about mixpre 3m and playing guitar

deleuze3 said:
hieveryone i have a question. I was wondering if i need a DI Box in order to play with a guitar on the mixpre 3 or 3m?
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The short answer: if your guitar has a pickup, then yes, you need a DI to connect it to an XLR mic-level input. Also, unless you purchase used, there is no more MixPre-3M. The M series disappeared with the MixPre II series.

The longer answer:

Julien, here’s the deal. You come through here with these questions frequently. What happened to the Focusrite interface? Are you definitely buying a MixPre? Where does your FP24 fit into all of this? You realize the iTrack Solo has a 1/4” guitar input, right? That’s essentially a built-in DI.

You need to stop for a moment and evaluate your longterm goals. You tend to buy odds and ends because someone, somewhere, told you that this trinket or that interface or adapter is what you need to do this one thing. Then you end up with a mismatched collection of all sorts of junk that may or may not be useful to you at all. And it’s because you don’t have a plan.

You need a plan.

Any time you’re looking at a sound kit (studio, field, post-production, whatever), or a camera kit, or an editing system, you need to figure out what it is you want to do and then research ALL the pieces you need to accomplish what you want and HOW all those pieces fit together. Otherwise, you’ll continue wasting money on weird sh*t that you don’t really need.

Leaving yourself an upgrade path means centering your system on something that will last you a while but allow for expansion. In this case, you need to look at what you’re wanting to record and why you’re wanting to record it and what you’re going to do with it when you’re done recording.

Pick a platform, whether Mac or PC. ProTools? Ableton? Reaper? Studio One? Cakewalk (which, oddly, is still a thing)?

Then research which interfaces work best with that platform, and figure out what kinds of inputs (and how many) you need. Which microphones are you using? Are you using dynamic mics on an electric guitar amp? Do you have an acoustic guitar, and does it have a pickup installed in it? How many simultaneous inputs do you think you will need now or in the future? Buy a good interface that is compatible with your DAW and has enough inputs for you to grow, if you plan to grow at all. Once you have that, you have a core system that allows you to get done what you need to do. You haven’t bought anything at this point, by the way, but you’ve written it down in your plan.

Now you have a base to evaluate what you have vs. what you need for monitoring, cables, plug-in packs, etc. Don’t forget to plan for acoustic treatment so you have a room you can use to record and mix more accurately. And once you’ve done all that, and you have your plan, THEN you can start buying your system and putting it together.

Regarding the MixPre-3 II... it can function as an interface, but there are caveats there. With the musician’s plug-in, you can use it as a multi-track recorder on its own (overdubbing tracks as you go), and then move those tracks to your computer to mix. But that’s kind of clumsy. I wouldn't rely on a recorder that can be an interface, as your interface. Get something made to be part of your DAW system.

But seriously, think all of this through and stop wasting time and money on random crap.
 
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