USB Mixer?

[maxpayne]

im new to recording songs so far i have a mxl 770 condensor mic,and a art tube preamp,i went to a local music equipment shop and they recommended me to buy a usb mixer instead of hooking up my mic to preamp to stock sound card,but i was wondering what is it for/what does it do,and the benefits of having one

[djchris73]

Originally Posted by maxpayne

im new to recording songs so far i have a mxl 770 condensor mic,and a art tube preamp,i went to a local music equipment shop and they recommended me to buy a usb mixer instead of hooking up my mic to preamp to stock sound card,but i was wondering what is it for/what does it do,and the benefits of having one

What part is it you don't understand? Try to expand your question and I can help you.

[maxpayne]

i dont know what mixers are used for

[maxpayne]

im thinking he meant to buy it so i can hook my mic up to it,and from my mic to the commputer,but i dont really,thats my guess

[maxpayne]

a simpler question is like whats a mixer maybe

[djchris73]

Originally Posted by maxpayne

im new to recording songs so far i have a mxl 770 condensor mic,and a art tube preamp,i went to a local music equipment shop and they recommended me to buy a usb mixer instead of hooking up my mic to preamp to stock sound card,but i was wondering what is it for/what does it do,and the benefits of having one

The reason they said go USB mixer instead of your stock soundcard is probably because they thought maybe you were going to record more than one track at time. Your stock soundcard wasn't designed to record your nice condenser and tube preamp. The USB mixer will help if you want to record various inputs at once. With a mixer you can eq your voice before it gets in to your computer via usb. A small alesis usb mixer is perfect for small project studios who don't need a bunch of inputs and outputs. Hope this helps.

[maxpayne]

ok thx,im just trying 2 record i track at a time,since you said that my stock soundcard was not designed to record condensor mics ,do i need like a better soundcard or interface?

[djchris73]

Originally Posted by maxpayne

ok thx,im just trying 2 record i track at a time,since you said that my stock soundcard was not designed to record condensor mics ,do i need like a better soundcard or interface?

To work with condenser mics, you need a preamp with phantom power. +48v provided by the preamp to power the condenser mic. You don't NEED a full usb mixer, per se. Try M-Audio's small usb interfaces. I think some will even work with ProTools M-Powered.