Timur, thanks for your help mate.

ok so I think I understand now :

the fireface UC got 36 channels in total so it's 18ins/18outs
So let's say I use 2 analogs inputs and 4 analogues outputs. That leaves 14 channels to do virtual connections. I can for example route 4 channels of maschine to outputs 5/6, 7/8, etc... so it can be anything, analogue or digitals. Then in total mix I use the loopback button on the output mixer, and in ableton I create audio track monitoring inputs 5/6, 7/8, etc ... Please, can someone confirm I understood correctly ? hum that's great, but I would need 16 channels so I can route 8 stereo tracks (so 16 channels) from maschine to ableton live

Also, Timur,

at the moment, I need to aggregate soundflower with my audio sound card, because in ableton live, I need it to receive audio from both maschine (which is software, so through virtual connections), and also my external compressor. If I only choose sound flower, I cannot receive the inputs from my audio interface. And indeed, with jack osx you can use everything without aggregating, but I had some stability problems. But it might be because of my audio interface, m-audio fast track pro, the drivers are terrible ( I can't record at 24bits because I'm using 4 analogue outputs at a time... terrible), there is sometimes good sound, sometimes it's like a bit reducer, crack, pop, etc...
that's why i'm interested in RME with their totalmix and apparently very stable drivers.

anyway, please, confirm that I understood how I would set up totalmix.

cheers

Edit : by the way, I checked on the product page of the fireface UC, it says 18ins and 18 outs, but I can see only 8 outs and 1 digital. and why I saw somewhere that it's "32 Channels" ?

hey timur. thanks again for all the info.
Hum so 18 channels, I need 4 real outs (2 for main monitors, 2 for stereo ext. compressor), and then normally 16 for maschine (8groups stereos)... hum it would be short of 2 channels (actually 4 cause I want to connect headphones too) ... I guess the solution to this would be to take a larger sound interfece such as the UFX or the 800... but they are both too much for my need... and the UFX is much more expensive, the 800 is already 300 or 400 euro more !

Yea souldflower is purely virtual. Jacks osx can do it though.
Also, maschine as a plug-in is great, but lack of some features that standalone offers, such as the autonomy of play/stop/rec (which in my opinion and lots of people using it and complaining on NI forum, is quite important for the workflow, to get this hands on hardware feeling), also in plug-in you cannot fullscreen the maschine software... And also, I got used to sample directly from iTunes or even youtube to get micro-samples, through soundflower/jackosx. So even if I was using maschine as a plug-in, I would still need to use soundflower/jackosx for that as well.

So well, not sure what to do then ... I definitely want another audio interface anyway. maybe using a RME with sound flower ... not sure yet...

Thanks Timur !

Hi chris,

Thanks for all the questions

so here is it :
maschine 16 channel (8 stereo tracks) virtual outs (sound flower) ->ableton live (8 stereos ins tracks from maschine, and a ton more directly inside ableton live) -> master bus -> 3/4 outs to compressor -> 1/2 ins sound card -> go back to master bus in ableton live -> 1/2 outs speakers.

Do you need 8 physical hardware outputs for maschine?
- no, if possible 8 stereos virtual outputs (so 16 virtual channels)

Are you sending these to out to a separate mixer for manipulation?
- so far, I do all my mix in my DAW

How many physical outputs do you need for Ableton?
- 6 (1/2 speakers, 3/4 compressor, and a stereo for headphones)

Are you trying to sample live inputs into Ableton and/or maschine while performing?
- yes, I want to sample itunes/youtube/etc... directly to maschine. And I want to jam on maschine and record directly in ableton live.

Is the source your trying to sample just virtual i.e., from itunes or to and from Ableton/maschine?
- Yes it's virtual

How is the hardware compressor being used?
- compressor is used as an external plug-in in ableton live on the master bus. signal goes out 3/4 of the sound card, goes to compressor, then comes back ins 1/2 and goes back on the master bus in ableton live.

all in all, not so complicated, but still not the usual simple home studio settings.
I do that to bypass some technical restriction from maschine (no side chain for example). Also, I can compose in maschine, and already do a mix inside ableton Live, then I can record directly or jam and record. Eventually, I would like to do the same with live, and route maschine + ableton live to another daw like logic or pro tools. But not for the moment, that just something I'll like to do soon.

finally, I want to change my m-audio fast track pro because I'm not happy with it (for lots of good reasons).

from what timur said, if I understood correctly, I could almost do that with the RME fireface UC but I will still have 2 or 4 channels missing (depending if I want to use headphones or not). The Fireface ufx or 800 could do it, but I find it a waste to have so many inputs/outputs and using actually none but only virtually.

Please, tell me chris what do you think and you have any suggestion.

Cheers