Klaus

On 2/10/2019 at 10:08 PM, synkrotron said:

I have a four MIDI hardware synths and I "play" them via MIDI tracks within my DAW, be that Cakewalk or REAPER. The audio from those instruments are fed into my DAW via my audio interfaces which are two OCTA-CAPTURE units. I will only record that audio once I am happy with the "composition."

For effects I use a combination of hardware and software.

The only difference between me and you, then, is that I am using my hardware effects, with the help of External Insert, to process real time audio, rather than recorded audio.

You don't need an External Insert if you want to process real time audio with hardware effects, just record the output of your hardware.

The External Insert plug-in is needed/handy if you play audio from your DAW through an external hardware device and record the outcome, because it cares about the latency which is introduced by the additional DA - AD conversion of your audio interface.

Recording a hardware synth driven via MIDI tracks from a DAW also doesn't need the External Insert plug-in but you may have to adjust a possible offset in Preferences > Sync and Caching or manually by shifting notes.

Best,
Klaus

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