Routing via Outboard

[The Culprit]

Hi all, another wee request from me. Hope everyone is content and productive.

I've been busy chipping away on my recording and mixing skills (still think this is the best website of all times, thank you all), and am looking for some help setting up an outboard channel strip I have to loop back into my DAW.

My setup is as follows: Audient id14 mkii going into Reaper and coming out my DT990 headphones. (Monitors are packed away in the cupboard because of space and room limitations).

What I want to do is route a vocal track I've recorded out through my PreSonus studio channel (mono device) and come back into reaper to records the affected signal. Basically like a reamp without the amp

Been messing around with the i/o settings of both Reaper and the Audient mixer software but no joy. I'm falling just short of getting my signal all the way round.

Any help, as always, appreciated.

[Drew Stephenson]

Are you using the ReaInsert plugin on the channel?

[The Culprit]

I am not Drew, is this a requirement?

[Drew Stephenson]

It's not a requirement per-se, but it's probably the easiest way of working with hardware in Reaper.

[James Perrett]

The way I'd do it is to send the signal to the outboard from outputs 3 and 4 (or just one of those if working in mono) on the Audient and then send the output from the outboard to the line input(s). This is assuming that you are using outputs 1 and 2 for monitoring.

In Reaper you need to open the routing dialog on the channel that you want the effect on, disable master send and select hardware outputs 3 and 4. The only issue is that you may need to slide the newly recorded effect track in time to compensate for latency.

Of course, Drew's suggestion of ReaInsert may also work but I'm not sure how you go about recording the results.

[The Culprit]

OK cheers, I'll have a rummage around youtube and see what I can find. I may be back for more detailed requests

[Drew Stephenson]

This is worth a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUD7ZBV4r60

[The Culprit]

Cheers guys, still no joy. There must be something daft I'm missing I'll try explain exactly where I'm at.

I'm running a mono jack from output 3 of the Audient to the jack input of the outboard. Then mono jack from the output of the outboard going into input 1 of the Audient. That's pretty straightforward.

On the software side, I have the audio track (master send off) sent to a new track. That new track has reainsert on it with settings;

Hardware sends - Analogue 3 (left) and None (right).
Hardware returns - Analogue 1 (left) and None (right).

Looking at the UI of reainsert, the send meter is getting a signal but the return meter is not. Also the 'ping detect' option is not returning any results.

Is there anything that jumps out to you? Maybe something I need to change in the actual Audient id mixer software?

[Drew Stephenson]

That would imply the circuit isn't complete. First thing to check is your cables but it'd also be worth checking the hardware in a different configuration, i.e. use it as an input to check that signal is getting in and out.
Also worth checking other inputs and outputs on the audient just in case there is a problem there.

[The Culprit]

OK cool, I'm away from the laptop now so will start afresh next chance I get. Will update over the weekend, thanks again for your help.

[James Perrett]

Might be worth connecting a cable direct from the output of the Audient to the input. And also worth checking the software control panel as I seem to remember it was fairly complicated.

It might be worth saying that it took me a few goes before getting this right so, once I got things working, I saved the setup as a Reaper template.

[The Culprit]

Gave this another whirl tonight but still not getting great results. At this point I'm considering what benefits I'd even get by seeing it through. The Presonus Studio Channel was bought mainly for tracking and to save on the processing power of my very basic laptop.

However, learning about the workaround of freezing tracks in Reaper I don't think it's a worthwhile pursuit trying to include the unit in the mixing process. Maybe I'll revisit it at some point, but fir now I'm gonna focus on utilising the stock plugins to improve my technique rather than worrying about colour via outboard.

Priorities chaps and chapettes, always keep them to the fore.

[The Culprit]

Just a wee follow up to this, I've spent the last couple of days exploring this issue again and I think I've cracked it now.

Basically the id mixer software has to be open in order for the ping detect to go through. That was the thing that was holding me back.

My only issue now is latency but I'll have to deal with that till such times I have a decent computer. My workaround is just printing the routed signal and listening back to see if it's any good

[The Culprit]

While I'm here...I have recorded a guitar part and then routed it through my channel strip in the way spoken about in this thread.

I am happy with how it sounds although I'm hearing a high pitched ringing sound on it somewhere....assuming it's maybe been pumped too hard through the compressor or something?

Would be grateful for any advice on how to fix this (ReaFir maybe?) without having to re-record it. Here is a link to the file;

https://www.dropbox.com/s/plxozbdsho96k ... 2.wav?dl=0

[Drew Stephenson]

Hmm, it's not a specific frequency or set of harmonics that's ringing out (to my ear at least), so I'd look at a multi-band compressor or dynamic eq.
I took the liberty of downloading your sample and, I think, took off the edge in a sympathetic way using a fairly wide band on TDR Nova.

EDIT - I tried ReaXComp as well but wasn't as happy with that. It strikes me that this is the kind of thing that Oeksounds Soothe should be brilliant at.

[The Culprit]

Yeah it's quite a strange one, not something I've came across before. Was half expecting to be advised to throw money at it with an expensive plug in purchase, so glad to hear it's possible to tackle it with basic plugs.

I'm short on experience with dynamic eq and multi band compressors...is there any pointers you could suggest Drew for what kind of moves I should make with say the Nova you mentioned?

[Drew Stephenson]

Well, I just popped a single band on, centred around 7kHz, fairly wide Q so it was acting on everything between 5 and 12k, and with a ratio of about 2.5:1.
That seemed, to me, to take just a bit of that ringing off without making everything sound dull.

[The Culprit]

Brilliant thanks a lot