Today we wish to follow up on our 2/12 Tech Tip about using mixer inserts for sends and returns from a DAW. A number of people have written in to inquire about sending signals to the DAW using an insert, while still letting the original signal pass through the mixer for monitoring purposes. In retrospect, this is probably what the original question really was; we just misunderstood that.
The advantage of delivering a signal to a DAW while letting it continue to pass through the mixer is that you are able to monitor what you are doing without any latency. Latency continues to be an issue on many host based DAW systems.
In terms of taking care of signals there should be no problem sending a signal from an insert to the DAW while letting it continue to pass through the mixer. If your mixer will allow you to do this then by all means go for it. For example, all Mackie mixers allow you to use your insert points as a sort of direct out like this. They easily accomplish this by making the ring (as opposed to tip) of the TRS insert jack the send. When you plug your cable in to the first click the tip of your 1/4″ audio cable makes contact with the ring. This allows you to take the signal out of your mixer. The tip of that same jack is for the return signal. When you go ahead and plug a cable all the way in there is a mechanical switch in the jack that gets thrown which interrupts the normal signal path in that channel and instead switches in the tip of the insert. This is how you get that insert signal back into your mixer without it being ‘mixed’ with the signal already there. Just reading the words isn’t the best way to understand this concept. A Mackie small mixer owner’s manual has some excellent drawings of how this works. You can download them from their website.
So basically most mixers that use the ring of the insert jack as the send can be tricked into supplying you with a direct out. Obviously if you have a dedicated direct out jack on your mixer it would be preferred. The snafu comes when you have a mixer that uses the insert tip as the send and the ring as the return. Those mixers have to put that little mechanical switch on the ring part of the jack, which means as soon as you plug in your cable you break the connection inside the mixer. One way around this is to build special insert cables that connect the tip and ring together. Basically when you plug it in (all the way in this time) you get the send from the tip, which is immediately shorted to the ring inside your connector so it can be returned to the mixer and pass through. Meanwhile you can bring that same signal out to the plug you are using to input into your DAW. This isn’t difficult to wire as all you need is a tiny little jumper wire between the tip and ring inside the TRS connector you are plugging into the insert jack.
For the most flexibility you should consider a patch bay. If you use a half-normalled bay you can leave your inserts connected all the time and they will behave as normal. Then when you need to use one to drive a DAW input you can simply run a patch on your bay. No special cables needed. It’s easy, and the patch bay and (all needed) cables can be had for under $200.