it's 2 straight choices.

1. he has a mixer on which he can monitor both the pc main L/R stereo mix output (the track being built); and the hardware being played/sequenced - he can then route anything he requires, out via the sub-bus on the mixer and into the L/R record inputs on a stereo i/o audio-interface to capture/record.

he can also sequence multiple outboard units layered, and route those multiple hardware mixer channels all to the same sub-bus feeding the L/R record input to thus capture layered external h/w patches/sounds he's created (or alternatively capture the layers seperately and blend them in the s/w mix).


2 or... as mentioned above (Focusrite Saffire Pro 40, tehLORD) he routes the external hardware audio outs to a multi input audio i/o device, mixing the external hardware on the s/w mixer alongside internal sounds - he can capture and create layers too just as with a hardware mixer if he knows the techniques



i'd say this monitoring "off-tape" route (option 2) requires more knowledge & may cost more than the mixer route to get a reliable solution with a win laptop





choices...hmm