Mackie D.4 and Ableton

[Punky921]

Hey guys,

So how does the firewire interface audio routing work for the Mackie D.4 DJ mixer and Ableton?

Will I be able to mix "out of the box" using the Mackie D.4 if I set up my routing correctly? Will I be able to record sets / tracks right back into Ableton using the D.4?

Does any one here have any experience with this mixer? I'm thinking of getting it in a month or so.

J

[Deft]

http://www.skratchworx.com/reviews/d4pro.php

Any specific questions after you have read that - post here, I still have the review model.

[Punky921]

So it appears to lack post fader recording feeds. Not good, it seems.

So for example, right now, when I'm making music with my keyboardist friend, and I'm scratching, I run my AEM-100i into a pair of the RCA inputs on my Audio8DJ. Without post fader recording feeds, would I be able to scratch on the D.4 and record it into Ableton? I'm totally green regarding integrated mixer/interfaces, but it seems like such a feat would not be possible...

J

[Deft]

Yeah it's a shame they didn't put it in.
You can do the same thing as what you currently do on your AEM-100i no problem, as you are effectively just recording the main out of your AEM.
So one of the Firewire channels available for recording on the d4.Pro is the MAIN buss, so you can just capture that (without having to hook up any physical cables).
Like I mentioned, you also have a bit of flexibility in that you could use the AUX buss on each channel to group some stuff together and capture just that (i.e. there is another Firewire recording point which captures all your AUX buss audio).
So there are a couple of workarounds that may be o.k. for your set-up.
The discreet post-fader feeds would have been most useful for making hip-hop style mixtapes so you could go into your sequencer later and sort out mistakes (not that anyone needs more than one take.......!)

[Punky921]

I usually do mixes in one take. If I fuck it up, I start over. Crazy, maybe, but it's an approach that works for me and feels honest. It also forces me to plan out everything.

Also, something that I wanted to do is run all inputs into this mixer and then run the master out to my monitors. Right now, when I run my A8DJ to my monitors, I feel like I have very little hands on control of volume, and accidentally blew my ears out once when I did this for the first time. Also, wiring and unwiring my monitors from A8DJ to mixer for Ableton and then standard DJing gets tiresome quickly.

So here's how I'd like to do:

Turntable ------> D.4 Firewire ----> Aux Buss -----> Ableton

and simultaneously:

Ableton master out ------> D.4 Firewire -----> Monitors

Is that possible?

Or would I have to mix Ableton "out of the box" and have a setup that looks like this:

All Ableton channels -----> D.4 Firewire main out

And then have one channel of the D.4 dedicated to scratching.

And then record everything back into Ableton?

[Deft]

If I understand it correctly, you can do what you describe no problems, but in terms of monitoring you just need to make sure you mute the turntable audio in Ableton so it doesn't get fed back into the d4.Pro (assuming you just want to capture your scratching 'acapella' as an audio channel).

[Punky921]

I'd like to scratch along to whatever's happening in those other audio channels, actually. Would I still be able to hear my scratches through the monitors?

[Deft]

Yeah you can send your channels out of Ableton to the d4, though I guess if you have more than 3 you would need to group them together and send them out in pairs or greater.
You can then use the 4th channel for scratching over the computer audio in real-time, and feed this audio back into Ableton if so desired.