How should I set up my axe fx II?

[Ztla]

Hi,

I'm new here so hopefully this is the right place...

I'm going to be the proud owner of an axe fx II mk2 as of next tuesday and I was wondering what would be the best way for me to set it up. I'm sort of a beginner when it comes to stuff more complicated than basic interface->pc since I've only been doing stuff with amp sims for a long time. Alongside basic noodling, I'm going to be using the axe fx extensively for recording purposes. The gear I currently have is:

My PC
Audient id14 usb interface
Active studio monitors which are currently connected to the audient via xlr>trs cable

So in which way should I set up the axe fx so that I can record not only guitars and basses, but also vocals etc through the audient easily? Naturally I also want to be able to play guitar with minimal latency. Can it be done? Or do I need to alternate between the audient and the axe fx when recording different things?

 

[Cagey]

I'm not sure exactly how that gear can be set up so you're not always rewiring things. The AxeFx will function as a USB interface, but I'm pretty sure the computer will only use one of those. That leaves the Audient barking at the moon. You could plug the AxeFx into the Audient, but it only has two channels so the Axe pretty much consumes that so you'd have no mic inputs, and to no end as the Axe already has the Audient's interface internally.

It might be easier to get a small mixer with decent Lo-Z inputs/preamps for mic inputs, and additional channels for the Axe and other things to get in, either with a USB interface built-in (pretty common these days) to get out or that you can feed a stereo master out into the Audient for conversion to USB for your computer.

But, I'm no audio engineer. I'm just counting I/O channels and types.

 

[Ztla]

I'm not sure exactly how that gear can be set up so you're not always rewiring things. The AxeFx will function as a USB interface, but I'm pretty sure the computer will only use one of those. That leaves the Audient barking at the moon. You could plug the AxeFx into the Audient, but it only has two channels so the Axe pretty much consumes that so you'd have no mic inputs, and to no end as the Axe already has the Audient's interface internally.

It might be easier to get a small mixer with decent Lo-Z inputs/preamps for mic inputs, and additional channels for the Axe and other things to get in, either with a USB interface built-in (pretty common these days) to get out or that you can feed a stereo master out into the Audient for conversion to USB for your computer.

But, I'm no audio engineer. I'm just counting I/O channels and types.

Yeah, that sounds logical. I guess I'll just have to switch between the two since I don't really have any money left atm due to buying the axe fx . Fortunately I pretty much only track vocals with the audient and usually at that point everything else is already done. So I hopefully need to switch them around only once or couple of times per song.