I've recently bought myself a home studio setup (PC, Cubase VST, Alesis ADAT LX20 digital audio recorder, Akai S2000 sampler, Topaz mixing desk, Korg 1212 I/O soundcard, MOTU Micro express MIDI interface and Evolution MIDI keyboard) and I want to record audio and MIDI onto the ADAT.
Tommy Mahoney
Assistant Editor Mike Senior replies: This ought to be fairly simple to set up, though as usual I have no idea how you want to use the gear and that could make a lot of difference to how useful my advice will be. Also, I don't know all the specifics of the pieces of equipment you're using, so I can only really give you general guidelines.
Anyway... connect the ADAT Sync output on the LX20 to the ADAT input on the Korg's breakout cable. Set your applications to synchronise to the ADAT's sync signal. Connect the MIDI Out of your Evolution keyboard to one of the MOTU's MIDI Ins, and connect the MIDI In of the S2000 to one of the MIDI Outs of the MOTU.
Route the MIDI from the Evolution to the S2000 within your applications if you wish to play samples from the keyboard. Connect the analogue inputs of the LX20 to the group outputs of the Topaz (disconnecting these group busses from the mix buss). Connect the analogue returns from the ADAT and the analogue outputs of the S2000 to line inputs on the Topaz, routing these channels to the mix buss for monitoring purposes. Connect the sampler inputs to a pair of mixer aux sends.
With this setup, you'll be able to record channel audio from the Topaz to the LX20 by routing it to the mixer's groups. When you play this back, the sequencer should syncronise to it. You can record MIDI into Cubase through the MOTU (the ADAT isn't designed to record MIDI) where it can be edited as necessary and routed to trigger sounds within the sampler or any other MIDI instrument you may also connect to your MIDI interface's outputs. Whenever you want to sample something, you just turn up the relevant aux send on its mixer channel to set the level to the sampler's inputs.
Should you want to import/export audio between the ADAT and the computer, then you'll also need to connect the optical digital input of the 1212 to the optical digital output of the ADAT, and vice versa, as well as making the necessary settings in your software. You ought not to have to change this setup at all when mixing — you seem to have no effects outside the computer and sampler, and your mixer is probably large enough therefore to cope with all the available inputs and outputs already.
Regarding the software side, just make sure that you read the manual at least once before starting as most modern sequencing software is very 'sophisticated' (in other words, very complex).