New participant - tips on moving to the next level?

[graal]

Great Headphones: AKG K 701 at an amazing price: 253 on DJDeals.com
There are other ones out there Like Grado GS1000 (1000$), Sennheiser HD650, BeyerDynamic DT880 etc.

But the K701 are trully amazing. Most stores have them for almost 500$, but at 253 they're a steal. Talk about bang for your buck.
You hear everything.

But there is no replacement for monitors, even in an imperfect listening environment.

Peace out!

[Audio~Geek]

If you have your mic in input 1 or 2 I believe there is an "insert" jack on the back.
Its a TRS jack that has common ground, send and return together.
You nee a Y splitter, TRS-M (plugs into the fp-10) to 2 TS-F jacks. Then 2 TS cables. 1 goes between on jack (send) and to the input of the effect. The other goes from effect out to the Return jack.

Signal flow
mic->FP10 preamp->insert send->TC pitch correct in
TC pitch correct out->insert return->(AD conversion)->DAW

That's how to set it up for recording.

For mixing i'd do it a bit different.

Record your track.
set the output to analog out 8
on the back of the FP10 plug a TRS cable from analog out 8 into the TC input.
With another TRS cable connect the TC output to analog input 8
Make a new mono track and monitor enable it.

In some DAWs you can set up hardware inserts, once you wire it up like this you can access the inputs and outputs just like inserting a plugin.

BEWARE OF LATENCY
Just like recording, running outboard processors from a DAW while mixing requires a low buffer size. (or some studio trickery)

[millett513]

Originally Posted by musicamigo

Part of me wonders if I should just keep trying to improve
the quality using what I've got - in other words, maybe
the weakest link at this point is still my inexperience
at using the tools I have?

Before you do anything else I would invest in some good monitors. You can get lots of advice on how to improve your mixes on this site but it won't help unless you have decent monitors to work with. I used to use bookshelf speakers and sometimes recordings would sound great on them, and then terrible when I went to my car. When I got my HS80M's, it solved that problem.

I've never used the art tube preamps, but I know that the FP10 is a good interface. As mentioned by someone else ealier, try recording without the preamps and see how it compares.

Also, it would help to work with your room acoustics and get a decent large diaghram condensor mic.

Hope this helps

[musicamigo]

Thanks to all who responded ... I think at this point,
I'm going to look at getting some monitors (and will
likely post a new thread asking for recommendations).

Also plan to start experimenting with using mics for
the two acoustic instruments, reconfiguring the path
for the electric guitar, and dumping the cheap preamps
in the chain.

Audio~Geek ... thanks for your help with rethinking
my inputs into the FP10 - that's probably been the
best help of all. I've got a much better handle on
how to approach that rig now. BTW - you mentioned
using the "insert" approach to using my TC helicon
voice pedal - I started experimenting with your
suggestions, but quickly hit a wall of sorts ...
all the inputs and outputs for the helicon are
balanced XLR connections, and from what I can
tell, the insert aspect of the FP10 is based on
unbalanced 1/4 connections. Non of the froggin
around I did seemed to make any kind of improved
tie in (and I did try a number of work arounds,
including running the helicon through an ART
"clean box" which is supposed to convert balanced
to unbalanced and vise a versa).

And as is the case from what I'm finding, part of
the learning curve after learning new techniques
is to test them by using established recording
methods, and then using the new methods, and
comparing the results. I've got some homework
to do, and will check back in afterwards.

Great forum, BTW