robbyrobmusik said:
ok i have been reading a little more and saw that some mixers do in deed come with a pre-amp. Now this is something i started thinking about.
I want to go with a mixer or a DAW Controller. What is a DAW controller? Basickly a digital mixer going of your program of choice?
See the thing is i do want to incorporate the computer as much as i can so that i dont have to buy much gear at this point.
For example. I have been to 2 professional studios. Both ran pro Tools with a Big ass Mixing Board. That is still a Mixing Board and not a DAW controller correct? I guess the question I am asking is can you still have a mixer and use it with programs as Pro Tools, Cubase, Logic, etc..
Also dont we have to at one point use some software regardless of our methods of mixing to lay the track down. when we are ready to record?
A DAW controller is generally going to be a tool for controlling your software. So you will still need a preamp of some kind to feed into the computer software. The DAW controller just gives you somehting physical to control rather than the mouse and keyboard. In a traditional studio, you might see a big ass mixer that has preamps for the mics and these feed to analog tape machines that record each track. When you go digital, you replace parts of these with computer stuff, you can't make a software preamp, so you will always need that outside the box. If you use a mixer's preamp or a stand alone, they will do the same basic job, it is just a matter of quality and some features. The whole point is this:
Mic -> preamp -> preamp out (or direct out on that channel of a mixer) -> soundcard or interface input.
The whole point of the signal chain above is to get a good, clean, pleasant sounding signal to the interface (same as soundcard- an interface is a sound card with inputs built in, bascially) so that it can feed your software to record.
Now built into the software will be a digital software mixer, that will have little virtual faders, EQ, effects, etc. You can use your mouse to select and move these faders, and tweak settings, OR... you can get a DAW controller that will let you let go of the mouse and move a 'real", physical fader that will then move the virtual one on your screen. The DAW controller will also have play, rewind, record etc buttons and other features that help you control your (see where this is going) DigitalAudioWorkstation.
So... A DAW is not a mixer, it just makes software mixers and recording easier to use.
A preamp is not a mixer, but most mixers have preamps.
You don't need a mixer to feed a computer interface, but you will need preamps to record microphones. most mixers do have preamps and they have other things, so that might appeal. For instance, you can usually monitor your recordings by feeding them out of your computer interface and back into your mixer, which can allow you to adjust volume and send the monitored signal to other sources as well (think of a studio where the artist is montoring the signal on headphones, while the control room is listening on speakers, etc).
it might seem easier (and theoretically cheaper) to buy a stand alone preamp to plug into your interface and mix "in the box" on the computer, but usually a mixer will have more preamps and features for less money than buying the equivalant number of preamp channels as stand alone units. You can still mix in the box, but the mixer may be your best (cheapest, most efficent) way to get the signals in the box in the first place.
HOWEVER, stand alone preamps of a certain quality will almost always be better than the preamps in a bargain mixer and good preamps are an importnant part of a really high quality recording. So if you go bargian now with the mixer you may want to upgrade with some dedicated preamps downt he road.
Conclusion:
you want a computer interface to replace your soundblaster, ASAP. Start reseraching that based on the number of channels you will want to record at once (price goes up significantly the more channels you need).
You want a mixer with enough preamps to run as many mics as you are likely to need to run at a time OR enough dedicated preamps for that many channel OR both- many of us have a number of dedicated preamps and combine these through a mixer (and it's built in preamps as well) and then run the dedicated outs for each channel on the mixer into their interface.
Lots to work with here, good luck
Daav
