Spirit Digital 328, User Manual

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samples into your sampler, or selecting the right

keyboard sounds.

E. Electric Guitars

You should’nt plug electric guitars or bass guitars

straight into a mixer. If you want to record a clean

guitar sound, then use a DI box to get a good level

into the desk. Some DI boxes require phantom

power, and should be connected to the channel’s

XLR inputs (make sure the 328’s +48V phantom

power is switched on). If it’s a distorted guitar

sound you’re after, you can either mic up the gui-

tar cabinet, pointing a mic right at the speaker

cone, or use a multi-effects processor. If you have

enough tracks to take advantage of it, you can

record the multi-effects in stereo – the processors

almost invariably have stereo outputs, and flang-

ing, chorus and delay efects sound better in

stereo. See below for tips on using stereo chan-

nels.

Try applying compression while recording gui-

tar tracks to keep levels under control. Using the

compressor/gate algorithm on the 328 will allow

you to gate out the unwanted buzz and hum that

tends to come with distorted guitar settings, and

which you’ll only have to remove before mixing

anyway.

F. Recording Vocals

The Spirit Digital 328 has high-quality mic pre-

amps on channels 1-16, which are vital to record-

ing good vocals. A good condensor mic will gener-

ally give the best results, as they are more sensi-

tive and revealing than dynamic mics. Condensors

r48V phantom power, which the 328 can

provide via the XLR channel input sockets. If you

have the luxury of a choice of mics, be open

minded about what to use – try them all before

deciding what to use.

Set your mic up around 9 inches from your

singer, with a pop shield (nothing really works

better than the old stocking-and-coathanger trick)

between singer and mic to avoid problems with

C. Using Tape & Group Outputs

There are two approaches to using outputs to

tape. The first is to use your mixer’s group facili-

ties to combine several channels together for

recording – the outputs for the eight groups

appear at the 8 TRK A outputs on TDIF and ADAT

optical outputs. The second is to route channels

directly to tape. (In an analogue mixer, this has

the advantage of a cleaner signal path, though in a

digital mixer like the 328, you can route through

groups without adding any noise or distortion.) 

The first approach is suitable for recording sev-

eral instruments together onto one or two tracks

– a multi-miked drum kit, for example. This

makes sense when you don’t have enough tracks

to record every instrument to its own track. The

second approach is suitable where you need to

record more than eight tracks at once, perhaps in

a live situation, and is simpler. Channel 1 always

feeds track 1, channel 2 feeds track 2, and so on

up to 16.

When you play back your recorded tracks, they

come in on channels 17-32. Although they’re

called Tape Return channels, they have exactly the

same facilities as channels 1-16.

D. Recording Instruments

Let’s assume that you want to put together a track

that uses live vocals and guitar with programmed

keyboards and drums. You’ve programmed the

basic song structure on your sequencer, and

you’re using two DA88s as above for your record-

ing medium.

The first thing you’ll need is a guide for every-

one to play along to. As you already have drums

and keyboards programmed, you could run your

sequencer in sync with the tape transports as you

record vocals, guitar and percussion. Alternatively,

you could record a rough stereo mix of keyboards

and drums to two tape tracks, which means that

in future sessions you can get your guide tracks

up without having to worry about loading the right

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