a16, mixer and monitors question

Txemical · Post by **Txemical** » Sat Apr 20, 2002 8:27 am

hi¡regards from spain¡in first time, sorry if my english is not very good...

my stuff:
pulsar II with a16 ultra,
spirit fx 8 8 mono balanced inputs, insert point and direct out for each mono channel(can switch to pre or post)and 6 stereo inputs,2 aux(1 pre,1 pre or post)1 fx internal bus.also mix insert and sub mix and mix lr fader
in the other hand:
roland d2 groovebox (a cheaper mc-505)stereo output
roland gr-33 (guitar synth)stereo output
yamaha pf-80 master keyboard with stereo output
and one microphone, but later need more..

what is best? connect all to the a16 and the a16 output to fx8 to mixing with "real faders", or connect all to the mixer and directs outputs to a16? anyway, can i use the fx8 as a submixer?
guitar and beatbox etc------ first 8 inputs of a16
a16 outs---------fx8
and fx8 direct outs (in post fader)----to last 8 inputs of a16...
And what is the best way to monitoring?from a16 or from fx8?

can anybody help me? THANK YOU.....

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Txemical on 2002-04-20 09:31 ]</font>

CAPO · Post by **CAPO** » Sat Apr 20, 2002 1:22 pm

Yo Dude,

First off let me say that there are a million ways to go about doing this, and depending upon the aplication, there are a bunch of different ways that could be viewed as "best"... or whatever...

Let me tell you what I did and you can see if that helps you ...(I hope, if not do what you think is best and just keep experimenting... I had to set up everything about 8 times before I was completely satisfied with method of interfacing)...

First let me tell you that I have a Mackie 1604VLZpro 16ch mixer, Pulsar II z-link, A16 Ultra... I also have a Roland xp-30 synth (completely filled out with one extra board), Korg MS2000R, and a DJ setup consisting of a RANE TTM56 mixer and two Gemini pt-2000mkIII's... though all that will matter right now will be the mixer, a16, and pulsar. On the back of the mixer I have a mono in bal/unbal for all 16 tracks, along with inserts for all 16 too. I just went and bought 4 HOSA Send-Return snakes (4 send returns per snake so 16 send returns total). On each channel i sent the signal out to the A16's IN port and then pluged the acompaning return cable into the OUT port of the A16. Then all I had to do was go into the pulsar and draw a direct connection from the zlink sources (A and B) to the zlink Destinations (A and B). The only drawback is that your computer has to be on if you want to do anything... or you can just unplug the Insert on the channels you want to hear. I like this method because it lets me merge both the physical gear I have with the computer based programs and stuff which I own. As for monitoring... mmm... well I have a main out and Controll room/headphone out on my mixer... I just ran one to the Analog in on my pulsar and one to a stero selector ... which I also have the analog outs from pulsar going to. I did this so if I just wanted to play with some of my synths in my computer I could just connect the main mix outs on my virtual mixer to the analog dest in pulsar and be able to leave my rack o' gear off. well I hope this helps... If I were you I would just do the send return thing on the mixer and then run the outs of your gear and mics to the mixer... and then later on down the line maybe get a bigger mixer. just keep experimenting!

... hope that was not confusing:o