question about Inserts on a mixer

[slatepipe]

Hi - i've been wondering about these for years and i'm still a bit confused.

i have a mixer with Insert sockets on the channels. I figured out that with a TRS 'Y' connector you can put an effect into the signal flow and I've done this and it works fine. But I still don't see what the advantage is over just plugging your instrument into the effect before you then plug into the jack socket in the channel. Its seems to be just another way of doing the same thing. I understand if you have a mic going in with an XLR then you can use the Y jack cable to put an effect into the chain. But if you're going in to the Line level jack socket then it doesn't make sense to me.

Hope this makes sense. Am I missing something or overthinking this?

thanks

[chrk]

Am I missing something

Patchbays?

[slatepipe]

hi

how so? how would a patch bay fit into this?

sorry, i don't follow

[miyaru]

On analog mixing desks of the past where always inserts. But as most people didn't have as many compressors as inserts they used patchbays and intensive cabling to overcome this and choose where to patch in a compressor for instance........

[chrk]

Plus it's a matter of convenience, flexibility and space. Lots of rack effects have their I/O at the back and controls at the front. Inserts cater for fixed cabling to the patchbay, and you stick your spaghetti (i.e. routing) in the rack behind you.

[TLW]

Another thing inserts do is let you put the processor right after the mixer channel’s pre-amp stage and before eq. Some processors are best run at a particular input level which an instrument might not provide (and a mic generally won’t reach at all).

It’s also possible on at least some mixers - Mackies for example - to push a TS jack plug into the insert just far enough to engage the socket’s ring and the contact that would usually be the sleeve contact on a TRS plug. That gives you a tapped post pre-amp feed out of the insert, which can be sent off to wherever you want ehile the signal also passes through the mixer channel as usual. One example of using those feeds is to send them to a tape machine so what’s recorded on tape isn’t affected by the channel strip eq or fader. Which amongst other things lets you set up an eq’s foldback mix and get a “dry” recording without needing to use mic/line splitters and either a console with enough channels to handle the tape and foldback at the same time or two mixers.

Even if not using tape recorders, taps from inserts can be used in the same way with DAWs where they enable a studio to have interfaces which only operate at line level.

[jestermgee]

All the reasons above but there are even more reasons to consider too...

- In addition to convenience, many Insert effects designed for Insert applications may have just a TS in and TS output for use with a Y splitter cable and therefore, don't suit direct connection of gear that has XLR for instance.

- A common insert is a compressor for a Mic for instance. Mics may need Phantom power from the mixer and of course the insert does not provide this.

- Effects will receive the signal after the input amp of the mixer (including boost/trim) so consider a very expensive mixer may have very high quality preamps for Mics which would then send a nice clean, low noise and boosted signal out to the effect before coming back to the fader. If you wanted to connect directly to the effect you would need expensive preamps built in just to cover this case.

- Effects may not offer input gain or filtering that your mixer does for instance. Some mixers allow you to switch the insert Pre/Post the channel so they can affect the signal before or after the eq stage

Lots of reasons really and always good to know when an inline, insert or send effect is best utilised.

[slatepipe]

more information than i could have wished for. this is great. cheers