How do you...

[prodman1]

I'm kinda new to the recording thing, but i was was wndering if you are using a digital recoder with 8 tracks, what would you need a 16-30+ track mixing console for. Basically i'm wondering how would the two work together. Where would all inputs on the mixer be coming from if the recorder which is only like 4 to 8 tracks is the device playin back. Does that mean in a real studio they use4 or 5 recorders?

[PROTOOLSJUNKIE]

IN A STUDIO MOST MACHINES GENERALLY HAVE 24 TRACKS. AND YES YOU CAN HAVE MULTIPLE MACHINES. IN POST PRODUCTION THEY USE WELL OVER 100 TRACKS.
THEN HOWEVER MANY TRACKS YOU HAVE YOU NEED TWICE THE CHANNELS ON THE MIXING CONSOLE. SO FOR A 24 TRACK MACHINE YOU NEED YOUR 24CHANNELS TO GET INTO THE RECORDER, THEN COME OUT OF THE RECORDER BACK INTO ANOTHER 24 CHANNELS FOR MIXDOWN

NOTE- ALL OF THIS IS VOIDED WHEN A COMPUTER AND RECORDING SOFTWARE IS INVOLVED. BECAUSE WITH A COMPUTER THE FACTORS ARE:
1 ALL YOU AT LEAST NEED ARE MIC PRE'S TO FUNCTION, EVERYTHING ELSE IS ICING ON THE CAKE.
2 HOW MANY (SIMULTANIOUS) INPUTS YOU WILL NEED MAX.
LIKE A DRUMSET FOR INSTANCE 8-15 TRACKS, THEN GET AN INTERFACE, AND THE MIXER/MICPRE'S TO COMPINSATE.

SORRY ABOUT MY SHITTY ASS SPELLING

[littledog]

PTJ gave part of the answer, although many modern true recording consoles are "in-line" style, so that the tape returns actually come to a second smaller fader on the same channel strip.

But there are other possible reasons why you might need more mixer channels than recording tracks:

1) You may want to use multiple mics on a source and then submix them (using a submix buss) to only one or two tape tracks.

2) You may be using a sequencer which is playing various midi devices. To save on precious tape tracks, you don't actually record the midi generated audio to the multitrack, but keep them as virtual tracks until the final stereo mixdown. But you still need to run them through the board so they can be heard and mixed. Depending on how many synth or drum machine parts you have, this could use up many additional mixer channels.

3) You may have other devices you might want to route through extra board channels: CD players, talkback mics, cassette decks, drum machine generated clicks, etc.

4) Sometimes it is useful to route the audio from a particular track to two different mixer channels (called "multing"), so that each can be processed or effected differently.

5) You might someday increase your track count.

So you can see there are many ways in which "extra" mixer channels can be useful. How many extra depends on your particular recording needs andn recording style.

[nwsoundman]

channel strips for aux returns.

[littledog]

good one, nw - i knew i forgot something!