M20d, POD HD500X, Variax, Avid Rack Eleven, Pro Tools

[dabruzere]

First and foremost, this is a total newbie question. I have an idea of how I can approach this, but I wanted some input from you experienced folks.

 

I have a bunch of hardware I've gathered over the past 3-5 years trying to learn guitar and have my son play as well. Unfortunately for me, I haven't had the time to practice, and he's already playing stage shows at 11 years old. In any event, I'm curious to know how to properly setup my rig to get the most out of it, and to be as dynamic of an environment as possible for him to play/record/practice/jam.

 

Here's my list of gear in somewhat order from output speakers in towards computer/instruments. What I'm really asking I guess is what's the best way to wire this up... mostly for recording on the computer, but also to not overlap the HD500x effects with the Eleven Rack, or have a combination of both, wet and dry mixes. (Bear with me... I understand a lot of the terminology, but not the technical connections between the devices.) Thanks for ANY help someone could provide.

 

Equipment:

Speaker sets:

 

LIVE Stage Speakers:

Speakers: Line 6 - l3m pair

Amp/Mixer: Line 6 - M20d Stagescape (USB to computer)

 

DESK Studio Speakers

Speakers: Samson - Resolv65

Amp: Bryson 20

Interface: M-Audio Firewire 410 (Firewire to computer)

 

Interfaces:

Avid - Eleven Rack (USB to computer)

Line 6 - HD500x (USB to computer)

 

Instruments:

Line 6 - Variax JTV-59 Guitar (Variax output to HD500x)

Acoustic Electric - Line output

Acoustic - Mic output

2 MIDI Keyboards

 

Computer:

Windows 10 w/ ProTools 11

 

Thanks,

Damon

[fflbrgst]

Your kid's lucky to have a father who's accumulated this much gear for him to use!

 

Whether its for at-home practice or recording, you won't be using all the gear at one time.

 

Choose either the Eleven Rack or HD500x when you want to record electric guitar (or if for some reason you want to record the electric output of the acoustic guitar.  Make the decision based on the sound(s) you want at the time.  You may find one or the other of these redundant and seldom used. However, depending on what version of PT you have, it may only work with the 11-rack (or the M-Audio 410) as the audio input device.

For recording mic or MIDI keyboard, the easiest choice would be to use the M-Audio 410 interface, although you can use a mic with the other gear - you didn't list any mics you have.

 

Speakers - for jamming or loud practice, the Line 6 mixer and 3Ms would be the choice, otherwise the Samsons will provide enough volume to hear what's being played without blowing out eardrums or disturbing everyone else in the house.

 

So, you guessed it, it means switching around cables every time, depending on what you want to do.

[silverhead]

.....

 

So, you guessed it, it means switching around cables every time, depending on what you want to do.

 

I've simplified the cable switching a bit. I have my Pod HD Pro XLR Outs into the M20d and then L6 LINK to the L3 speakers for jamming and loud practice. I also have the HD Pro 1/4" Outputs to a pair of Samson Resolv50a studio monitors for recording (HD Pro USB to DAW) and low volume practice. That way I don't have to switch cables - I just turn on the appropriate gear/speakers for whatever sort of session I'm doing.

[dabruzere]

Thanks for the input Mike. And yes, he's kinda spoiled with me having this stuff... luckily, he's not a brat to go with it. haha

 

So, a couple questions though... I have the HD500x for the variax guitar, but I didn't think that device as the audio interface could be used directly with ProTools. Is that correct, or am I missing something with that?

 

Can the HD500x be used directly with ProTools?

 

If the HD500x does require an audio interface such as the Eleven or the M-Audio 410, what would be the best way to connect it? S/PDIF or XLR or Jack Plugs? I see the Eleven has 2 Guitar inputs (one in front / one in back) as well as standard "jack line inputs."

 

I think I'm OK with sending his acoustic/electric and electric directly to the Eleven, but I'm kinda stuck on figuring out the Variax since it uses the Variax connection. (I know I can use the standard guitar out connection, but I want to explore options for the Variax connection.)

 

So then a further question, should I consider use the FX Loop connections if I use the 500x for the Variax connection on the guitar, I could send straight signal through the HD500x directly to the Eleven for processing?

 

Sorry, I do understand this gets fairly complicated when considering signal paths, but again, you guys on here are experts at this.

 

Thanks again for any insight.

Damon

[dabruzere]

I've simplified the cable switching a bit. I have my Pod HD Pro XLR Outs into the M20d and then L6 LINK to the L3 speakers for jamming and loud practice. I also have the HD Pro 1/4" Outputs to a pair of Samson Resolv50a studio monitors for recording (HD Pro USB to DAW) and low volume practice. That way I don't have to switch cables - I just turn on the appropriate gear/speakers for whatever sort of session I'm doing.

 

Thanks silverhead! So, right now, I setup the configuration just like that for his practice session and it seemed to work great. It's too bad the HD500x isn't setup with an IN/OUT for L6-link for everything to be one cable, but the XLR to the M20d seems to work great!

 

Damon

[silverhead]

I'm not a Mac/ProTools guy so can't say whether the HD500X can be used as the audio interface. If you use another interface I suggest the s/pdif from the HD500X to it - avoids a D/A and subsequent A/D conversion.

 

In order to use the Variax VDI connection rather than the regular analog 1/4" output you will need to connect the Variax to the HD500X; you can't connect the VDI directly to another audio interface. In this case you could use the FX Loop to the Eleven, but you could also use the regular HD500X output. Just add whatever processing you want (or none) in the HD500X. I don't think the FX Loop output is any different from the regular output assuming you have no HD500X processing beyond the FX Loop in the preset chain.

 

I don't know if the Eleven has an s/pdif Input and appropriate input selector. If so you could use that from the HD500X to the Eleven, and select the HD500X s/pdif Dry signal as a direct input from the Variax to the Eleven, essentially using the HD500X as a bypass device.

[fflbrgst]

Whether you can use the HD500x as the audio interface to ProTools depends on the version of PT you have - the latest version does not require using an Avid/M-Audio device.