Cubase VST 5.
Busses - well if you have a mixer it will have a certain number of input CHANNELS. The seven mics you have for drums are all plugged into a single channel each - with their own EQs etc on the mixer respectively. The OUTPUTS of a mixer are called BUSSES. So a basic mixer may havemany inputs but onyl 2 busses. You would route each channel to one of the two busses. In thios situation most people would make buss one the left speaker and busses two the right speaker. So in a computer situation, where the busses will go to the input channels of your soundcard you would only be able to record two tracks from the mixer at a time which would contain all your drums. For some tpeople this is ok but semi-pros and pros would have each drum mic preferably being recorded to its own track. Hence you will need a mixer with lots of outputs so that instead of combning the drums channels into a few mixer otuputs you can afford to have each input channel being routed to its own output buss. For 7 drum mics you would need an 8 buss mixer. If you intend to reocrd the whoel band in one go you will need a mixer with even more output busses than that! Pro Studios often use the term 24:24 mixer. This means that they have a dog bollox mixer which has as many outputs as it does inptus! 24in/24out! These start at £10k upwards so forget about it...
a twelve buss mixer woudl be ideal but perhaps the most costly part of your setup.
All mixer usually have a desciption like this 16:4 this means 16 in and 4 busses..
This is why most home studios use drum mahcines becaus emost of us cannot afford the outlay to buy the mixer and mics necessary to record real live drums well.
Also note that for the number of outptu busses on your mixer you will need a soundcard with at least that manyt inputs. There is another problem right there. After about 8 or 1 inputs (like the Delta 1010 or Echo Layla) the soundcards rarely come as an all in one package. What do i mean? Well a soundcard has two parts - the recording circuitry and an A/D/A converter which changes digital info into analogue signals And back. Card which are for Pro like the hammerfall have only ADAT interfaces and no A/D/A converter but they can handle a HUGE number fo channels. You would need to buy a good rackmount A/D/A converter. This plugs via a single ADAT interface to the digital IO of the soundcard. This is what pro Studios use.
e.g. a serious home studio make consist of this
a 12 buss analogue mixer into an Analogue to Digital converter into a good digtal IO soundcard.
This s#could be costly but by buying sensibly you could save a fortune. You only need reasonable AD converters not amazing ones. e.g some studios have Apogee converters that cost £6k!!!
but you can buy them for FAR FAR less than that.
As you can see it may seem bewildering but this is why seemingly expensive mixers such as the Yamaha O2R are becomign so popular with serious amateur and pro alike. It will have good AD converters build in and a digital out. So all you woudl need is the digital mixer plus a card like the RME hammerfall light.
PS i always consider that when buying some studio hear it is prudent to see if you can get some items second hand. They always tend to be in good condition and you can save a fortune.
Personally, I dont know how much you are willing to spend but realisticly if you are looking to record the whole band at once it could simpy be outwith your budget ( I know it is out of mine!). if you dont mind having some items record to the same track them or recording the band parts at different times (which is way more common) then you could geta good setup with some ease. I would recommend a 8 buss analogue mixer and a Delta 1010 or Echo Layla card. This would cost about £1500 so convert that to Dollars and that is what you would be looking at.
You have to be realistic... it is a home studio not a pro facility so unless this band are paying good money you might be better getting that 8 buss mixer and record the drums ( and hey woith the extra buss that's left you could do the bass at the same time!) together then record the guitars and vocals etc.
This mixer would be ideal if you need an 8 buss mixer....
Behringer 8 buss mixer
u could also see what Mackie hhave in that way too....