Like the Michael Jackson thriller video, I will be exuming posts from a long way back to see if we can bring them back from the dead!
Please feel free to plunder the archives and rejuvinate old posts that take you fancy.

>I know this way somewhat discussed in another >thread, but not exactly. What do you guys think >would be better quality? 32 tracks to 16 PT >bused D/A via AD8000 to a Mackie, or 32 >individual D/A channels (no PT bus) of 888 to a >Mackie? What I am trying to figure out is at >what point does the busing on ProTools start to >mess with the sound. I could afford two new >8000's or 4 used 888's for the D/A. Mixerman had >stated that the busing ruins the sound, but he >didn't say whether he was talking about the 2 >bus, or 100 tracks into 6 buses or 64 tracks >>>into 16 buses, or what?

I would not even pass my mix thru the Mackie! Perhaps a Soundcraft or some other board if I had to go the "budget" way, but the Mackie always seemed to make things sound brittle and thin...

I still use a Mackie though for monitoring purposes in our "B Room" that we use for arranging.

If you go the all digital way using Pro Tools, do this:

DON'T use the analog way of recording levels as hot as possible.

Play your rough mix into Pro Tools thru the AD8000's. Make sure that it isn't in the red.

Then track everything as is. If the percussion only peaks at -10, then leave it as is since it's going to be at that level in the final mix anyways. Also being in 24 bits gives you more than enough resolution so I wouldn't worry too much...

By doing this, you can't avoid overloading the summing bus and also an extra bonus: if you need to get back to the rough mix, just set all levels to 0.

This is just what's worked for me the past years (struggling to "learn" the digital way after the analog past) and it really sounds a lot better--after adding an Alan Smart on the mix bus...

Just my 0.01 cent worth. YMMV immensely...

Oops! Too much coffee!

What I meant was "you can avoid overloading the summing bus".