Thank for the reply Mike… I agree with the case of use of workflow and recall with plugins and I have Waves Mercury and use it a lot. I have not used UAD , which I’m sure is great, maybe better, but again these are emulations of the real thing. I have a/b-ed the SSL G-Bus plugin vs my SSL FX384 and it is just not the same. Or my Massive Passive, or my Vari Mu, 1176, Neve & API Compressors, EQ’s, MixMic Reverbs, ETC.
I get how the “ease” of the box has locked us all in it. Pinging does not work for me, always 0. So I end up rendering a track - Bass, Snare, BD, Vox, Guitars, etc. without being able to hear it in context of the mix, which sucks. There is a mathematical formula you can use after recording a track, but wtf…
On the MixBus it is much easier, On the stereo out as an External Plugin I’m running out of my Focusrite into my Dangerous Liaison, and then into my neve, SSL G-Bus, (waiting on new mix bus eq)… Then into my Vari-Mu and back in.
As far a recall I just take a quick iPhone pick/s and put them in an album folder labeled the same name as the Cubase save & Song.
I also have 24 physical ins and out if needed and an X-Desk I use for Mixing Down, but again the pinging does not work, so using that is ineffective. My ideal scenario would be to render, but to be able to hear the External FX in the Context of the mix.
There are many posts on Gear Slutz if other are interested. Maybe folks here are mainly ITB.