Hi all, I recently got my hands on a couple rackmount effect units for free including a midiverb 2 and 4. I’ve never used any of this type of gear but I’m looking to build these into a guitar/synth/drum machine effect processing unit.

See now I’ve taken a sound technology course back in school for fun and I use Reason as my DAW so I understand signal flow and physical patchbays pretty OK but my confusion lies in inputting the audio source…

For example, every effect rack and patchbay I’ve seen has all the inputs in the back of the rack I’m guessing so keep all the cables out of the way right but like how about at the start of the signal chain? Like if I was to input my synth into the patchbay, there’s no way I have to plug it in through the back of the rack every time right? Like is there a front facing input that I can then route into the patchbay? I think this makes sense haha…

Could I just my audio interface? Input my synth into my audio interface and then use the outputs routed to the rear input of the patchbay, process that audio signal, and then send that final output to a mixer or back into my audio interface? What if I don’t want to use an audio interface and go purely dawless recording into a multitrack recorder.. how would I input my synth to the effect rack?

Thanks all I hope this makes sense