Direct Box for Minitaur

[s0bie]

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but it would offer a great deal of help to me. When recording the Minitaur, is necessary to have the output of the Minitaur connected into a direct box to convert the signal to balanced and then have the balanced signal put into your line level input on your sound card? Also if anyone has any suggestions on possible direct boxes that work well with Moog synths.

Thanks so much.

[Mr Arkadin]

Well it's only necessary if your card really has balanced as the only input option. What model is your sound card? I bet that even if it has balanced inputs it will also have some unbalanced option.

[s0bie]

Well I was having no problems with my soundcard at home, but my audio interface I use at school is a m-audio mobile pre usb. The signal coming in is poor quality.

[Mr Arkadin]

Well looking at the interface you describe, it has line level inputs at the rear, which are the ones I would try first (with standard 1/4" TS mono jack plug leads, not TRS) and adjust the level accordingly. You could also try the same jack in the front sockets as these accept 1/4" unbalanced jack plugs also, but the impedance might be an issue.

I cannot see any reason why you would have bad level coming out of the Minitaur, unless it is actually faulty in some way. You say that it's fine with your other interface, so I would suggest the problem lies with the audio interface, either as a fault or incorrect operation.