what kongswee could have meant is he first suggested the XLRto1/4"TRS cable then later tell you if he was you he'd just buy XLR-TRS adapter (which I feel it's alot rarer to find an 1/4"female to XLRmale it's not even listed
here and the closest you'd get is the RCA female which still requires another adapter and that contributes noise and poor connection factor) too lazy to look or make XLR to 1/4' TRS cable , just buy blindly , don't need to make, or look or research. but right now he's just telling you that you just need a TRS" line in when your sansamp vt bass deluxe has an XLR out and none of your audio interfaces have "Line inputs" (as you read what I typed below you'll understand). so if you aren't confused yet, I almost am.
What I say is always based on facts and 8 years experience as a recording/mixing engineer in a bedroom/location/live/studio recording situation and in your case cool-beans, you have mentioned you were only going to review your playing in your bedroom so lets not get too over assumptious and then later linking it to an SSL or "industry" or "professional" standard topic debate here..
to answer your question :
exactly, because if you were to record in, compress,eq,reverb,compress,eq,reverb,excite,blablabla , based on the different situation suggestions I've stated, I'm very sure you will hear the difference because I already hear the difference in preamps on my zoom r16 vs fmr rnp even though same mics, same acoustic guitar etc (sorry I can't put up, no band permit) through that method on recording alone, and it becomes all obvious after mixing.
assuming you have already read
http://tinyurl.com/diyrecording
http://www.tech21nyc.com/support/manuals/sansamp/CharacSeries-VT_DLX-OM.pdf
this is the baby yes?
there's 2 outputs you can record from,
Balanced XLR output = cleaner sound.
1/4" output = "unbalanced". it may be noisier but the sound will pretty much be the same.
your cable options?
1/4" normal male-male guitar cable to audio interface
XLR to 1/4" TRS (2 lines!) to audio interface preamp gain 0. unless gain not enough increase on your pedal first.
XLR to XLR to audio interface preamp gain 0.
the preamps/DA converters of the audio interface isn't going to colour your sound much unless you got sonic ears and picky-fussy-ability.
so to explain further (let me know if you're lost),
(let me know if the below 3 images doesn't load)
(i'm using echo audio fire4)
if I were in your situation, I'd wire up
bass > pedal > direct into echo AF4's line input 3 or 4. because there's no "preamp" there, it's just direct in. but what do I run the risk of? your bass pedal if the gain is not enough, it'll introduce more "noise" than "gain" , that's where a preamp comes in important.
by plugging it in the front universal inputs (very similar to fast track or audiobox) , I utilize the gain of the echo audio's preamps.
if I own something cool like
http://www.uaudio.com/products/hardware/solo610/index.html
I'd ditch the echo's preamp, I'd ditch my FMR RNP preamps, and I'd do this
bass > pedal > UAD preamp > Echo AF4's line input 3,4 (makes no sense to run through double preamp)
so back to reality, cos of your requirements and budget, the audio interfaces you've mentioned does not have "line inputs" , it's got preamps built in. so you can just go ahead with that.
what you can do is.
1) buy the audio i/f
2) use your normal 1/4" cable record first.
3) if you got a spare XLR to XLR cable, try record with that. (simultaneously cos you can wire both right? stereo)
4) the XLR to TRS cable at this point will seem unnecessary by then but I just suggested in case you were particular. and compare them. i'm confident it'll be like what I described. one's a little noisy and the signal isn't as clear as the XLR one.
tone coloring.. well. how much can a preamp colour depends on the type of preamps used (transformer/transistor/tube bla bla) and I'm pretty sure you can re-adjust the tone to taste just like how all bass amps won't sound the way you like it on your sansamp and you gotta re-adjust it.
P.S : the m audio fast track has 1 XLR + 1 line input. the audiobox has 2 XLR+1/4" universal inputs.(more flexible)
I heard both good (cost efficiency) and crap (drivers/preamps/glitches) from both interfaces so it's at your own risk. I'd vote audiobox though. cos if you were recording vocals or on condenser mics you'd have phantom power on both.
hope this helps and best of luck with your purchase, do share with us the results!
