Members Sunquiet Posted September 9, 2010 Members Share Posted September 9, 2010 Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions about the best way to get my Presonus Firepod linked up to the board... It has 8 TRS Balanced Line Outputs which generally by themselves come out too hot to go straight into a mixer with a normal 1/4 in. I have run it through DI boxes with good results but most clubs don't have 8 DI boxes. I am trying to get the best sound quality and am wondering if it would be preferable to: a. Bring the output level down about 40 db on the computer output mix before the signal even gets out of the Presonus firepod interface. Then just use 8 1/4 cables to get it into the board. b. Get my own 8 ch. rackmount DI unit and run the line outs from my presonus through the DIs and then into the house snake via XLRs. c. Use a male 1/4 in. -- male XLR to get the signal from the presonus into the house snake... When reading up about DIs on WIKI it said that they take an unbalanced high impedance line level signal and convert it to a balanced low impedance mic level signal. Does the fact that the outputs on the Presonus are already "balanced" make it the DI unnecessary? Could I go without the DI and get good sound quality? My goal is to get the best sound quality with the least amount to gear. :cool:Thanks, Robin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members phoniclab Posted September 9, 2010 Members Share Posted September 9, 2010 The output is already low impedance and balanced. Just get an 8 channel TRS Male to XLR Male snake to plug it into the house snake. If the output is too hot turn down the Main output level on the Firepod. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members monkeyland Posted September 9, 2010 Members Share Posted September 9, 2010 what is the reasoning for connecting the firepod in a live situation? are you running 8 channels of pre-recorded material off of a computer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted September 10, 2010 Members Share Posted September 10, 2010 The output is already low impedance and balanced. Just get an 8 channel TRS Male to XLR Male snake to plug it into the house snake. If the output is too hot turn down the Main output level on the Firepod. Except for the problem that the output is designed as +4dBu line level and most non-(real) pro consoles can not handle +4dBu average levels even with pads. Turning the output down to mic level is fine except that there will be additional noise from the poorly scaled conversion and the analog line drivers. Best solution is to get an 8 channel passive transformer isolated DI, the advantages of transformer isolation alone make this a good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members B. Adams Posted September 10, 2010 Members Share Posted September 10, 2010 8 channels of DI is the best option. A couple DI's like this EWI 4 channel DI would be ideal for your application. If you want to step it up a couple notches you could go with this much more expensive Radial DI. In addition, it would probably be a good idea to have a 8 channel fan-to-fan snake to get from your DI's to a stage snake. 15' might be long enough for most applications. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dogoth Posted September 10, 2010 Members Share Posted September 10, 2010 Isn't the trim pot (gain control) usualy AFTER the 1/4" line input on most boards (with a built in pad of 20 or so db)? It seems to me that this would be the ideal place to pad the signal. I DO agree that isolation & balancing the signal is a great idea so using a couple of the quad EWI DIs (with the pad engaged) suggested by B. Adams is probably the best solution. Shipping a +4 signal directly to the XLR inputs of the console would probably (in most cases) make the problem worse. Get the EWI DIs and be happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted September 10, 2010 Members Share Posted September 10, 2010 line in is usually (though not always) paralleled to the XLR input in front off the phantom blocking caps and have roughly a 20dB fixed pad in addition to whatever gain and pad functions otherwise exist. On some (generally more expensive) consoles, there are seperate mic and line inputs with seperate amplifiers. Sometimes there are seperate gain controls, sometimes there are ganged gain controls on a single knob. Whichever input being used is what determines which head amp and input functions are active. On a few coinsoles, primarily recording consoles IIRC (I don't work on recording gear much anymore) you will find fixed line inputs that are calibrated to +4dBu and sometimes they will be XLR line inputs that are called playback or second inputs on the channel strip and may be active only in playback mode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gadget Posted September 10, 2010 Members Share Posted September 10, 2010 +1 on the EWI 4-Channel DI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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