SCENARIO:
A home studio with a work desk that has outboard gear (e.g. compressor/preamp) tied to the desk (screwed on) with monitors on top or off to the side of the desk.

Okay, so I see these Youtube videos and I'm getting the impression that these monitors are producing a signal that is not reflective of what is in the DAW.

I will explain...

If there is an external compressor being used to obviously shape the signal...and this signal is reflected through the monitors, wouldn't that mean that the DAW signal is 'different' than what is coming out of the monitors? (if the external signal is being enhanced with external compressors?).

Maybe I'm missing a step but if this is the case I would imagine the DAW signal won't be the same one as the monitor signal if external gear is being used which are not reflected within the DAW (plugins).

What am I missing? are those external gears being utilized within the DAW? is the 'monitored' signal post treated?

 

Last edited: Aug 19, 2015

unless the signal is then being routed back into the daw and being monitored it wouldn't be there.

 

The audio comes out of the DAW via interface, into the external processor, out of the processor, back into the DAW via interface, back out through the monitors via interface.