Routing.....

[MCreel]

Lets say I'm recording a live show on a firepod (or two).

If I want to put a compressor, or eq, or what not into the line so that I get a realiable sound fed into the laptop then how would I insert those into the line?

Pre firepod I imagine. Is this correct? I was wondering if I'd need to put a mixer between the units or not.

 

[petermiller]

you would benefit from a mixer. You could then use the mixers preamps to get the signal to line level for use with a compressor. You could insert the comp/eq/?? into the channel. You could then take a direct out into the firepod. that is if the mixer has inserts and direct outs and providing the direct outs are post eq, or post insert. some mixers only have inserts. this could be done by connecting a 1/4" into the insert only partial way in (one click) which would take signal out from mixer right after the preamp then into the comp or eq and take the out of the comp or eq and send that into the firepod. You of course would want to make shure that the board had solid preamps , and use line level input on the firepod to avoid preamping twice. but whatever the case maybe you would have to run comp/eq before entering the firepod if thats what you choose to do. I would probably only limit and not compress on the way in.

 

[MCreel]

Excellent....some of that........... over my head. But I think I got the idea.

Why do you say limiter and not compressor? Wouldn't you run vox through a compressor in the studio?

I'm thinking of taking a direct out from each of the channels in the live audio mixer straight into the firepod...but was curious if I should insert something else into the line pre firepod. But am I taking it correctly that you think the chain should go like this:

Live Mixer outs from each channel --> EQ/Comp/?? of choice on channel of choice --> firepod line-in inserts for channels with a preamp, front face inputs for those without pre-amps --> firepod out to laptop via firewire.

Or did you mean take one main out from the whole live mix into one firepod line-in insert and then firepod out to the laptop via firewire?

thanks for all your help. If I get this done I'll try to post some samples for review/critique/etc. I am soo looking forward to this project.

 

[petermiller]

you got it right with the seperate inputs just as you said (Live Mixer outs from each channel --> EQ/Comp/?? of choice on channel of choice --> firepod line-in inserts for channels with a preamp, front face inputs for those without pre-amps --> firepod out to laptop via firewire) as far as compressing or limiting. I have found you would probably want a 2:1 or 3:1 light compression ratio if you were to compress at all in a tracking situation. however in a live situation to take care of variables such as drums bleeding and affecting different compression ratios for individual tracks creating breathing and so on. you would be better served to limit and make shure there are no peaks and compress for consistancy and dynamic reasons after the fact. It also depends on wether or not you are also taking care of pa duties with these same mics and mixer and comps/eqs or if you have your own whole seperate deal. splitter snake and so on. I would only eq going in if there are problems with the scource material such as too much 200hz on an acoustic or something like that. I guess it all depends on what type of music and what type of space you are dealing with as well.