Hello

i own a Soundcraft Spirit M12 since a few days and i'm pretty much happy
with it. but i find out too late there was a big problem for my setup.

before this mixboard i owned a Soundcraft Spirit Studio 24. It had 4 stereo
buses. when i wanted to record something, i would just send the desired
tracks / aux to the first bus, and the direct outputs from this bus were
send to the 2 inputs of my soundcard (Echo Mia).

now with my spirit m12 the problem is that it doesn't have any bus. how do i
record my guitar (i'm using a pod) ? i need the playback to play in time.
but if i play it it will be recorded, as my soundcard input is connected to
the main xlr out of my spirit m12. sure there are direct outs for the first
12 mono tracks but i've got 2 outboard FX as auxiliaries that i like to
record as well at the same time (a little reverb, or a little delay...)

this is very stupid of me but i thought "don't worry you'll find a solution"
when i bought it (i was in a hurry) but i realise i can't find one.

here's a picture of the spirit m12

http://www.soundcraft.com/images/pro...uct_sheet/spir
it_m_series/m12_hires.jpg

the output of my soundcard is plugged to the playback in L/R. the input to
the main XLR out.

the "P/B replace mix" button just mute all 16 tracks to only leave the p/b
signal. the phones input does the same as the monitor input.

i've been scratching my head since a few days for a solution but couldn't
find a simple and efficient one.

thanks for any help and sorry if my post doesn't fit the forum.

patrick

In article writes:

before this mixboard i owned a Soundcraft Spirit Studio 24. It had 4 stereo
buses.

now with my spirit m12 the problem is that it doesn't have any bus.

This is one of the differences between a recording console and a
mixer. (there are others, and it's a matter of degrees)

how do i
record my guitar (i'm using a pod) ? i need the playback to play in time.
but if i play it it will be recorded, as my soundcard input is connected to
the main xlr out of my spirit m12. sure there are direct outs for the first
12 mono tracks but i've got 2 outboard FX as auxiliaries that i like to
record as well at the same time (a little reverb, or a little delay...)

You need a patchbay. That will make it easy to connect either the mix
bus output, an auxiliary send, a direct output, or your Pod to the
input of your sound card. Monitoring what you've recorded (or what
you're recording) can get a little more involved. Have you read the
applications section of your mixer's manual? That will give you some
ideas. Mackie manuals are pretty good for this, too, and you can
download those from the Mackie web site. One of these days Mackie will
get around to putting some tutorial material that I wrote for them on
line and you'll find a lot of useful information there. I can't tell
you when that will happen though.

the output of my soundcard is plugged to the playback in L/R. the input to
the main XLR out.

the "P/B replace mix" button just mute all 16 tracks to only leave the p/b
signal. the phones input does the same as the monitor input.

That lets you hear what you've recorded, and if your DAW has
sufficiently low latency, you can monitor this while you're
overdubbing by turning on a "direct monitor" function for your sound
card's input. Alternately, you can feed the sound card from a direct
output or pre-fader auxilarly send, and connect the sound card output
to a pair of line inputs rather than the playback inputs. That way,
you can mix the input (a microphone or your Pod, for instance) with
the output playing back from the computer and hear it in the
headphones. You may find that in certain situations, one connection
works better than the other. This is why a patchbay is helpful - so
you don't have to fool with tangled cables behind the desk.

A patchbay is something that you have to think about though. While
they make patchbays that are easy to install, you need to think about
how you're going to use your connections so that you can make it make
sense. There have been magazine articles that will guide you, and
probably some web sites, but it's really mostly about how you work.

i've been scratching my head since a few days for a solution but couldn't
find a simple and efficient one.

It's not simple, at least not with the console you have, but it can be
efficient once you understand signal flow.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

Thanks Mike for your detailed answer.

i had an idea : buying a mini mixer with 2 in / 1 out. first input :
soundcard / second input : spirit m12 . out to monitors. this way there's
absolutely no chance to get the playback recorded. no bus trickery.

a patch would be a good idea if i had loads of top quality external
processor, but i don't. and i never re-treat stuff externally, when it's
inside the sequencer, i use plugins.

now all i need is a super clean mini mixer. i've seen this one which is sold
for 45 euros :
http://www.samsontech.com/products/p...1697&brandID=2

any other clean mini mixer you think of ?

thanks
matthieu

On Wed, 04 May 2005 08:49:15 +0200, patrick wrote:

Hello

i own a Soundcraft Spirit M12 since a few days and i'm pretty much happy
with it. but i find out too late there was a big problem for my setup.

before this mixboard i owned a Soundcraft Spirit Studio 24. It had 4 stereo
buses. when i wanted to record something, i would just send the desired
tracks / aux to the first bus, and the direct outputs from this bus were
send to the 2 inputs of my soundcard (Echo Mia).

now with my spirit m12 the problem is that it doesn't have any bus. how do i
record my guitar (i'm using a pod) ? i need the playback to play in time.
but if i play it it will be recorded, as my soundcard input is connected to
the main xlr out of my spirit m12. sure there are direct outs for the first
12 mono tracks but i've got 2 outboard FX as auxiliaries that i like to
record as well at the same time (a little reverb, or a little delay...)

You could use aux 3 and 4 as sends to the soundcard.
Aux busses are busses after all. They are post fader which might be a
bit annoying. You could perhaps use 1n2 for the computer send and 3n4 for
the effects if this bothers you.

The fx returns on that desk appear have aux sends too, so you could mix
the effects returns and send them out aux 3n4 as well.

I've recorded many a time on a desk without busses or direct outs through
a combination of auxes and bits of wire gaffered to the circuit board.

In article writes:

i had an idea : buying a mini mixer with 2 in / 1 out. first input :
soundcard / second input : spirit m12 . out to monitors. this way there's
absolutely no chance to get the playback recorded. no bus trickery.

Naw, learn to use what you have. You can do what you need and there's
no need for extra hardware.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo