How to use RNC with Saffire Pro 40? (First Post/Thread)

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trickg

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This is my first post after lurking around a bit, but the thread title pretty much asks the question. To give a bit more insight, this is my basic gear setup:

Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 Firewire Interface
iMac
KRK Rokit 6 studio monitors

I've also got an FMR RNC, although to be honest, I didn't buy it to record with - I bought it to put onto a board to act as a limiter for an in-ears setup that I use with my church band so that I can incorporate a click track. I basically plug into a floor wedge's balanced jack, and I use the RNC to keep my ears safe if their is a spike, but I digress.

At this point I've done very basic stuff with the Saffire 40 - mostly single track vocals against Karaoke tracks (I know, cheesy, but fun) and a basic 4-mic drums setup, just to see if I could. Really basic stuff using the 8 preamps straight into GarageBand - yeah I know, cheesy, but I'm still getting my feet wet.

I'd like to try using the RNC to compress going into the box, but I'm not sure how to do that. The only preamps I've got are on the Saffire but at this point I know very little about signal routing on that. Is there a way to use the Saffire as a preamp, but also route the signal back out to the RNC and then run it back in again through the Saffire?

So really 2 questions:
1.) can it be done?
2.) If 'yes,' how?

Thanks in advance!
 
trickg said:
This is my first post after lurking around a bit, but the thread title pretty much asks the question. To give a bit more insight, this is my basic gear setup:

Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 Firewire Interface
iMac
KRK Rokit 6 studio monitors

I've also got an FMR RNC, although to be honest, I didn't buy it to record with - I bought it to put onto a board to act as a limiter for an in-ears setup that I use with my church band so that I can incorporate a click track. I basically plug into a floor wedge's balanced jack, and I use the RNC to keep my ears safe if their is a spike, but I digress.

At this point I've done very basic stuff with the Saffire 40 - mostly single track vocals against Karaoke tracks (I know, cheesy, but fun) and a basic 4-mic drums setup, just to see if I could. Really basic stuff using the 8 preamps straight into GarageBand - yeah I know, cheesy, but I'm still getting my feet wet.

I'd like to try using the RNC to compress going into the box, but I'm not sure how to do that. The only preamps I've got are on the Saffire but at this point I know very little about signal routing on that. Is there a way to use the Saffire as a preamp, but also route the signal back out to the RNC and then run it back in again through the Saffire?

So really 2 questions:
1.) can it be done?
2.) If 'yes,' how?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Hey Trick welcome to the forums ..... Yes it can be done. You just need to send what track you want to compress out to the RNC and send back into your computer recording it to a new track.
 
So does this mean I have to record the track dry, and then run it back through, or can I route the signal so that I can record compressed and just run it to one track? For example, would it be possible to

  • run the mix into preamp #1
  • route it out through a line-level 'out'
  • run that signal into the RNC
  • run the compressed signal back into the Saffire with a line-level 'in'
  • record the track with the line-level 'in'

I've been thinking about getting another preamp - especially something with a bit more gain because I'll be getting an SM7B and I've only got 60db of gain with the Focusrite. That would elminate the need to do weird signal routing with the Saffire, but the concern there is that I'd be doing myself a diservice if the secondary preamp was of lesser quality than the preamps on the Saffire Pro 40, and it's my understanding that the preamps on the 40 are pretty good, so I'm wondering if it's even necessary.
 
Just remember Patrick if you record a track with compression it's always there!
 
True, but is that necessarily a bad thing?

Another question that has come to mind is whether the FMR RNC is something I should continue to hang on to (I found another product that I believe would be better for the drum In-ears board) due to the fact that I recently discovered the Focusrite plugin suite. I've had this unit for almost a year and JUST discovered the plugin suite! I've been messing with the Focusrite compressor plugin, and I like what it's doing, but it has given rise to the question of whether or not the RNC would be better.

Arg! So much to learn!
 
It does take time Patrick.
The RNC is highly sought after and I would keep it if it were me.
When your recording with compression you really got to know what your doing and when it come to mix down time, that is when you'll know if you have it right or not ..... so it's not a bad thing but like I said it's all ways there.
 
The Saffire Pro 26 lets you use inputs 5 and 6 as inserts for channels 1 and 2 (routes the signal from preamp of 1 thru whatever is connected to 5, then to the DAW). I use an RNC, too, and insert it into 1 or 2. I glanced through the Saffire Pro 40 manual, and it doesn't look like it can do this, but it's worth looking at more closely.
 
I appreciate the feedback. I'm very much at an experimentation phase in this endeavor and I'm working to get to a level of knowledge and understanding so that when the time comes and my son and his friends can get their ideas down onto tracks, and I can home-produce a decent quality demo. (my son is 16 and is a pretty talented guitar player - I say this with confidence because I'm a lifelong musician and made my living doing it for 10 years, so I can tell he's a solid player.) There's just so much to learn - I've been doing a lot of reading online but it might not hurt to get my hands on a good book. Know of any?
 
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