Guidance on Incorporating Eleven Rack

[golsf]

I am looking for guidance and advice on how to best incorporate the Eleven Rack into my recording rig. I recently acquired the Eleven Rack to produce better recordings of guitar, particularly with high gain sounds that are difficult to capture in my home studio without annoying neighbors.

I currently have a Digi 003 which has been modded by Black Lion Audio to incorporate better A/D processors, midi clock, pre-amps, etc. I also have an Avalon 737 preamp.

With the setup described above, how would others recommend I incorporate the 11? Should I use the Avalon's line input into the Eleven, and then output via SPIDIF to the 003 to take advantage of the better mic-pre on the way in and the better A/D processors on the way into my PC? Any advantages to the True-Z feature on the 11's input? Is this lost when going in through a different pre-amp?

Thank you in advance

[JoelG]

Personally I'd just connect the Eleven Rack using USB and set it as the audio interface when recording guitars. But you could use the SPDIF out of the Eleven Rack to the SPDIF in of the 003 instead.

Joel

[golsf]

Hi Joel,

Thank you for your comments. I have read that two of the ER's shortcomings are the quality of both the pre-amp and A/D conversion circuits. I was looking to bypass both in favor of better componentry elsewhere in the signal chain.

I believe this would be achieved by using a better pre-amp and outputting digital signal that my 003 rack could then convert.

Am I considering this the right way? Also, is the True-Z capability lost when using a pre-amp in front of the ER?

[JoelG]

But the AD conversion would still be happening in the Eleven Rack either way. And you'd still be using the Eleven Rack's preamp too, just inserting another in front of it. If you specifically want to colour the sound with your Avalon, then that's a different story.

If you want to get the most out of your Avalon and the converters in the 003, then you could not use the Eleven Rack at all and get your distortion from a plugin like Eleven MKII.

Joel

[golsf]

My dreams of analog purity dashed ...

Of course you're right ... The signal would be converted into digital on the way into the ER even if I use the 003's converters on the way out.

I'm really enjoying the ER having got it relatively stable and learning how it works with PT10 and the 003.

I am having issues using the S/PIDIF outputs ... I'm getting a lot of digital signal interference when tracking in PT10 which I don't hear when plugging directly into the headphone jack of the ER (which sounds beautiful).

I've learned how to set the clock to external via S/PIDIF and confirm via the Control Panel in Windows 7.

Not sure if my S/PIDIF cable is up to par. They were previously used for a digital application, but I'm not sure if they're 75ohms. I've ordered a pair of Mogami designed for audio application.

Any other potential culprits I should check?

[JoelG]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news

I'm quite happy with my 11R, but mostly use it "live" more then recording.

I'm not sure what would be causing any signal issues with your SPDIF connection, and while I have no doubt that a good cable is the way to go, we're talking 1's and 0's here, if one of them doesn't arrive properly it would be quite noticeable with pops or dropouts, not like analogue where you'll get hiss or unwanted distortion.

Joel