Outboard Re-recording of Stems in Digital Performer (DP 9)

Outboard Re-recording of Stems in Digital Performer (DP 9)

Ever want to use an outboard gear with your soft synths or your audio recording?  You can with MOTU Digital Performer 9 (DP 9) using an effects plugin called Hardware Insert under manufacturer MOTU.

Here is how to do it for either Soft Synths or Audio recordings:

Prerequisites:

1. 1 output port for mono or 2 output ports for stereo (to send to the outboard gear)
2. 1 input port for mono or 2 input ports for stereo (to return from the outboard gear)

Note: There are no option of sending a Stereo plugin or track out with a mono return at this time.  You’ll have to take a Stereo only plugin or a Stereo audio recording source, and convert the recording to mono before sending it to a mono input with a mono return.

Steps:

1. Go to Mixing Board via Project -> Mixing Board or click on the Mixing Board tab.
2. Go to the audio track of either the Soft Synth or the Audio that is recorded.
3. Instantiate an effect by clicking on one of the effect slots.
4. You’ll see the list of your effects by some order (we have it sorted by Manufacturer), and look for MOTU and click on MOTU.
5. On the right side of the dialog box, is a list of all of the effects.  Find the Hardware Insert effect.  In  mono sources, you have the option to use the Hardware mono  effect, or mono to stereo effect.  Select what is appropriate for your end result.
6. You’ll see a dialog box for the Effects, with 3 parameters, Send, Return, and Latency.
7. For Send, select the Output port (mono) or Output port pair (for stereo).  Connect the cable from the Audio interface Output port that you selected in the Hardware Insert plugin for Send into the Input of your effects or outboard gear.
8. For Return, select the Input port (mono) or Input port pair (for stere).  Connect the cable from the Output (mono) or Output pair (stereo) of your effects or outboard gear into the Audio Interface Input port (for mono) or Input port pair (stereo) that you selected in the Hardware Insert plugin Return.
9. Play the sequence or song, or play the soft synth via the keyboard, and while the material is playing, click on the Detect button next to Latency.  That will set the latency correctly based on the round trip time from sending to the outboard and returning back.
10. You can now re-record this to another track by sending this track out to a bus (Click on the output in the Mixing Board for that track and select New Track via New Stereo Bundle, as an example, and select a bus pair. ) That new track will be your re-record stem so you can create these new stems without changing the original audio file in the case of pre-recorded material.

I tried my best to keep this under 500 words.  Anyhow, we use patch bays to connect to everything, so patching in and out of an audio interface and outboard gear is very easy.

Enjoy!