Question about external processing through my motu ultralite

[evil_cliff]

Hi there Logic people. I have a question about external processing through my motu ultralite interface.

 

I assume that it doesnt really matter what soundcard im using aslong as it has outputs and inputs. I would like to use use some of my guitar pedals like my tube screamer, Electroharmonics phaser and delays to use on drums synths and whatever.

 

Now, I believe there would be two ways of doing this:

 

1- Use a drum track or synth and route it out to say output 6, then to a pedal and recorded back into logic. the would be a latency issue here, how would i get round this. would i have to set the anchor piont the the new processed audio?

 

2- Use the Helper plug-in in and do it that way but would i have to keep it connected. would i have to bounce the file down as audio and then reimport it?

 

any ideas would be of great help to me.

 

many thanks,

Andy

[David Nahmani]

Both techniques will give you the same results, I would use the helper plug-in for ease of routing.

 

You could adjust your recording delay in the driver settings Audio > Audio Hardware and Drivers to compensate for the latency (do a test with some sort of a spike sound). Or you could just do it manually once the track has been bounced. It depends if you're doing this on one or two tracks, or 50!

 

PS: guitar pedals are made for instrument level signals, which is not what the output of your MOTU is going to feed them. You should try and see if you like the results, but for proper processing with instrument processors, you should "ReAmp", which means you need a transformer box (ReAmp box) to transform the signal back into an instrument level signal.

[fader8]

Also, this little free plug is handy:

 

http://www.collective.co.uk/expertsleepers/latencyfixer.html

 

I've found it very useful when using external effects.

[evil_cliff]

Thanks for your quick replies guys.

 

One other quick question about line imput levels...

 

Since you said about getting levels back in to the mac could be an issue as they are line level, can i D.I them to make it 'hot' enough?

 

When i was playing aroung last night i couldnt get any sound back in so this must be why. eveything was set up the the Helper plug-in.

 

thanks,

andy

[fader8]

Since you said about getting levels back in to the mac could be an issue as they are line level, can i D.I them to make it 'hot' enough?

 

When i was playing aroung last night i couldnt get any sound back in so this must be why. eveything was set up the the Helper plug-in.

 

Andy,

 

If you have a really good quality passive DI, then you can run through it backwards to drive the effect pedals from your Motu's line output. This is essentially equivelant to David's ReAmp suggestion. From the pedals, back into the Ultralite's "Instrument" input, (I just checked their site, it does have one).

 

Actually, you may like the results if you plug the pedal output into a guitar amp and then mic the amp. If you have a big tiled bathroom, stick it in there!

[David Nahmani]

Exactly as fader8 said. The "problem" is not with getting the signal back: you can just use a DI or an instrument input on your audio interface if there's one, just like if you were recording a live guitar. The problem is to get the signal out of your computer and "back down" to the proper impedance and level of an instrument signal. That's where reamping comes in.

[Wraeth]

Hi there,

 

As a complete and utter "n00b" as far as logic is concerned, I'm going to ask a few stupid questions...

 

I'm using a Presonus Firepod with Logic Pro with the CoreAudio driver. I too would like to use my outboard effects in some cases.

 

Are you guys basically saying that there is no way to bring this signal out correctly through software? Either way, is there any chance of a blow by blow set up guide as far as the inputs/outputs would appear with or without extra DIs/Reamping?

 

i.e.

 

Create Audio track

set to iput X

etc.