Hearkening back to our TTOTD (see inSync 2/15/99) where someone was trying to connect the +4dBu output of a Pro Tools system into the line input of his Mackie board, one inSync reader supplies the following work around to problems of this nature.
“Another input which sometimes works in this situation is to use the insert jack as an input, bypassing the first stage gain. “Most” mixers work at or near a +4 mix bus level, and in these cases, it works fine. It is, however, an unbalanced input, which may or may not matter. In any event, bypassing circuits you don’t need generally helps keep the sound clean.”
This solution does work to varying degrees, depending upon the mixer. The potential downsides are: 1) Once you’ve connected to an insert return in this way the channel effectively becomes useless for anything else so long as this connection remains. The solution to that is to bring everything to patch bays so you can patch when and where needed (only practical on larger mixers). 2) You may, depending upon the mixer, give up the use of your EQ and/or some of the aux sends if they appear in the flow of the mixer before the insert point. In most instances this is no big deal depending upon what you are doing, but it is something to be aware of. The good news is that the more of this kind of thing you bypass the more pure your signal should be throughout the mixer. We do recommend connection to your mixer this way as long as you can deal with these issues.