Have you tried the Behringer clones of the Neve gear? I've heard a few people say things like the knobs/rings are back to front and pop off. Also higher noise floor.

I'm glad to hear that someone else finds Total Mix less than user-friendly.

I agree their videos are terrible… Products are excellent 👍🏻

I had an RME Fireface 800 10 years ago and to my experience, Total Mix was so unfriendly for my little brain, I thought I was just dumb. That's only when I sold it 6 years ago and bought and Apollo X4 that I realized I wasn't that dumb, it's just that RME sucks at making a user-friendly UI and workflow. I would be thinking of going back to RME if they would just get their sh!t together on that front.

Yezzir

Gotta keep putting out videos to appease the youtube algo hence you get these lightweight filler pieces now and then. Sounds like you need to go back to your Carbon. ;)

HD3 till now 💪🏻 more than enough 👌🏻

Beside Barry's excellent videos, I found the videos from Synthax Audio UK very helpfull. And every Totalmix video tutorial should start with learning how to remove unwanted/unused in an outputs from the user interface. That makes Totalmix so much more accessible for beginners. Btw, did you know you don't have use Totalmix for RME interfaces? It's not mandatory. In every daw a RME interface pops up as an audio device (sometimes after installing a driver)., and you can work with it in your daw like any other interface.

Both RME PCIe MADI cards have had strange mechanical design issues. For the first one the choice of breakout connector was insane. For the FX the expansion PCB is only attached to the mounting bracket at one end, so the whole thing flexes into the computer chassis when you put the slightest pressure on the connectors.

I had a UFX3 for about 6 months and i loved it. Totalmix FX are just straight up for tracking and nothing else. I traded up for a Prism Titan strictly on conversion and yes, it’s better in that regard and the mic pres are the best interface pres I’ve ever heard. I want totalmix back though with my whole heart. It wasn’t hard. I think after a day of messing with it now it’s hard to not have it.

Isn't the easy fix to use Gig Performer to use any efx plugin you want without introducing much latency?

I use Zero Latency Monitoring feature in Nuendo / RME with the Nuendo monitoring mixer. This allows Nuendo to control RME Total mix mixer with the Nuendo monitor mixer,therefore Zero Latency. This bypasses any plugins that as the monitored audio is not going through the pc. Great video, magic of Totalmix.

I can explain total mix in a single sentence. Total Mix is a matrix mixer with an input centered viewpoint. You are always looking at the inputs and the outputs are always in the drop down menu. Anyone trying to get their head around total mix really just needs to understand what a matrix mixer is and then understand the viewpoint at which they are approaching it. I think RME videos about it are horrible and yours are really good but 30 minutes to explain a 30 second concept I think still misses the mark. Understand a matrix mixer and the GUI they prefer and that's pretty much total mix.

RME = Really Magical Effects

I have an old Fireface 800 sitting in the closet because PCs nowadays have no firewire. Wouldn't it be nice if they made us a usb/thunder mod for it?

Such a stupid thing to do... no interfaces are thunderbolt 4, they are all 3 and down... who decided this?... someone only thinking about thunderbolt hubs?

How not to buy a car you had for a second, a third time? However it goes, married or not, try to avoid the same mistakes, like raising a third finger to the world while taking off with your flight thinking that a good audio wouldn't reflect the image on the clean window. I don't know. Namastè.

Why do you talk so much? At least put your talk thru the plugins and switch between them.

Does it saturate when output is lower than input?

I literally was editing the Totalmix series into a boiled down Cheat Sheet for myself too

I switched from Motu to RME because of the driver stability (Win 10,11). In combination with Cubase = perfect, no more frozen DAW and no more broken recording session. But as always with German technology, you have to dig in, just compare e.g. with Cubase, I have similar experience. I am already working in a German company and this is an overall approach, so nothing new for me. But I fully understand the point, they should update the learning content to be more in line with the modern world and the effects are obsolete, except the quite usable compressor.

I have the RME Babyface v1. I stopped using it as I couldnt get the signal in without digital distortion due to the original mixing software being such a pain in the arse to use. My Zoom H6 and Line 6 Helix was plug and play, I've ended up using those instead even though its inferior. Interesting to see their FX havent progressed. They should do a deal with Valhalla

RME fanboi and Madi fx user here. I have way too many rackmount hardware synthesizers hooked up into my system. (24 channels?) When all the units are on and nothing playing, they make an incredible noise together… Not a good one ha ha. The gate setting on the dynamics plug-in in RME mix does the trick nicely on all those channels. I haven’t had anyone be uninspired by the verb, neither singers I’ve been working with, nor myself singing and playing brass/ string instruments. I admit I don’t think the reverb is great, but for my uses as just something to listen to when tracking it has been fine. I do have a couple hardware units I could use if Barry (or someone else with similar concerns ) wants to come over and sing a track though ha ha 😆👍 kurtzweil ksp8 or lex pcm 91 FTW 😍 If RME were to really up the game on that software, would it mean less instances I think that is the advantage of a lighter plug-in… These MADI systems in theory can handle hundreds and hundreds of tracks... now I am just brainstorming. Thank you for the video Barry. You are always doing great work.

