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Some line mixers have a number of effect or auxiliary sends for each channel. These
sends will have their own individual level control and will receive the signal either
pre fader or post fader, i.e. either independent or dependent on that channel’s fader
level. It is possible to use these “aux sends” to send a signal to the recording device.
A pre fader send is certainly preferable, since this will allow for a recording level
that is separate from the monitoring level.
The bottom line here is that you can not use the ‘main output’ of your mixer to send
a signal to the recording device, and then take the outputs of that recording device
back into the mixer (whose signal also goes to the main out). This creates a feedback
loop, bad for your eardrums and bad for your equipment.
One modern console design gets around that by offering an “alt out,” which is an
alternate stereo buss or output. When selecting ‘alt out’ on a channel, it mutes that
channel to the stereo buss and redirects it to the alt out buss. This could be viewed
as a 2-buss system, and can be used effectively for recording purposes.
In our Typical Setup 1 and 2 in the previous section, we used pre-amps to handle the
recording. A line mixer that simply received the line outputs from the 66 and mixed
them to stereo could handle the monitoring needs. Hopefully, the information here
will give you some insight into how to use the gear that you own, or what to look for
if you are seeking additional equipment to facilitate your hard disk recording.