New-to-it-all Needs Help For Setting Up Options

[Humaniversally]

Hi everyone

So. As the title says I'm new to it all - and I mean all (I've been basically playing acoustically for 40 years) - and I'm setting up a small home studio with the gear I had and some I just bought and some questions came up - among a great many (I'll be back ).

First off : As, for now, I'm planning to route everything through a mixer, the question arises: where's best to input its output in the Inspire - run its 1/4" in channel 1 & 2 ? or its XLRs ? Or use 1/4 to RCA cables to the back line-ins ?

And also : Can the remaining Firewire port of the Inspire be used for something else than another one ?

Also : As I plan to use my mixer (while eventually I want to upgrade to a bigger interface) the question arises : is the overall sound's quality significantly improved if I input my guitar and guitar-synth directly into the Inspire ? ...though one thing that bugs me here is that I'd lose the use of my GSP which I can use for everything with the mixer.

Finally : As it comes up. . . What's the best way to input my Ovation - would it be a good idea to go straight into channel 1, mic it on channel 2, and blend the two ? ...just an idea.

That's all for now. Thanks in advance.
__________________

Be well, B.

G4.1.25Ghz.1.25GRam.240G.Presonus Inspire 1934. Logic Express. Garageband. Audacity. Hydrogen. Behringer Eurorack MX 1604A. Midisport 2x2. Digitech GSP 2101 Artist. GR33 Guitar-synth. Godin Jazz Multiac. Ovation classical with Fishman. And one old Martin.

[Humaniversally]

Come on, viewers, a little effort.

In case there's a way to go mixerless for me with the Inspire, I'll add this : what I need is to be able to simultaneously input the guitar itself, the stereo outs of the guitar-synth, with the effects of the GSP available for both.

[deaconblue]

Humaniversally,

40 years playing and you are going to start putting it all on DAW. Rock on!

After looking at the manuals for both the Inspire and the 1604A, I'd go with the XLR main outs on the 1604A into the XLR ins for the Inspire, then the two 3/4 Alt outs as the 1/4" TRS ins on the Inspire. That'll give you for discreet channels and you can use the 4 buses on the 1604 to route which ever signals work best for your current project to 4 discreet channels within your DAW. Make sure you go through your 1604A manual to work out your bus routing set up. With 4 mic pre's on the 1604 you should be able to capture quite a bit of small combo work without issue.

For an acoustic or acousto-electric guitar, mic'ing or piezo in is a matter of taste and sound off of both inputs from your source. I find that if I close mic the guitar and blend with the piezo I can get both the warmth of the wood top (I use a Tacoma Chief for this method) and the bell tones from the peizo to good effect. However, from my Alvarez, I use a condenser mid field mic and a Shure SM57 close mic to get a good ring from the guitar and some reflections off of the top since it is lacquer finished. Play with your mic positions to get a good tone in the cans and then watch your eq and compression when you start to play back in your monitors for mixing/mastering the finished product.

Watch your room treatment if you are going to be recording acoustic instruments so you don't end up with a lot of noise in your mix as well. Cover bare walls and windows with blankets or drapes. Keep computer, heater/ac and fan noise to a bare minimum.

Good luck and welcome to the wonderful world of home studios. Don't get overwhelmed with the small stuff. Bottom line, if you play well, you can tweak the recording process after trying a few things out. If you can't play well... there are ways around it (copy/cut/paste of your sound files) but they won't be quite as musical. (copy/cut paste works for many styles, but acoustic guitar, unless the staccato sound is your goal, not so much).

peace.
deacon

[Humaniversally]

[quote name='deaconblue' date='Mon 16 Apr 2007, 19:47' post='236265']
Humaniversally,

Hey Deacon. Thanks for the input - and taking the time ti review my gear. Very kind of you.

Rock on indeed - better late than never, as it goes.

Now, let me see if I get that straight. . . Mixer's XLRs on to the Inspire's XLXs. Fine. But the "two 3/4 Alt outs as the 1/4" TRS ins on the Inspire" ? I don't get that. You can only use ONE of the two inputs of the 2 channels, either the XLR or the 1/4. There's only 2 channels offering 2 possibilities (many people when buying it think it has 4 discrete inputs, but it doesn't. It's 2 plus the back's RCAs which can be use for a synth, etc. If I get it right, the only way to have 4 discrete channels would be to daisy-chain a second Inspire - which I may do eventually. ...or am I misunderstanding you ?

The 3/4 alts, busses, routing, etc. . . I've been reading the manual - and will read it again. Yet, to be true, I don't understand much of it for now. Which is fine. It'll come.

Thanks for the acoustic stuff and the hints on room treatment - I'm reading here and there on both.

Lol. I play well enough ....while some of my finer compositions are actually a bit ahead of my technical skills. Which is fine.

Peace on you too, brother.

[deaconblue]

Humaninversally,

My pleasure to help out. On this item:

If I get it right, the only way to have 4 discrete channels would be to daisy-chain a second Inspire - which I may do eventually. ...or am I misunderstanding you ?

Not sure, the manual speaks of the Inspire being able to use them separately. And on the Presonus Interface comparison web page, it shows the Inspire capable of: Simultaneous recording channels (single unit) 4 in / 2 out

I may be mistaken on using the 1/4" TRS as I was scanning the manual, but if that is the case and the RCA ins/XLRs or RCA ins/1/4" TRS are choices to get 4 discreet inputs, then you can usea 1/4" TRS to RCA stereo cable to route those other two (3/4) channels into the Inspire.

Just a note on bus routing, if you have 12 channels of input on the 1604A, you can route them 3 at a time to out to your 4 out put channels (i.e., Input 1,2,3 -> Output 1; Input 4, 5, 5 -> Output 2; etc.) so that you can record 12 channels, mix them on the 1604A and capture 4 channels on the Inspire/DAW. Or, take Inputs 6-12 as Drum Mics and route them to Output Channels 3 & 4 as a stereo mix out and use that for stereo drums on your DAW while reserving output channels 1 & 2 for your guitar (Acoustic to input 1, piezo to input 2, Guitar synth to 3 & 4) and/or a bass...

Lots of options/possibilities.

The participants on this forum are incredible in their abilities and their diversity of styles/interests/expertise. If you run into any issue, post back here and you'll get help. If you figure out a fix that no one has thought of post that so we are all abit more enlightened. Have fun! That is the most important part.

Looking forward to checking out some tracks when you get this all working.

deacon