Guitar Pedal Effects
Software effects are great, but there is something really cool about effects pedals, something that plugins can’t capture.
Hopefully you didn’t sell all your guitar gear to pay for your studio, you can use those stomp box effects for mixing too.
If you have a re-amp kit or a couple of passive DI boxes you can integrate your pedalboard into your software. Go out from your interface into the re-amp box, or passive DI box, going Low impedance to high impedance, then go into your effects. The output of the effects goes into any DI box, or an instrument input of your interface.
Again, latency can be a problem, so I would record the return of the pedals to a new track and then snap it into time to match the original track.
Master Bus Effects
We’re starting to get into a hybrid approach to mixing, combining hardware and software.
The next step would be to get a good master bus compressor to get some analog mojo back into your mix. Most console and compressor manufacturers make stereo compressors with some nice color and character. The SSL G-Series Compressor is a standard for rock mixers.
Summing Mixer
The next step would be to get an analog summing mixer. Essentially you take 8 stereo stems out of your interface, put them into this box, it combines the signals in the analog domain into a single stereo mix, which you’d then send to the bus compressor and back into the DAW.
Google “Summing Mixer shootout” to get an idea of what a summing mixer can do for your mixes. The Dangerous Music D-Box is one of many worth checking out.
Analog Console
If you don’t want to go the Summing mixer route, you can get a real mixer. There are a few great smaller format consoles like the Toft ATB that are great for a hybrid approach in the home studio.
Use the automation in your DAW and use the mixer for its EQ, integrate hardware insert effects easily, get the benefits of analog summing and when you’re tracking, latency free monitoring. Plus they take up a bunch of room on your desk and impress people when they walk in.
Do you use a “hybrid” DAW system? Tell me how you do it and what you like about it.
Jon Tidey is a Producer / Engineer who runs his own studio, EPIC Sounds, and enjoys writing about audio on his blog AudioGeekZine.com. To comment or ask questions about this article go here.