Could you verify my planned Kemper home studio studio wiring scheme?

I wonder about the connection of keyboard AND (?) guitar to the DI input.

In general: What is your goal? Always reamping the Kemper with guitar and keyboard and mic?

I would avoid using the Alternative Input. I've no experience personally, but I believe the manual indicates it can introduce unwanted noise.

The rest of that gave me a migraine.

I'd go for an interface with more inputs to accommodate all the gear. Not sure why you're so hooked on the Prism Lyra, especially if it only has two analog inputs. always plan for redundancies, you may need them in future when you add more gear or expand in other ways. For example, why use the Kemper and keyboard in mono, when you could hook them up in stereo?

Quote from mightypudge

I would avoid using the Alternative Input. I've no experience personally, but I believe the manual indicates it can introduce unwanted noise.

It's the line-level input purposed for reamping, 'Pudgie.

You should know that, you slack boy, brother!

Quote from SpinnerDeluxe

I wonder about the connection of keyboard AND (?) guitar to the DI input.

Same here, Spinner.

I'd use one (or two for stereo) of the universal jacks on the interface; it appears that there are no other conventional line-in jacks left over for this purpose. It shouldn't make any difference.

NOTE: I've waited 20 minutes and the page still hasn't finished loading - nowhere near it in fact; the pics of schemes 1, 3 and 4 have barely begun appearing, but thankfully I was able to view #2. Bandwidth is an issue most days here.

Hopefully this hasn't made my answers redundant.

Quote from SpinnerDeluxe

I wonder about the connection of keyboard AND (?) guitar to the DI input.

In general: What is your goal? Always reamping the Kemper with guitar and keyboard and mic?

Hello Spinner Deluxe,

The wiring scheme is merely demonstrating that I'd use either a Piano (without the Kemper) or a guitar (with the Kemper) with the included wiring scheme, not that I'd use both at the same time.

As far as my goal, I'd like to record a dry signal which will then be re-amped.

I'm looking at purchasing the Lyra 2 as its a high quality interface with some of the best AD / DA conversion in its price range. I plan to connect to the Kemper via SPDIF in / out (the wiring schemes in this post are out of date). As for the DI guitar, I plan on recording that via the interface's instrument ins (or an external DI like the MW1 studio tool - http://www.creationaudiolabs.com/#!mw1studiotool/cp99).

That being said, I was told by a GearSlutz user that the MW1 really is more for capturing a DI tone when using an amp (rather than strictly re-amping with the Kemper) and for now, I'm not sure which is better (i.e. going through the interfaces DI (to get the driest / cleanest sound) or using the instrument in on the MW1).

Any thoughts on which you'd prefer?

Please keep in mind that I'd rather not record my own profiles and am hoping that I can find some good paid professional profiles online (ex. Michael Wagener Uber Pak, MBritt or Top Jimi profiles), so it's highly unlikely that I'll be capturing my own profiles (though I've been told I'll likely need to do so to get the best results with the Kemper - which I was seriously hoping I wouldn't need to ).

Thank you,
Nelson

Quote from nightlight

I'd go for an interface with more inputs to accommodate all the gear. Not sure why you're so hooked on the Prism Lyra, especially if it only has two analog inputs. always plan for redundancies, you may need them in future when you add more gear or expand…

Hello Nightlight,

I hear you about the lack of I/O, that being said, I'd rather purchase a unit with a higher quality signal path than a unit with more I / O.

For example, I was initially planning on purchasing something like the Antelope Pure 2, which I've been told sounds awesome.

But it lacks pre-amps (which aren't a big deal) but doesn't accept both digital and analog inputs at the same time, so you're stuck with using the 2 analog ins or SPDIF (not both like most 2 channel interfaces).

The great thing about the Lyra 2 is that it offers both 2 analog ins + 2 digital ins + 2 pre-amps while at the same time utilizing high quality conversion and an internal clock.

But you are right that it lacks the higher input count of something like an RME UFX or Antelope Orion Studio, but I plan on recording alone and don't need more inputs.

Thank you,
Nelson

Quote from Monkey_Man

Quote from mightypudge: “I would avoid using the Alternative Input. I've no experience personally, but I believe the manual indicates it can introduce unwanted noise.”
It's the line-level input purposed for reamping, 'Pudgie.

You should know that,…

Hello Monkey Man and Pudgie,

I was also told that the Alternative Input is a bit lower in quality than the DI in on the front panel of the unit.

Is this true?

That being said, I was hoping to avoid any inferior AD / DA conversion (compared to the what's being offered by the audio interface).

Keep in mind that the wiring schemes in this post are out of date (as I've now decided to connect to the Kemper strictly via SPDIF in and SPDIF out).

SPDIF in would be used to feed the Kemper my recorded dry mono signal and SPDIF out would be used to record the Kemper's stereo amp'd signal.

I also plan on sticking to a 44.1 Khz recording session rather than 96 Khz (as I might've initially mentioned in my first post), as all the virtual instruments I use + the Kemper use samples at 44.1 (so going to 96 really wouldn't do anything for me).

Thank you,
Nelson

I think you're getting too caught up with the numbers, Nelson. AD/DA conversion is no longer a big factor with most interfaces as the technology has improved by leaps and bounds. If you have the opportunity, I suggest you try recording through a Lyra device versus an RME and I highly doubt you'll have any difference in the recorded signal, specs be damned.

look like you need a patch bay

Quote from nelsonA1

I was also told that the Alternative Input is a bit lower in quality than the DI in on the front panel of the unit.

Is this true?

I use it. But: with a Line 6 Relay G10 in front of it - no passive pickups directly. Sounds awsome and no noise for me.

Quote from nelsonA1

Hello Monkey Man and Pudgie,

I was also told that the Alternative Input is a bit lower in quality than the DI in on the front panel of the unit.

Is this true?

I think that this is only in relation to the noise floor, and that could well be only because it's a line-level input. Of course it's gonna be noisier than the front guitar input, which is essentially a DI input, designed for direct guitar. The rear, line one, is designed for reamping from the outputs of an audio interface, who's 1/4" jack outputs will almost always be line-level. The level's much, much higher, so the noise-level is, well, much higher... but so is the peak level. In the end, you won't hear any difference in the real world.

Quote from nelsonA1

That being said, I was hoping to avoid any inferior AD / DA conversion (compared to the what's being offered by the audio interface).

Nothing "inferior" about the Kemper's A/D or D/A conversion on any of its ins or outs.

Occasionally you'll hear some propellerhead come on here and claim it stinks 'cause it's not 96 or 192kHz, but I can assure you that, again, in the real world, they sound absolutely fantastic, and I'm convinced that any move to up the sample rate would be a woefully-fruitless exercise, and only end up costing us all more dosh.... and for nought.

Quote from DonPetersen

look like you need a patch bay

LOL That's funny and timely, Don.

Of course, if he leaves things hooked up the way they are and never has to "entertain" other musicians / collaborators, he should be just fine.

I spent some years trying to cater for eventualities that never ended up happening - mega h'phone amps and routing schemes for musicians' monitoring mixes, headphones and a decent patch bay. Then one day I woke up and realised that a "simpler", more-focussed setup would indeed suffice as it was only ever gonna be lil' ol' me anyway! Silly Monkey!

So, in Nelson's case, I'd encourage him to not "complicate" things further unless he has to regularly host other musicians who'd require differing routing schemes in order to be able to monitor and record comfortably.

Just MHO, of course, and I'm usually wrong.