Help with Delta 44 by Midiman

J

Jester

New member
Hi

My band is looking at recording our first demo and someone has recommended buying the Midiman Delta 44. However, I can't seem to find any decent reviews etc on the card. If anyone could point me in the right direction, or if anyone has anything to say about it, good points, bad points etc, your help would be appreciated. Also, it would be good if anyone could suggest an alternative in that price range.

Secondly, I have heard when recording drums you cannot simply mic up the kit (using four mics in this case) and plug the mics directly into the computer and just mix post-recording using cubase. Apparently you are supposed to plug the mics into the computer via a mixer and mix the four tracks during recording. Is this really necessary?

Thanks everyone for your help

Jester
 
what you really need is no necessassarily a mixer.. but Mic Pre-Amps. Which a mixer happens to have built in. cuz a mic level signal is so small that if you record it it sounds like...ass. and if you wanna use condensors, you need power, too... all of which your average soundcard does not have.

xoxoxo
 
Jester,

Here's a review of the Delta 66:

http://www.pcrecording.com/delta66.htm

This card is identical to the Delta 44 except that it also has a pair of stereo S/PDIF jacks on the card, giving you an additional two channels of I/O should some of your gear happen to have an S/PDIF output. The Delta 44 lists for $399 but I've seen it online as low as around $250; I bought my Delta 66 for $299 from Bayview Pro Audio (http://www.bayviewproaudio.com). Alternatives in this price range are the Echo Gina and Darla, both of which have 2 analog ins and 8 outs, and one also has digital S/PDIF i/o (which is which, I forget right now) and the Gadget Labs WavePro 496.

As camn said, it's true that mics do not put out line level signals, and that condensor mics typically need an external source of phantom power. So you cannot plug any mics into the Delta, or any of the others I mentioned. You can plug in line level signals only -- the signal from a synthesizer, from a preamp/multieffector, from most modern guitar amps, from mic preamps, from mixers, and so forth. So to record from 4 mics at once you would need either a mixer that has at least 4 mic preamps, or enough mic preamps (most have two channels, I think) to get yourself the 4 line level signals to plug into the sound card.

Other possibilites exist. There are some cards out now that have some built-in mic preamps, usually 2 or 4. But would 4 be enough? Do you wish to record the band live, with 4 channels of drums plus whatever else for the rest? These devices would not be enough. If your computer has enough PCI slots and free IRQs left, you can run up to 4 Delta 44s at the same time, but you're talking serious money now. Alternatively you can get one of the 8x8 units like the Echo Layla or the Delta 1010. These can also be chained. And of course you need a mixer with enough inputs and mic preamps to cover your needs. It's not cheap, unless you are a one-man band like me and overdub everything, rarely recording more than one thing at a time.

Oh, one more thing -- there is a new optional box offered by M Audio that works with the Delta 44 & 66, called the OMNI i/O, which essentially replaces the regular breakout box with one that accepts 2 XLR mics with phantom power and two more that can be 1/4" mics or line level signals.

Good luck.

-AlChuck
 
Hi again

Thanks guys for all your help.

With the preamps, at the moment we are able to use a single mic plugged into a Creative Sound Blaster 128bit sound card. One of the mics we are using is really old and has been in our guitarist's family for like 20 years but the sound quality is excellent: whether it is a condenser mic or what I do not know. The other mic we used to use is a $10 job from a secondhand shop somewhere: the sound quality from this mic is obviously really flat but volume levels have never been a problem.

We normally mic up to our guitar/bass amps and plug the mic straight into the sound card (just by sitting the mic in front of the amp, not from line out or anything like that and plugging into the mic socket on the soundcard). But we have been able to record vocals without any amplification at all.

From what you have said about preamps etc, I find this confusing.

Thanks again guys

Jester
 
If the old mic was a condenser, you wouldn't hear anything if you plugged it into the sound card, unless it gets its power from batteries or some other source. So it's probably a dynamic mic. And you have probably plugged it into the Mic In on the sound card, which has a (bad) preamp in front of the analog-to-digital conversion. So yeah, it could work. Hard to believe it sounds too good, but hey, stranger things have happened. If it works for you, it works.

-AlChuck
 
Software preamps

Hello again

Thanks everyone for your help so far. I am very close to actually purchasing the Delta 44. However, I am slightly put off by the additional expense of preamps/mixers. Incidently, what sort of mixer would I buy if I could afford it? I only need four maybe eight channels and I would probably be chasing something second-hand.

What I really wanted to ask was that I've heard about software preamps and software mixers. How do these work and are they any good?

Cya

Jester
 
You may want to check out the Direct Pro 24/96 from Aardvark. It has 4 excellent discreet mic preamps, effects etc...and you dont need an external mixer. I use one at home and it sounds fantastic. Much clarity and great stereo imaging. Its by far the best sound card out there in the sub $500 price range.
 
The Delta 44 or 66 with the OMNI i/O is price-comparable with the Aardvark Direct Pro but the DirectPro offers the extra advantage of the onboard effects.

If you prefer the mixer route, I'd first set my sights on a Mackie 1402VLZ Pro, and as a second choice a Behringer MX2004A...

-AlChuck
 
More questions, this time about Direct Pro

Excellent, now we're getting somewhere. The Direct Pro sounds a bit more like what we're after. We definitely need four inputs/outputs so other cards in our price range eg by Echo etc are no good. I assume that you can plug your average guitar lead straight into the b/out box (is that what is meant by a 1/4" plug?). And we don't have to fork out money we don't have on a mixer!!!!

But are there any disadvantages of this card over the Delta 44? From the aardvark webpage it seems that the direct pro works very well with cubase vst which is a must for us. What about the onboard fx, are these any good? We would be mainly interested in the compression for recording drums etc. And is there any mixing software, is it any good?

Thanks everyone again for all your help

Jester

PS: maybe someone could also explain some basic terms to me such as unbalanced/balanced line, level trim, and whats the difference between recording in mono/stereo? Can you even record guitar/vocals/drums in stereo? We normally put each one on a separate mono track in cubase and then pan as necessary. Forgive my ignorance but I just play guitar....
 
Lynxone

How does the Lynxone card compare to the Delta 66, Delta 44, and Ardvark 24/96 cards?
 
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