MOTUnation.com

So I finally acquired the gear necessary to re-amp. It 'works' but I'm having issues getting the direct signal from my guitar to record loud enough. I'm playing my guitar through a Radial J48 Active Direct Box which is output via XLR into the Mic/Inst. input on my Motu Ultralite Mk3. I need to plug into this input because it's the only one, besides the identical one on the back, that provides phantom power (which I need to power the J48).

The problem with using this input, I suspect, is that it has a pre-amp built in since it's normally used for plugging in a microphone. If I record my guitar ( which has passive pick-ups btw) in cubase it easily clips. If I flip the switch on the motu for the two different levels of PAD for this input, it's way too quiet. I'm guessing that if the pre-amp wasn't processing my signal the level w/o padding would be perfectly fine.
After reading through the Motu Ultralite manual and searching around I've been unsuccessful in finding a way to disable the pre-amp.

If I ignore the fact that my recording is too quiet and run it through my Radial X-Amp and back into my amp it's, as I expected, way too quiet. The Radial X-Amp has a separate output level dial but even at max output it's still way too low. I can artificially raise the volume of my recording in cubase but I imagine this isn't without side effects.

Anyone have any ideas? Am I doing this completely wrong or is it just a matter of figuring out a way to bypass the pre-amp?

Thanks..

The Radial DI is expecting to hit a Pre-amp with Phantom Power. You typically don't get Phantom Power without a Pre-amp unless you buy a separate Phantom Power box. Even then you would run from the Phantom Power box into a Pre-amp.

Either way you should be able to run an XLR from the DI to the MOTU, turn up the gain on the MOTU, and get some decent level somewhere around 12:00.

There have been discussions about bypassing the MOTU preamps and I thought it had been determined that you can't. If you plug into an XLR/TRS combo plug you go through the same path, but the XLR has a less sensitive input (a pad?), plus Phantom Power, but still the same gain stage circuit.

-Ian

What's the pad on the Ultralight... 20db? You have a larger gain range than that. If you can't reduce input sensitivity enough with the trim control, just engage the pad and raise the gain (trim) until you get the level you need.