I've setup a fun little music 'cave' in my basement and finally have almost everything wired up and connected, labeled and tucked away nicely. Now, I'm trying to fine tune and stabalize all of my inputs/outputs, save the settings, and have everything... well.. balanced.
I have some static connections that I've mapped out in a template on Sonar (my daw).
1 - Presonus Tube Preamp
2 - Bass
3 - Guitar 1
4 - Guitar 2
5 - Piano
6 - PA
7 - Open
8 - Open
For this discussion, I'm only going to look at Guitar 1 since the logic learned here can be applied to the rest.
My PC is running Win7 and Sonar as my DAW. I have an M-Audio Profire 8 Channel HD Sound Processor (firewire).
My guitar is hooked up to an effects pedalboard that I built. It has various effects chained together that lead to a volume pedal. Since my goal with this setup is primarily to record live recordings, it's hard to mic my amps in such a small space without the mics picking up everything else. Because of this, I prefer to record direct.
I have my effects' individual gains and volumes set nominally to prevent noise as well as stay volume balanced with my raw clean signal. The 2nd to last pedal in the chain is my compressor, and it is set for light compression with the output at approx 80%. At 80% the signal seems clean but anything above that introduces a little noise. From the pedalboard I connect to the Profire Sound processor with the gain at -+0 db.
At these settings, Sonar picks up a tolerable but weak signal. It's clean, not much noise, but not all that strong either. My goal is to capture a strong signal that when peaked out nearly clips, but is conservative enough that it never will. I also want to maintain a moderate ceiling for dynamics.
Where to boost the signal to get the best result? Should I get a direct box, and send my pedalboard to that? I could boost/level the signal with the direct box so that the signal sent to the Profire is already full. This way, I don't need to increase the gain on the sound processor, which I think would provide a better signal/noise ratio.
However, should I not just use the gain on the Profire? It's got fairly good preamps (they have great reviews), so I'm wondering if I'm best off letting the Profire boost the signal since I'd need a fairly high quality direct box to match the quality of the Profire. Why use a directbox when the Profire can do it? My guess is that the directbox will probably introduce it's own share noise when boosting the signal anyway. OR..... Do I leave the signal as is as send it raw into the software, and let the software do the work?
Options
1. Get a direct box and maximize the signal prior from the instrument prior to hitting the mixer. This way the gain setting can be left flat so it doesn't need to add additional filtering/resistance to the signal. From here a strong signal will be delivered all the way to software without needing any additional boost. A good direct box not only boosts the signal but helps maintain a balanced signal as well.
2. Just use the gain on the Profire Sound Processor. It's a fairly high quality pre-amp, so if I'm going to physically boost the signal, this is the best spot. If I get a direct box, it will also help balance the signal, but the boost from the Profire is better so its probably a fair trade off. Especially since just using the profire dissolves the need to use a direct box.
3. Leave the signal raw with all gain settings at +-0 db (flat) and boost the signal in software. In Sonar, I can boost both the 'gain' and the 'volume'. Gain would boost the signal prior to any eq/effects I put on it, and volume would boost after everything else in the chain.
Here's an image of how I have my inputs configured. I'm curious as to where you all may think the best place in the chain to boost the signal is.
I have some static connections that I've mapped out in a template on Sonar (my daw).
1 - Presonus Tube Preamp
2 - Bass
3 - Guitar 1
4 - Guitar 2
5 - Piano
6 - PA
7 - Open
8 - Open
For this discussion, I'm only going to look at Guitar 1 since the logic learned here can be applied to the rest.
My PC is running Win7 and Sonar as my DAW. I have an M-Audio Profire 8 Channel HD Sound Processor (firewire).
My guitar is hooked up to an effects pedalboard that I built. It has various effects chained together that lead to a volume pedal. Since my goal with this setup is primarily to record live recordings, it's hard to mic my amps in such a small space without the mics picking up everything else. Because of this, I prefer to record direct.
I have my effects' individual gains and volumes set nominally to prevent noise as well as stay volume balanced with my raw clean signal. The 2nd to last pedal in the chain is my compressor, and it is set for light compression with the output at approx 80%. At 80% the signal seems clean but anything above that introduces a little noise. From the pedalboard I connect to the Profire Sound processor with the gain at -+0 db.
At these settings, Sonar picks up a tolerable but weak signal. It's clean, not much noise, but not all that strong either. My goal is to capture a strong signal that when peaked out nearly clips, but is conservative enough that it never will. I also want to maintain a moderate ceiling for dynamics.
Where to boost the signal to get the best result? Should I get a direct box, and send my pedalboard to that? I could boost/level the signal with the direct box so that the signal sent to the Profire is already full. This way, I don't need to increase the gain on the sound processor, which I think would provide a better signal/noise ratio.
However, should I not just use the gain on the Profire? It's got fairly good preamps (they have great reviews), so I'm wondering if I'm best off letting the Profire boost the signal since I'd need a fairly high quality direct box to match the quality of the Profire. Why use a directbox when the Profire can do it? My guess is that the directbox will probably introduce it's own share noise when boosting the signal anyway. OR..... Do I leave the signal as is as send it raw into the software, and let the software do the work?
Options
1. Get a direct box and maximize the signal prior from the instrument prior to hitting the mixer. This way the gain setting can be left flat so it doesn't need to add additional filtering/resistance to the signal. From here a strong signal will be delivered all the way to software without needing any additional boost. A good direct box not only boosts the signal but helps maintain a balanced signal as well.
2. Just use the gain on the Profire Sound Processor. It's a fairly high quality pre-amp, so if I'm going to physically boost the signal, this is the best spot. If I get a direct box, it will also help balance the signal, but the boost from the Profire is better so its probably a fair trade off. Especially since just using the profire dissolves the need to use a direct box.
3. Leave the signal raw with all gain settings at +-0 db (flat) and boost the signal in software. In Sonar, I can boost both the 'gain' and the 'volume'. Gain would boost the signal prior to any eq/effects I put on it, and volume would boost after everything else in the chain.
Here's an image of how I have my inputs configured. I'm curious as to where you all may think the best place in the chain to boost the signal is.
Last edited:
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