Please help..Want to record to HD and still use outboard gear.

[enemyofthesun]

I have recently purchased a mackie 24 channel mixing board and I also own a pretty good rack of outboard fx, comps, preamps, finalizer etc., Yet instead of going the standard DAT route I really want to find a way to record to a harddrive so I can take advantage of the editing features that programs like Cakewalk have to offer, but I want to be able to use all of my outboard gear (fx etc) in conjunction with the HD based system.

Can this be done? What PC hardware would I need besides the computer? I know I need to have channels in as well as channels out but thats all I know....

[garrigus]

Hi EOTS,

You need an audio interface that provides multiple inputs and outputs if you want to be able to record more than one track simultaneously. MIDIMan (www.midiman.net) and Echo Digital Audio (www.echoaudio.com) both have some great products.

Best,
Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - Author of Cakewalk Power!, the first book to deal exclusively with the Cakewalk Pro Audio, Guitar Studio, and Home Studio software products. For more information, a free newsletter, and the chance to win free products, go to: http://www.garrigus.com/

[Fishmed]

I do not know what your multi track recorder is, but if all you are using Cakewalk for is two track mixing to digital, I suggest you look at Sound Forge instead.

I would recommend using Cakewalk ONLY if you are doing multitrack recording AND sequencing MIDI. It is too clumsy for recording JUST Audio.

[enemyofthesun]

I want to do ALL my tracking to hard drive versus DAT. Not so much because of the cost factor of buying the DATS but more importantly so that I may use the powerful software editing features.

So I imagine it would be something like this :

source material would plug into the inputs of any preamps then be routed to the mixer. Channel 1 into channel 1, 2 into 2 etc.

The seperate channel outs from the mixer would then route to the "breakout" boxes (of whatever software/hardware package I get). Which in turn routes to the sound card(s) installed in a PC...Like this I imagine at this point I could apply and fx, compression or eq I wanted to print on the recorded track since it is still running through the mixer.

Ok so now the tracks are being held seperatley on the hard drive. Now I assume I can now edit these etc on the computer and then mix these down through a finalizer out to the TASCAM CDRW I have.....These tracks I understand would then go back out of the PC, out to the "outputs" on the various breakout boxes and then back out through the mixer somehow and then to the finalizer then CDR/CDRW...

The only drawback to this that I see is that I have to mix down to a device outside of the PC since I cant gain control of the tracks to change their sound unless it runs back out through the mixer again...

The pluses I see here is first of all like this I can do any editing (cut, paste etc) the individual tracks while they are on the PC AND I dont have to go buy 3 DATS that would cost me at least another 5k.

Do you see any problems with this plan? Also how much drive space is one song probably going to take up using lets say 16 channels?

I would really appreciate any feedback. Thanks

[garrigus]

Hi EOTS,

No, I think your plan sounds good. As for hard drive space, take a look at pages 13-5 and 13-6 of your Cakewalk Pro Audio manual. They list the amount of disk storage it takes for various bit depths and sampling rates.

-- Scott www.garrigus.com