RME fanboi and Madi fx user here. I have way too many rackmount hardware synthesizers hooked up into my system. (24 channels?) When all the units are on and nothing playing, they make an incredible noise together… Not a good one ha ha. The gate setting on the dynamics plug-in in RME mix does the trick nicely on all those channels. I haven’t had anyone be uninspired by the verb, neither singers I’ve been working with, nor myself singing and playing brass/ string instruments. I admit I don’t think the reverb is great, but for my uses as just something to listen to when tracking it has been fine. I do have a couple hardware units I could use if Barry (or someone else with similar concerns ) wants to come over and sing a track though ha ha 😆👍 kurtzweil ksp8 or lex pcm 91 FTW 😍 If RME were to really up the game on that software, would it mean less instances? I think that is the advantage of a lighter plug-in… These MADI systems in theory can handle hundreds and hundreds of tracks... now I am just brainstorming. Thank you for the video Barry. You are always doing great work.

Is Apple M series computers Thunderbolt and/or USB?

I built a Thunderbolt 4 unit and purchased a Thunderbolt 4 gaming PC last year. Thank God

agree Barry with everything you've said. Totalmix is amazing, once you figure it out. But how many years did that take?! I got the babyface so I could have portability for live shows. I have a travel rack that has a cranborne audio 500 rack with some preamps, etc in it attached via adat. Before my babyface, I had a rack UA apollo. Iknow I'm weird, but growing up in an analogue studio, I fell in love with LUNA when they released it. Had tried other DAWs and when I got my hands on LUNA, it felt (and sounded like) the old studio I grew up in (64 channel neve board). added in the softube console 1 and it elevated that even further. However, incorporating the babyface/500 preamps into that setup with LUNA has not seemed to give me a better outcome than just running unison plugins in LUNA. Maybe user error, but, it just sounds and feels better going straight into my apollo. I want to use the RME, because RAW, it sounds so much better, but for some reason, after recording, and in the box, the direct to UA sits better in the mix. Plus, it's less taxing on the system, and like you said, you get better "tracking" plugins using the DAW. I'd be interested in a video from you or to hear from anyone else if they've experienced the same (or similar) thing.

Barry, your TotalMix videos saved me

Rather than complain, seek out solutions and share them. In this case Barry hasn't discovered GigPerformer yet or how to just route channels in TotalMix to outboard reverbs and EQs and Loopback them into a DAW record channel or right back up to the outboard reverb's input channel of TotalMix for zero latency monitoring. I've never heard anyone complain about stock plugins before. That's why we invest in premium ones and gear. Cheers 🥂

Another complaint about RME: I just can't find the talent button. I know it's gotta be there somewhere,. maybe it's in the software......Help me out here Barry.

Barry, thanks for the vid. There is a very easy way to use whatever reverb plugin you like with low latency: On your recording track, engage monitoring/listening. Pull the volume fader all the way down. Do a pre-fader send on said track to your reverb plugin. Use the DAW/Input balance on interface to balance monitoring of dry input with reverb (fed by the pre-fader send). Now, if you need lower latency (more computer power), render the whole project first, solo the rendered backing. Dis-engage plugin delay compensation. Lower the latency. Record. The tiny bit of remaining latency on the reverb send can be considered 'free pre-delay'. And the latency for monitoring your interface input signal is pretty much close to 0. So, if it is just an overdubbing affair, there is no real need for onboard DSP regardless of the interface.

Man I 1000% agree. I have both the og UFX and the UFX+ (with the ferrofish of course) and I’ve been waiting for well over a decade now for actual USEABLE dsp. The EQs are OK… but the dynamics are so limited they’re basically useless, just like the time effects. I’d love to print with them but it’s rare that I find an occasion they actually are capable of doing what I want them to. I would KILL to have full ratio, attack/release, and knee settings on the dynamics section. Imagine having a key input from the EQ like every other digital console! It’s not like the DSP power isn’t there. Also how bout an RTA on each active EQ? I know we have DIGICheck (I have mine up always on a second monitor for meter, RTA, and phase scope) but it’s cumbersome to constantly have to change channel selections. Hell I feel like they could at least add an option to make the RTA follow the EQ in focus.

you can do overdubs and use a send in the daw for any reverb or delay you want and then use the direct in total mix to control the amount of wet/dry. this solution works as long as your buffer is not insanely high as any delay will just be percieved as slight pre delay for reverb or a few extra ms for a delay. its pretty simple. rme is for professionals who either know these 'work arounds', have a powerful enough computer to handle real time tracking or use hardware compressors ect on the way in. after all these interfaces are not expensive. also not including plugins is the reason that the rme software works so easily and has such good backwards compatibility. keep rme rme

Is that an Audient iD44 back there?

