Midi / Audio Interface Help

[stabmasterflex]

I'm looking for some advice on a home studio setup. I'm having some problems with some of my gear and I'm looking to revamp the studio to make things flow better. Here is my current setup:

Roland SH-201 & Nord Electro Keyboards
Running into Midiman 8x8 USB midi box to Laptop
Audio - M-Audio Firewire Audiophile coming from my old 8 Channel mixer

I'm wondering how I can improve on the midi and audio setup of my home studio and also make workflow smoother. Currently I have way to control volume, faders, etc... in Cubase with external hardware. Also, I'm running into a lot of problems with the MidiMan unit. Maybe I can consolidate the two? What would you do? Thanks!

Stab

[Waffleness]

Originally Posted by stabmasterflex

I'm looking for some advice on a home studio setup. I'm having some problems with some of my gear and I'm looking to revamp the studio to make things flow better. Here is my current setup:

Roland SH-201 & Nord Electro Keyboards
Running into Midiman 8x8 USB midi box to Laptop
Audio - M-Audio Firewire Audiophile coming from my old 8 Channel mixer

I'm wondering how I can improve on the midi and audio setup of my home studio and also make workflow smoother. Currently I have way to control volume, faders, etc... in Cubase with external hardware. Also, I'm running into a lot of problems with the MidiMan unit. Maybe I can consolidate the two? What would you do? Thanks!

Stab

Thats a nice word

I gather your keyboards outputs are stereo? In this case, are you looking to record just 4 channels at a time from the keys, or all 8 channel from the mixer?

You can get combined MIDI and audio interfaces which would be suitable, but its entirely dependant on how many inputs you need. Also - do you require a device that can provide phantom power?