We have Liftoff.

I got paid for the wedding! I immediately trundled off to pick up the Presonus Firebox to finally get back online with MIDI and audio recording capability.

Download the drivers, get it talking to the machine. Install Cubase LE. Run Midi In/Outs to my trusty Roland XP-50 keyboard. Record Midi. Play it back.

Now for audio. I run the main outs into a stereo strip on the Mackie. Run the Alt 3/4 outputs from the Mackie into the Firebox inputs. Configure Cubase to understand all the various audio ins and outs. It's a newer version of Cubase than I used before but all the stuff is where I remember it.

Record audio. Play it back. Hmm... nothing coming back. Hunt and peck around. Nothing. Boot the software mixer, press buttons, try routings. Nothing. Check the strip on the Mackie with the keyboard - it's fine. Hmm.

Read the manual. There's a main output volume control on the front panel of the Firebox. Doh! Turn it up. NOW it's working. Who knew?

Play audio back and dub another track. Play back. Insert dynamics, turn on a compressor. Everything is fine.

I've got more work to do, tho. There is a lot of fine tuning to calibrating Cubase audio and midi, a whack of lightweight plug ins to install that came with the Firebox and just general acclimatization to be done.

I also picked up a Behringer ECM 8000 measurement microphone to be used in conjunction with my Alesis M-EQ 230 equalizer and the TrueRTA spectrum analyzer to get my monitoring flat.

I signed up on the Presonus forums. I'm enjoying how the musical community has plugged in to each other on the net. It wasn't nearly so rich back in the late 90s.

Geek speak, I know - but it was a pretty geeky night. ;-)