Do you think UAD is working on new Apollo Units?

totalmix is fine but he gets more views this way

uncle Barry , you're the whinging grandad of youtube 🎤

This is ridicules. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand total mix. Just be patient to learn it. Sounds like an ADHD issue on the individual. And the sound is immaculate. If you want reverb or other plugins. Use it post recording. Rme is good at capturing the pure sound. Do enhancement in post production. Sounds like you’re just looking for something to complain about. Probably the only thing RME should do is drop adat and have like two to three madi optical ports.

Another trait that is stereotypical of German engineers: stubbornness/arrogance (or perhaps a similar term along those lines) Personally I couldn’t agree more. The videos are not friendly, despite being well produced, and doco is even worse , but I don’t think RME would ever acknowledge this , let alone address it. I’ve been reading some forum posts recently while trying to figure out some totalmix functionality and the responses from RME staff are atrocious. “You’re doing it wrong”. “Read the manual.” “That doesn’t make sense why would you want to do this.” They may be right in some cases but it’s such an anti customer attitude. It won’t change imo.

I actually like the RME verb....and I own every verb under the sun. I suggest putting on some headphones some evening....and run through all the different algorithms and see if there is anything in there you like. There are a lot of different ones and they sound drastically different. It is no bracasti or anything. On a side note...I am an engineer running a commercial studio and have had many artists over the years ask what the verb was because they liked it. I believe the real problem is how the tools are presented. They do require a lot of messing about to sound great. They should update and simplify the algorithms to some universally great sounding plates, rooms and chambers we all know and love. I wish they would update the delay more than the verb. Also add a bpm parameter. Also the ability to mouse drag eq points would be convenient. Fin.

Personally I think this was a great video with excellent points made! The reason music (and many other things in our country) is trash today is because as a society we have become lazy and have learned to settle for mediocre. I recently upgraded my interface and looked into an RME. I ultimately didnt think I needed to pay that much for what I needed so I didnt. But that is part of Barry's point he didnt really mention. RME's are expensive, and for good reason, but at that price there is zero excuse to have less than good plugins included. Now Im not saying they should compare to a brand new Bricasti, but they shouldnt get Barry's kind of reaction from it (who is a huge RME fan)! I could go on. But I agree Barry

Yes Barry leave people alone quit complaining about interface company’s , love your show stay positive brother ❤ 1:24

2x⏩⏭️

Thanks Barry for your video. I use my RME UFX+ with Live Professor and I am able to make monitor settings with my favorite vst plugins (compressors, eq, reverb,delay and one ove the most important thing for my clients - AUTO-TUNE with low latency settings) only for the headphones outs. In my DAW I have plugins with 0.5sec latancy (like lin-phase eq, soothe2 and ect) but I dont use is to monitor.

*PREACH THAT GOSPEL!!! I DONT WASTE MY MONEY ON ANYTHING ELSE*

ufx3er, there's really no reason you shouldn't be able to use a verb in the daw on an aux and route it back to some unused Madi channel or something. Personally I use an old pcm90 on the spdif ports for verb and it's the bomb for tracking, plus you can record/print those channel too. As for delay, there's a H9 in a couple analog channels and that's the bomb too. Comp/eq/auto level, I really like those as they are and think they work very well. But yeah, the verb in the rme is just kind of lame like most of the verbs in the daw. For a second setup I use an old ff800 hooked up adat to an older Apollo and just use the Apollo for effect, delay send, reverb, and something like the eventide 910 or dim d. But the total for effects (guessing) 2300 for the Apollo and then maybe 100-200 each at the time for each effect. Back to the verb and spdif, you could get some used tc unit or something and use it like my pcm90, and you might even have something lying around to do that with. Just some thoughts.

SPECTACULAR

Totally agree! TotalMix... Amazing! Reverb... wtf RME??? It also reminds me of my old Fireface where RME included a "saturation" option on one of the channels (can't remember the exact wording) and it was awful. I couldn't believe RME would include it even. Insulting, lol. I think RME needs to stick to its "german engineering" (the hardware quality and totalmix) and get some help with the musical side of things.

Maybe RME should hire UA to make their plugins!

So do you record other people or make recordings yourself?