Hi Dan,
there's a dedicated monitor out on the 001 with front volume pot (!!).
What's the reason for using the Mackie desk ?
Depending on your personal way to work other solutions may be better ...

regards
Walter

I use my Mackie 32x8 with my 001 for two main reasons:

1. to handle the 25 or so various line-level input devices such as the CD player, DAT, Cassette, Synths, samplers, POD, external mic pre's, etc. I use one (or two) of the Mackie 8 buses to feed an 001 input. It makes turning the midi or any other input into an audio track simple.

2. ...to avoid latency in recording. I split my (external) mic preamp output and take it directly into the 001 as well as into a line input of the board. I use the aux send of the board for any effects (typically 'verb to the cans). The 001 outputs also go to the board. That way, the headphone mix can monitor the mics directly from the board as well as any midi instruments without having to set up an aux channel in the PTLE.

If you have a smaller system, you can probably get away without using a mixer.

Oh, and I feed my monitor amps from the Mackie because it has two main outs: one goes to my Tannoys (via a power amp) and one goes to another amp for my Auratones.

LW,

I went with the board outputs so that I could still monitor my midi mix without latency. I too also have the 001 monitored to a couple of inputs on my board for those more “tricky” audio and midi combo mixes. :)

My set up is very similar to yours I think except that I’m using the 1604VLZ pro. One thing that I don’t do anymore is send my midi mix out to the 001 as a sub mix, but rather, rout them out separately using the direct outs from the desk to the 001 ins (7-8, 5-6 3-4) one pair per device.

My midi sessions usually involve the use of all three of those devices needing to play in concert or separately or in various combinations during a sequence. If for example, there is a particularly quiet passage where my sampler is the only device playing at the moment, say an oboe passage, the other instruments will still have their line noise picked up at the same time if they are all on the same bus (unless you manually mute their output on the desk in real time) as they wait for their next midi instruction. This can actually add up to quite a noise floor!

By keeping the midi instruments separately assigned on input to the 001, what I end up with is three stereo audio tracks of the sequence, each having recorded its own device independently from the others. I can now go back and simply edit out any and all of the line noise that the devices had produced when they were idle during the recording.

Sometimes I bounce the sequence in real time to disc by just using three AUX inputs. Again, each stereo input monitors its own device. What I do in this case is simply automate the mutes on those inputs when the device is silent during
playback/bounce, once again eliminating any unnecessary line noise.

Just thought I’d share...

BTW, I REALLY hate line noise! :)

dk