I think you are confused now because you only use DAW mode and never really used / understood the advantages of TM FX full mode.
In TM FX DAW mode you route exclusively in the DAW and for every audio flow between HW inputs and HW outputs you have always to deal with the full RTL (round trip latency). This RTL is not static. It is much higher if you need to increase the ASIO buffersize due to a higher DAW load due to number of tracks, VST, VSTi with the goal to prevent audio loss.
In TM FX Full mode you have the freedom to create submixes (for e.g. phones or active monitors) with audio coming
- either from "HW inputs" (top row) in "near-realtime" (with much smaller converter latency)
- or from "SW playback channels" (middle row) with the "full RTL" where sound comes from PC with higher over USB/FW
The latter can become also very useful when using TM FX to route audio across external connected HW.
TM FX full mode gives you a great flexibility and more freedom / control for submixes typically required for monitoring through active monitors and phones.
There are situations where you want to record such a submix, then loopback plugs a virtual cable inside the routing matrix, so that you can record the submix (the HW output) on its corresponding HW input. Its good to use a free pair of outputs and inputs for that.
Other use cases for routing in TM FX and the use of loopback are such trickeries like shown in the video.
TM Full mode is like a patch panel. Audio from computer is not being send directly to the HW outputs but to a layer in front of it, the so called "SW playback channels". Everything that the computer sends through the ASIO driver (or WDM for non-ASIO aware applications) appears in the middle row of TM FX first.
And now in submix mode you select a particular HW output (aka submix, hence the name for this mode) and create the submix for this HW output by dialing-in audio from HW input channels (top row) and SW playback channels (middle row) as you want / need (by simply moving the faders in top/middle row of TM FX).
And this is valid for every HW output, every HW output is a submix / has a submix of its own.
But you can of course make Full Mode appear like DAW mode by creating a routing that is the same like in DAW mode.
You simply send
- SW Playback AN 1/2 to HW output AN 1/2
[...]
- SW Playback AN 7/8 to HW output AN 7/8
- SW Playback ADAT 1/2 to HW output ADAT 1/2
[...]
- SW Playback ADAT 15/16 to HW output ADAT 15/16
etc.
Luckily TM FX has a function which does exactly this for you with one mouse click:
Reset Mix -> Straight playback with all to Main Out. All Playback channels are routed 1:1 to the Hard-ware Outputs. Simultaneously all playbacks are mixed down to the Main Out. The faders in the third row are not changed.
This means .. you can have DAW mode in TM FX full mode by "Reset Mix -> Straight playback"
AND you have now the flexibility to add some special TM FX routing to it to enhance your submixes or to use loopback.
I regard it as an advantage to control monitoring with TM FX then you have even more use cases besides DAW work.
I use UFX+ / DURec to use the recording interface as a tape back and later drag and drop the multichannel wave file into the DAW for further processing.
And then you can also very nicely use the ARC USB to switch between pre-configured routings.
You can even store 6 different workspaces to the device itself with its own 8 Snapshots/Routing and use predefined setups / routings in standalone mode.
In the case of the UCX II, UFX II and UFX+ you can even directly attach the ARC USB to the recording interface.
In the case of the UFX II/+ you have even a dedicated plug for ARC USB and for DURec so that you can use both in stand-alone operation mode.
I use my PC also as audio player to HiFi with an ADI-2 Pro FS R BE in front of it.
It is very conveniant to use e.g. the TM FX EQ to perform a quick bass boost when needed.
And this I can recall very quickly by pushing a knob either in TM FX (recall a snapshot) or by doing this with the ARC USB.
And now in terms of spare channels again. If you have only a Babyface Pro with some ports. Its more likely, that at a certain point of time all these channels are assigned. 2 Mics, a few analog ports and then maybe an external AD/DA converter or preamp. Then you have no channel free, all in use.
And now watch e.g. again the video from RME (Adrian Joost). To bring LiveProfessor/the ASIO host into game he needed to use the AS1/2 port which are the 1st two channels of ADAT .. but what if they are already in use ...
Therefore I say, its always more conveniant to be able to have some spare channels.
And as ADAT/SPDIF and alike can quickly be in use, then I regard it as a nice feature, to have MADI channels, where its more unlikely that all of them are needed (although also such setups are possible). 32ch in/out at double speed -> full.
At the end you can of course maintain different settings very easily by saving your workspaces to computer or by using the 32 workspace quick select slots, there the first 9 are easily switchable / selectable by ALT-1 ... ALT-9 ..
This gives you 9*8 = 72 snapshots directly accessible on your keyboard at your fingertips.
BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13