Recording - February 2010 - 31

Currently there is no means to monitor multiple inputs simultaneously when disconnected from the computer. A possible workaround: First, use the FX Loop return to connect your MP3 player. Second, position the FX Loop at the end of the signal chain in the Rig. Make sure the FX Loop is not bypassed. And finally, use the FX Loop MIX control to adjust the level relative to your guitar sound. Do you have any thoughts, preferences or suggestions about using the FX Loop versus using the pedals on the front end (after the guitar and before the Eleven Rack), and how/why the sound varies depending on where you plug in? Good question. This is totally dependent on what type of pedal or FX you are using. The advantage to placing your FX in front of Eleven Rack is that your guitar pickups will be loaded by the input impedance of the FX and therefore have a tonal response and feel that is what you are accustomed to. Wahs and Fuzz pedals typically have very low input impedance and therefore would sound very different when patched into the FX loop. However, FX like digital delays have much higher input impedance and wouldn’t sound very different in front of Eleven Rack or patched into the FX Loop. A disadvantage to plugging FX in front of Eleven Rack is that you don’t have the flexibility that the FX Loop provides in terms of where in the signal chain you can position the FX, Mix control and programmable Bypass. It’s not a big issue for some FX like Wahs but kind of limiting for FX like modulation. There aren’t any strict rules to follow since sometimes hooking up FX in a manner that isn’t technically right provides a really unique sound and behavior. The following is a general suggestion: 1. IN FRONT OF ELEVEN RACK: Wah > Distortion > Compressor (pedal type – not rackmount > line level dynamics processors like a LA-2A) 2. IN FX LOOP: Modulation > Delay > Reverb > Multi-FX units (Eventide, Lexicon, etc.) > Line Level Dynamics processors (not the pedal type) > EQ I noticed that there is a sort of ‘popping’ sound when you turn the unit on or off. It’s a minor thing, but it’s there, and if you’re hooked up to a PA and the gain is loud, that could become an issue. I’m just wondering if you’d like to share any comments about this? We recommend to the customer to use the industry-standard power-on procedure, which is that you power on your amplifiers last. When powering down, amplifiers are shut off first. For those customers who aren’t up to speed with this practice, we have put warnings in multiple places in the User Guides and include a printed warning that sits on top of the unit when you unpack it for the first time. Why was USB 2.0 chosen over FireWire as a way of interfacing the unit to a computer? USB 2.0 was selected because unlike FireWire, it’s on almost every recently built laptop and desktop computer. I own a 003, and when I wanted to connect my studio monitors I noticed that I couldn’t with the cables I had because the Main Outs of the previous Digi audio interfaces are 1/4". So, why did the Main Outs change to XLR connectors for the Eleven Rack? XLR was chosen because a significant majority of quality powered studio monitors and stereo power amplifiers feature XLR connections. Also, for live applications, XLR was preferred for connecting to PA Mixers and snakes. When using a 003 with Eleven Rack, we recommend using the S/PDIF I/O if you don’t have XLR-to-1/4" adaptors. If you raise the Gain and Master knob of an amp (DC Vintage for example) too high, or if the input is too hot somewhere (compressor, Amp Out Vol, etc.), the output crackles & pops (digital distortion); which is not realistic or in line with the behavior of a real analog amp. When volume levels are set very high on the amplifier or with effects going into an amplifier, you have to account for the massive amounts of actual gain you are introducing into the signal chain. The Amp Output control and Rig Volume control can be used to compensate for the gain so that you are not clipping the output converters. We could have added some artificial automatic gain control but instead we insisted on replicating the actual gain and amplification capabilities of the devices we modeled. We felt that this was crucial to preserve the feel of the devices we modeled. With the latest firmware update (v.1.0.1) which is available on our website, there is a feature where you can display a meter which shows your signal level going into and out of Eleven Rack. It was designed for basic signal presence troubleshooting but can be used to identify when clipping is occurring with the converters. Can you use the Amps, Cabs and FXs that run through the 1 /4" guitar’s signal path with the XLR input signal? If so, how, and would you still benefit from the internal hardware processing or would your host computer be responsible for that processing? We call the Amps/Cabs/FX a “Rig” and yes, you can feed the rig from any of the inputs built into Eleven Rack. However, you can only feed one set of inputs at a time. In other words, you cannot simultaneously feed the Rig a mic signal and guitar signal. To select the input source for a Rig, hold the EDIT/BACK button for 2 seconds to access the User Options menu. From this menu, turn the SCROLL knob to select “Rig Input” and press the SW1 button labeled SELECT. Using the illuminated tone control (knob), select which input on Eleven Rack will feed the Rig. Be very careful when using the mic input with distortion or amps because the amount of gain they provide is significant and could easily cause your mic to feed back with your monitors. I know you can incorporate a hardware cabinet and bypass its software counterpart, but can you use an actual guitar amp (head), bypass the amp head in Eleven Rack and use its cabinet emulation? Yes, you can. My recommendation is to use a Countryman DI box or similar unit to convert the speaker output signal coming out of the actual amp to a line level signal. Be aware that you will still need some load (speaker or attenuator) attached to the amp head, otherwise you will damage the transformer. Take the line level signal from the DI box and plug it into the Line Input (either channel). Follow the instructions I mentioned above to set the Rig Input to one of the Line Inputs. There is specific cab resonance modeling that is dependent on which amp you use in Eleven Rack. So even though you may have it bypassed, you may want to select an amp model that is similar in design and tone as the actual amp you have connected to Eleven Rack. That way you will get more authentic cabinet resonance when you use the product in this configuration. Is there a way to have the Eleven Rack identify previously used Eleven RTAS plug-ins in a session along with their settings, thus opening up the Eleven Rack Window and have the unit process those tracks instead of the host computer? Currently there isn’t any automatic transfer of Eleven plug-in settings to Eleven Rack (which is what is displayed in the Eleven Rack Control Window). If you have an Eleven plug-in setting (.tfx file) you would like to use, you can load it into Eleven Rack by click-hold on the Rig name in the control window and selecting “Load From Computer”. A dialog box should appear where you can point it to the directory where your Eleven plug-in .tfx file resides. RECORDING FEBRUARY 2010

Recording - February 2010

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