Not sure how to set up recordering I.F. and PA for simultaneous & separate use

J

JuicyDbase

New member
I am going to buy a firestudio very soon. Here's what I want to do, I want to be able to use a firestudio (which has 8 inputs and 8 assignable outputs) and send the the 8 outputs from F.S. into the 8 channels on my yamaha mg/16 mixer to be able to adjust the the PA system easily for practices.

- Here is the tricky part (to me at least). I wish to have it all in an 8u mobile rack to always be connected in a permanent configuration, and to be able to use the firestudio and Pa/mixer system in conjunction with each other or independently of each other. so I am not having to run the firestudio all the time such as for practices. I could record practices all the time, but when it is just myself or my brother and I just jamming, I don't want equipment to be on if it's not going to be used.

So do I need some kind of a splitter? Newbi here, so I don't exactly have a clue of what I need, or need to do. I could just get a headphone amp, but then it would seem that my lovely mixer would be useless. Also with the headphone amp and then ditching the mixer, there is the issue of what do I do when we wanna play somewhere?

I am not just asking what I need to simultaneously or independently run a fire studio and mixer, but also if anybody has any other suggestions on what I COULD do with the listed equipment to make things easier, such as the goal of not disconnecting any equipment in the mobile rack. Please give advice if you have any at all.
 
This is just one way you could go about setting things up, and I'm sure its by no means the best, however...

If you are looking to leave everything hooked up all the time, and the PA is going to be used as much as (if not more than), the recording system, then you would probably want to go ahead and run your mics directly into the Yamaha mixer. From there, set your PA up as you normally would (properly set mic levels and then run the mixer out to the power amp, etc).

Then, you could get 8 of the following:

http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--HOSDOC10

These allow your insert jacks to act as direct-out jacks, which you could run from each channel insert on the Yamaha to a line-in on the Firestudio.

This way, you can always use the PA, but only turn on the computer & firestudio when you want to record.

The only issue I see with this is that you are using the preamps vuilt into the Yamaha, and I have a sneaking suspicion the pre's on the firestudio are higher quality / less noisy.

In the event that this is the case, you would have to (if you want to use the better pre's), always have the firestudio on and the computer on, to run the mics directly into the FS, then back out the assignable outputs to the line-in's on the Yamaha mixer. This, however, doesn't allow you to only run the PA when you aren't recording.

The other option is to leave your mixer and FS gain settings right where they are, and swap which unit you are running the 8 mics into when you don't want to use the FS. This would involve a bit of rewiring each time you want to go back and forth though, so its all up to you in the end :)
 
I was reading in this thread in the 11'th posthttps://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=139638 that a patch bay can also be used to split the signal, if that is true then I could go that route and then not have the sound quality be lessened by the mixers pre-amps. Can anyone confirm this, and if you can, do you have any suggestions for good or descent patch bays that do this.

EDIT: I just found a web page that is talking about patch bays. I hate to sound ignorant, but I really don't get the normaling and half normaling ect. on this page, I think they made it way too confusing newbious folk like myself. Could someone explain these terms in dum dum language.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec99/articles/patchbay.htm

I also was trying to figure out the layout in my head, what about this. Plug directly into a patch bay, then on the back go to the inputs of the fire studio and then the other set to the mixer. Then all you would have to do to switch from recording to PA is take your inputs on the patch bay and put them in the A or B. And I was thinking if I wanted to record practices, then you could just take the rec out on the mixer and put it somewhere on the patch bay that's going to an input on the firestudio since I don't feel it necessary to record individual channels for practices. Then you would only have a cable to plug in the firestudio to do that. You see any problems with this? I know I said I didn't want to disconnect anything, but I think I really just don't want to be having to make changes through the doggie door on the back of the mixer rack case. That and to save the jacks on the firestudio from getting unnecessary wear and tear since it costs an extremely polished penny (for me anyway).
 
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inserts typicly a stereo plug one channel to send out the signal and then one to recieve the signal with the effects added in... just push the plug half way in and so it will use the channel that sends the audio signal out instead of buying those adapters that just use a 1/4 that uses the right channel instead of the left. thats if the board has stereo sends on each channel otherwise he need some splitters or some cheap unpowerd stereo mixers...
 
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