Using SD3 plugs vs multi out/print to DAW and use your own plugs

[jeff loven]

I am curious if the pros are using the L/R out of SD directly into their DAW or if they are printing all the tracks/separate drums into their DAW and using their own plugs to mix? Recently I took an online course from a pro and he advises to always print VIs to your project. I’m wondering if my UA Apollo 8 plugs will sound better than SD3. I have SD2 also and I’m still trying to print to project but am coming up short in Logic–some kind of configuring snafu.

Any thoughts?
Thanks again friends

Topic

[John]

Hi,

if you get to know the SD3 mixer and its plugins as well as your DAW’s, there’s just no “better” or “worse”, just different.
I imagine people generally go for more separation when they print to audio and mix in the DAW, I know I tend to.
If you treat the drums about the same way in the SD3 mixer and set up your sends and busses the same way and do not route all sound through one stereo output, you can get control and separation. What you can’t do, is have mixer faders in the SD3 mixer react to audio tracks in your DAW, like side-chains.
You can set up an SD3 mixer Send going to a separate plugin output feeding an effect in your DAW like e.g. a Reverb, to Send from a Snare fader/bus, I do that if I can’t get the Reverb in the SD3 mixer to sound like what I’m after for a particular project or if I’m lazy.

Printing to Audio when you’re finished is always good practice, though, since you never know what will happen to your DAW in the future or if someone just out of the blue asks for the audio files x years later. That’s a lesson I’ve learned a few times but still am a bit lazy to practice.

My 0.02$

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Author]

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