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connect stereo mix out to interface (Roland S-1, etc.) (self.synthesizers)

submitted 7 months ago by KammicRelief to c/[email protected]

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Hi there! I just picked up a Roland S-1. It's my first piece of gear that doesn't have a big fat 1/4" mono output. All my other stuff simply goes into my audio interface (8i6) in mono, nice and easy. This one however, has a little 1/8" stereo/trs/headphone out. The thing is, I don't mind going into my interface in mono.. I don't really need the S-1's stereo effects (better stereo plugins in Ableton) and moreover I can save a valuable input on my interface.

The S-1, like most recent synths, also has audio+midi over USB, and I'd be happy to use that (frees up an interface input, plus stereo, what's not to like!), BUT apparently you can't do a USB synth and the audio interface at the same time in Ableton. (Supposedly there are ways.. "aggregate devices" should just work on a Mac, but I'm on a PC. I tried with ASIO4ALL but it just crashed my Ableton.)

So my options seem to be:

~~USB right to the computer~~ See above, doesn't seem to work for me
1/8" trs to dual mono 1/4" breakout cable (this will retain stereo effects from S-1, but take up my last two inputs)
1/8" trs cable -> 1/8-1/4 dongle -> single mono input on interface. For some reason this sounds very weak, unless I pull the cable out a tiny bit.
1/8" ts cable -> 1/8-1/4 dongle -> single mono input on interface. Now this sounds better.

So, for now I guess I'm doing that final option. It's mono, of course, but I use stereo effects in Ableton to fill it out. What I'm wondering is, is this the right way? What do other people do? I worry that maybe I'm missing something in the audio, like.. if I'm only getting the L channel now, but maybe this synth uses some stereo tricks to fatten the sound (besides the onboard chorus/delay/reverb, which I can switch off if I want), or..? Know what I mean? This is about where my audio knowledge drops off. If anyone here tells me "this synth is not meant to go back to mono and you'll get degradation" then I'll happily get that breakout cable and use my last precious inputs on my 8i6!

This here is a slightly beside the point ramble: wouldn't it be amazing if I could use USB input for all my synths at once? All my Behringers would go direct, heck the RD-8 would be split into a dozen channels, the s-1 would be in stereo, and I could open up my Scarlett to stuff like guitar pedals.... ah that would be nice.

Thanks for reading!

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[–] junderwood 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I guess you could check out the S-1's manual to see if the signal without effects is mono. That's what I'd do. Then if so just take the left output and use that. Otherwise you could also get a patchbay like the Samson S-Patch plus, then just patch in whatever you're recording at any given time. I use one of those with my interface and it's very handy. If the S-1's manual doesn't say if the signal without effects is mono, you could always record it in stereo and phase flip one side to see if it nulls out. Then you'd know for sure. I dunno if any of that answers your question, but I hope it helped a bit!

[–] KammicRelief 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Hey, thank you for the ideas! I had already searched the manual for "stereo" and "mono" and not found anything that answered my question, but you got me to dig a little deeper and I found this signal flow diagram (https://static.roland.com/manuals/s-1_manual_v102/eng/87294954.html), which does seem to show that the primary signal is mono until it hits the chorus/delay/reverb etc. So it looks like I'm good there. I'll just have to remember to maybe remove any chorus etc that I put into my patches.... Part of the reason I got this synth was so I can play with it in bed, on the couch, or wherever :) it has an internal battery and headphone jack, so it's great for coming up with ideas away from the usual rats nest. But then when I'm back connected to my daw I use those fx instead.

Also, I've never thought about a patch bay, but that seems like a cool idea that might come in handy sometime. thanks again!

[–] Electricblush 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Also: welcome to the "I need to buy a mixer, and/or I need a new audio interface with more inputs then the last every year"-club

You get your membership card after your 2nd upgrade. :)

[–] KammicRelief 1 points 6 months ago

hahaha! Spot on. I had a Scarlett Solo for a few years, and skipped right over the 2i2 for the 8i6. Actually, in between the two I had a very brief stint with a mixer, thinking "I'll go completely dawless--I have plenty of guitar pedals to fill the gaps." But that sucked. It turns out Ableton works great for an all-hardware-synth setup. I thought the latency would be an issue but it's not.

[–] Drummyralf 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

This is why, after starting with a 2-input soundcard, I upgraded to a 16 channel one when I needed more inputs. You'll always have too few at some point.

The answer depends on what you plan on doing in the future, how much gear you plan to aquire and how you want to use your gear.

If you only want to record 1 track at a time, any patchbay will do as long as it has tons of inputs.

If you want to record multitrack in the future, consider saving for a digital mixer that can do multitrack out. They are pricey though....

If you want to go very low budget and only want to record 1 instrument at a time, what might work (not tested it) is some mono cable splitters in your mixer input. Be careful not to buy a stereo to mono splitter though, needs to be mono to mono. Should work in theory, although aplitting stuff is not really best practice 😜.

My current setup:

A behringer 1622ux channel mixer that has outputs going into a steinberg ur22 mk2 (2 input usb interface).

I have the low latency, better Asio and no noise from the steinberg USB(behringer usb was verry noisy for my setup, and sloooow midi latency), but all the inputs from the behringer I'll need for the upcoming years.

Also behringer has some cool built in effects and effect routing for when I jam without a computer.

Paid about 110 euros used for the behringer, so great value for all the extra inputs I got from it.

[–] KammicRelief 1 points 6 months ago

That sounds like a great setup! I agree that you'll never have enough inputs at some point. Even now, I think it'd be great to have an effects loop with a couple of my stereo guitar pedals, but.... I'll do without them for now. As for recording plans, I don't have any, other than live recording my synth jams. In which case, it is nice having more interface inputs, so I can treat each track individually in the daw in realtime. thanks for your thoughts! It's nice to hear what others do.