Wow, I'm really interested to hear more about this. This is exactly what I've recently been looking at. I currently have the Motu 1224 and Motu 24i units with the updated PCI-424 card. Do you have the 32 channel or 24 channel Ghost board and is it the LE model? What program are you recording with? Out of curiousity what Focusrite preamp are you talking about since I want understanding that the Soundcraft board had amazing preamps.

Currently I use the A&H 32 channel GL2200 board and when I want to route my external Focusrite Octopre I have to redo my input structure off my snake. I have my snakes coming into my control room and then I unplug them from my board and run them into the Focusrite preamp then back into the A&H to then use the directouts of the board into the MOTU units. This is just so I can listen to the instrument I'm recording since my monitors are connected to the outputs of the board. I take Bus1 off the MOTU and route it back to the board as well so I can hear my playback.

I think I'm really off in my signal path but its all I can do right now until I can get rid of the two MOTU units and go with the 24 i/o like you have. It would be all I could need.

Do you connect all of your inputs and outputs on your MOTU to your board?

It sounds like you have your outputs for your monitors connected to the Ghost board and not the MOTU and therefore you are only hearing what is coming directly to your board?? Not sure about your signal path but it seems like it could be this potentially.

I'm very interested in hearing more about your system and maybe we can help each other out. I really want to look more at the Soundcraft boards but its a big decision to go with the $6000 Soundcraft or make the switch to Protools and the Control 24 and 96i/o units. They now have specials for about $12000 for the systems and the only thing truly holding me back is that I just bought Nuendo 3.2.1 recently.

I've looked at the Soundcraft GB4 boards and like their setup since they have pre-fader options for the Direct outs. My A&H GL2200 board doesn't have that option and its very hard to get a good mix for me without a lot of trial and error sample recordings.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Kiskadee wrote: Hi! I have a soundcraft ghost which I am just getting used to slowly. I use a MOTU 24i/o with it and all the 24 ins and outs of the MOTU connect to the ghost. I want to use a better preamp (focusrite) and go directly into the MOTU 24i/o bypassing the ghost preamp to record vocals. I managed to route the focusrite directly to one of the MOTU inputs but now I can not monitor the vocals. When I record, I only hear the instruments (no vocals) but when I play back after recording, I can hear it all. Does anyone have any advice? I know this is probably a simple query, but analog mixing desks are still very new to me.

Thanks!!

Patch bay. It'll cure what ails ya.

Kiskadee wrote: I managed to route the focusrite directly to one of the MOTU inputs but now I can not monitor the vocals. When I record, I only hear the instruments (no vocals) but when I play back after recording, I can hear it all.

What software are you using in the PC? Depending on the facilities in the software and the I/O driver, you should be able to turn on monitoring of some or all of the input channels so they appear on the MOTU D/A outputs. Then patch the vocal outputs into spare inputs on the mixer and blend them into the monitor output only. Make sure they don't get mixed into any of the other input channels.

Thanks all for commenting so far! Here is our set up:
HARDWARE:
Soundcraft Ghost 24 (with midi mute solo- though not working yet)
Motu 24i/o
Focusrite Platinum Trackmaster
SE Z5600a mic
Several hardware effects units
Behringer PX2000 patchbay
Alesis Masterlink
Midi Keyboard
Genelec Monitors

SOFTWARE:
Sonar 4 Producer
Jaws & Caketalking for sonar (screen reading software)

I know that the MOTU has a cuemix application which I have not used as yet. I guess the solution for getting the mic and focusrite directly into the MOTU and being able to hear it while recording would be either 1. using patchbay or 2. Using Cuemix.

I hope that the patchbay route would work out because my wife whose studio it is is partially sighted (very little eyesight) and cannot access other software other than Sonar, which she uses competently.

I assume that your chain goes like this....mic>input of Ghost>direct out of Ghost to 24I/O input >DAW> 24I/O output to direct in on Ghost, monitoring through the master section monitor controls.

Nod if this is correct.

Replace ONLY the 24I/O input with the output from the other micpre. Monitor as you have been doing so.

BTW. This is just my opinion, but I doubt that that particular Focusrite is much different in SOUND than the pres in the Ghost.

We did a trial comparing the ghost preamp and the focusrite platinum trackmaster (I know, this is the low end of the focusrite stuff) and found that the Focusrite still gave a crisper vocal. In any case, as soon as we can afford one, we will be buying a Universal Audio preamp.

As to the signal chain, what you mentioned Davedog was how we routed using the ghost preamp. Your recommendation, can you outline the signal path? I assume it is:

Mic>24I/O input >DAW> 24I/O output to direct in on Ghost

I am not sure, but may have tried this which recorded fine, but could not monitor the vocal while recording.

Again, the problem we find is that we are not able to monitor the vocal during recording if we bypass the ghost. It must be a simple fix.
Thanks!

This is something as simple as the position of a button either in the DAW and its output or the selection of monitor position in the "B" bus on the Ghost. I assume you use the B bus to monitor thru when tracking..Y/N?

I use outboard pres all the time when tracking and go directly to the harddisk recorder bypassing the Ghost pres and signal chain entirely, but have no problem at all in monitoring the tracks being recorded.

It certainly sounds like one of those things that can be overlooked and is quite the revelation when its noticed....."OH ^%$#)(#@#$%T!"

[studio talk]