This may be the dumbest qustion...TRS and mic pres

[ChrisRoberts]

HI!! This could be one of the more crazy questions....but, whenever I look at the rear of some boxes like MOTU 896, Metric Halo Mobile I/O and similar, they always have TRS input connectors. Why do they never have XLR connectors, and how do you interface the mic to the TRS at the back of the box? Just make a cable that is XLR female on one end and TRS male on the other? How does this affect the mic pre?

THanks everyone!

[cmchamp]

I don't know much about the Metric Halo, but the MOTU 896 has a Neutric type combination XLR/TRS connector for the input and an XLR for the outs. The MOTU has hardware gain on the front of the box, the Mobile I/O doesn't. There's so much gear out there for Digital I/O that the best thing to do is read specs on the intenet, or even call a Sweetwater Engineer with more specific questions.

It's my understanding of gear trends that high quality units will have XLR mic connectors with good/high quality mic pres. Unless I got a recommendation from someone I trusted with my life, I'd find it difficult to use a piece of gear with a TRS mic connector only.

To answer your other questions, yes, they do make cables, patch cables, with TRS on one end and either XLR male, or female on the other.

[ChrisRoberts]

Awesome. So now another dumb question....the nuetrik/xlr combo connectors...Regular XLR connectors can patch into those?! How the heck is that?

[ChrisRoberts]

HA! Nevermind...just took a closer look....WOW! That is something I never even noticed till right now! That is cool.

Thanks so much! And do you think the 896 with a digital mixer to control DP3 would be a decent start to a project studio>?

[cmchamp]

Yeah, but I don't think you'd even need the digital mixer unless you wanted EQ control prior to the DA conversion, or needed more than 8 channels at a time. It depends on how many channels you want to record at a time. If you need 8 at a time, but are going to be working with 16-24 channels for the project, you could get one of the many Control Surfaces for control of DP3. That's of course something you'll need to figure out on your own. Control Surface - - Digital Mixer? Hmmmm. If all your going to do is control DP3, I'd go with a control surface and expander unit.

[ChrisRoberts]

awesome~! Thanks so much!!

[ChrisRoberts]

One other thing...in order to play back 24 trackks of audio, would I need to have 3 896's? I know here at school we have 3 pro tools 888's for 24 tracks of playback and recording.

Thanks
Chris

[cmchamp]

If you're going to have all your mixing done in DP3, you only need 2 outs (unless you're doing surround). You assign all your tracks to the same output (896 1-2) and you mix in DP3. That's where the control surface comes in handy. You only would need more 896's if you want to record more than 8 tracks at a time.

[ChrisRoberts]

AH!! That makes total an complete sense now! Thank you so much...man, I'm so glad I'm doing production concentration...and not engineering! Or my teachers wouldnt be too happy with my knowledge! HAHAHAHA!