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Author Topic: Looking for some help here  (Read 3315 times)

Josh McArdle

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Looking for some help here
« on: April 28, 2010, 07:06:19 PM »

Hi guys,

I just bought an SPL Channel One for vocal recordings at home. I have an RME ADI-2 and an Mbox 2.

Basically I have a really big problem when wiring this up, so perhaps someone here could point me in the right direction?

The RME into the Mbox by SPDIF works fine.

What I want to do is plug the Channel One into the RME for A/D and completely bypass the Mbox's pres (which for some reason are REALLY noisy recently). However I can't seem to get an input signal on the converter, either going 1/4" TRS or XLR to the converter's input.

So I tried to plug the Channel One into one of the Line inputs on the Mbox. Hurrah, signal! Holy fuck! LOADS of signal! This thing is clipping away like a crack-fuelled hairdresser. No matter what I do, it's WAY too hot.

Input gain on the pre is at the lowest setting, output gain is virtually at nothing. Gain knobs on the Mbox are all the way down.

The PPM meter on the Channel One is showing basically nothing, but the meter in PT is consistently clipping, with average levels not much below the top. Oh and this is with me talking into a 58...

I don't get it! Everything I've read has said "Plug your external preamp into a line input with a stereo jack lead." I tried two different cables, one I made myself. I even tried an XLR with a TRS adapter. No change.

I don't think it's a problem with the output section on the pre - everything sounds fine through it's headphone output. Confused

I'd really appreciate any ideas.

Thanks,
Josh
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NelsonL

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Re: Looking for some help here
« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2010, 02:21:55 AM »

Josh McArdle wrote on Wed, 28 April 2010 16:06

Hi guys,

I just bought an SPL Channel One for vocal recordings at home. I have an RME ADI-2 and an Mbox 2.

Basically I have a really big problem when wiring this up, so perhaps someone here could point me in the right direction?

The RME into the Mbox by SPDIF works fine.

What I want to do is plug the Channel One into the RME for A/D and completely bypass the Mbox's pres (which for some reason are REALLY noisy recently). However I can't seem to get an input signal on the converter, either going 1/4" TRS or XLR to the converter's input.

So I tried to plug the Channel One into one of the Line inputs on the Mbox. Hurrah, signal! Holy fuck! LOADS of signal! This thing is clipping away like a crack-fuelled hairdresser. No matter what I do, it's WAY too hot.

Input gain on the pre is at the lowest setting, output gain is virtually at nothing. Gain knobs on the Mbox are all the way down.

The PPM meter on the Channel One is showing basically nothing, but the meter in PT is consistently clipping, with average levels not much below the top. Oh and this is with me talking into a 58...

I don't get it! Everything I've read has said "Plug your external preamp into a line input with a stereo jack lead." I tried two different cables, one I made myself. I even tried an XLR with a TRS adapter. No change.

I don't think it's a problem with the output section on the pre - everything sounds fine through it's headphone output. Confused

I'd really appreciate any ideas.

Thanks,
Josh


Hi Josh, I'm kind of confused by your description.

You say that RME>Mbox works vis SPDIF-- but you don't say what the analog source is. Are you just plugging the mic right into the convertor?

I'll assume that's the case, and that you want to send line level from the SPL to the RME to Mbox SPDIF.

So really, the main problem is getting input to the RME.

Looking at images of the the units online, as I'm not familiar with these specific models, I would think you should have no problem going XLR out from the SPL, to XLR in on the RME. Make sure the input level of the RME is set to +4dBu.

No reason that I can see why you'd need stereo anything... it's a single channel pre.

Good luck,

Liam


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Josh McArdle

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Re: Looking for some help here
« Reply #2 on: April 30, 2010, 09:47:11 AM »

Thanks Liam.

Yeah for these recordings I'm going Mic - Preamp - Converter - Mbox.

The problem with the gain seems to have sorted itself out entirely. I've no idea what happened, but I came back to it yesterday, same PT session, nothing changed and the signal is healthy...go figure Confused

Everything's working as I'd hoped now, with the mic into the converter and out through SPDIF into Pro Tools. Not sure why this wasn't happening before, just one of those things I guess. All sounds so much cleaner than the Mbox pres/converters. Very happy Smile

Thanks for the help!
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