look at everything.
This is what I've been looking for.
Thanx to everyone for posting details I've learned allot here.

I clock my 828 from the FS using the wordclock. A short BNC cable is all that is required. I use the FS I/O as my primary I/O, and it sounds very good.

I've narrowed it down to the Presonus Digimax FS or MOTU 8pre.
Can I just plug the 8pre firewire into my PCI424?
And does both your Presonus Digimax FS and 828 show up in CueMix?

wylie1 wrote: I've narrowed it down to the Presonus Digimax FS or MOTU 8pre.
Can I just plug the 8pre firewire into my PCI424?

I don't think the 8pre is PCI 424 compatible (even though MOTU's "AudioWire" is indeed a FW cable), and I don't think you can run both PCI interfaces and a FW interface concurrently with DP.
Could be wrong, but I seem to remember reading this on a post here or perhaps on MOTU's website.

Corrections, anyone?

Buzzy

EDIT: From MOTU's Support TechNotes:

Can I connect FireWire devices to the ports on my PCI-324/424 card?

Only MOTU PCI Audio interfaces may be used with the PCI-324/424 card

While we use a FireWire cable to connect MOTU PCI Audio hardware to the PCI-324/424 card, we use our own protocol for communication called AudioWire. You can only connect MOTU PCI Audio interfaces to your PCI-324/424 card; FireWire devices, including MOTU FireWire Audio interfaces, cannot be connected to a PCI-324/424 card.

Thanx again Buzzy.
That's what I thought.
I've been thinking about this so much my brain is getting sore.

wylie1 wrote: I've been thinking about this so much my brain is getting sore.

Same here!

Here's the deal:

The 8Pre can operate as either a stand-alone interface (if connected to a computer via Firewire) OR as an eight channel Litepipe expander if connected via Litepipe to an ADAT port.

The Digimax FS functions only as an expander. it has no Firewire connection, and must be used with an interface that provides ADAT I/O. But the FS offers wordclock I/O, so you can transmit a nice clean clock signal separately from your Litepipe audio via a single BNC cable. The FS also provides a lot more connectivity, with inserts on every input, and eight line outputs.

If you have an available ADAT I/O on your 828, 2408, or whatever, either the 8Pre or the FS will work.

When connected to an 828 or 2408 via Litepipe, the 8Pre or FS I/O will be available in the CueMix provided by the 828 or 2408. The expander will show up on the inputs and outputs (default labled "ADAT") to which it is connected. You can rename the inputs and outputs in CueMix to correspond to your expander's I/O scheme.

In addition to gaining access to all I/O in a single CueMix window, by using either the 8Pre or FS as expanders via Litepipe, you avoid the issues (including potentially increased latency) that arise when using multiple interfaces.

wurliuchi wrote: I've used digital boards that have the "Copy Mix to Aux" feature and it is a wonderful time saver. The boards I've used allowed you to copy the mix to any Aux pair. I would love for DP to have that feature.

I should think having that in the automatic assign window we use for the track I/O would be cool. Or perhaps having something in the mixer to do that.

HCMarkus wrote:Here's the deal:
When connected to an 828 or 2408 via Litepipe, the 8Pre or FS I/O will be available in the CueMix provided by the 828 or 2408. The expander will show up on the inputs and outputs (default labled "ADAT") to which it is connected. You can rename the inputs and outputs in CueMix to correspond to your expander's I/O scheme.

Thats great.
So looks I'm going for the FS and Central Station.
I've got some other things to buy but this is a great help to know when about to drop cash.
I've always been a 1 interface kind of cat

supersonic wrote:As far as monitoring goes I found that products such as Presonus Central station and Big Button from Mackie alter the sound too much for them to be used in mission critical situations.

I must say, I'm impressed because you must have the hearing of a dog. I don't know about the Mackie Big Knob, but the Central Station is very clean and it is used for monitoring, not coloring anything during the actual bounce. I'm honestly trying to be sincere here and not confrontational, but what "mission critical" situations are you talking about? Are you sure you could pick out a Central Station versus some of the other monitoring boxes in a blind A/B test? You're DAC's must be impeccable also I guess as I might imagine if you regard the Central Station as inadequate for "mission critical" situations and you can hear it, then you I'm sure are using the very best DACs as well. Certainly you're not using the stock Traveler's right? Wouldn't that be more of a problem than a Central Station?

Honestly, I guess I take all this stuff with a grain of salt because I know pros who are producing music for tv and features and they're using boxes like the Central Station and they make a living at it. TV and features might not be mission critical?

supersonic wrote:mission critical situations

Mission critical is a big 2 words.
My mission critical is almost finish "as soon as they call me back"
And it will pay for some of my upgrades.
And I know about dangerous and all the super hI end stuff.
"Hi End" don't mean squat if you ain't got the talent.