Basic equipment to get started jamming and recording

A

amark16

New member
Hi everyone,
I have been struggling with this for years and need some advice to put this to bed once and for all.
I'm also aware that I lack basic audio and home recording knowledge so please bear with me.
Primary goal is to be able to run my guitar through Guitar Rig and jam along to music coming from my PC (youtube, spotify etc).
Secondary objectives are to also record and jam with a friend (one on guitar, one on drums)
Currently, my guitar is connected to the PC via my Marshall amp which serves as an audio interface, and I've been messing around with voiceemeter banana, asio drivers etc, but results are mixed and inconsistent. I don't really understand it to be honest.

Is it possible to have a central point where multiple things are connected (eg, PC Audio, guitar, e-drums) and output everything to a pair of studio monitors? What do I need? An audio interface or a mixer? Or something else entirely?

thanks!
 
amark16 said:
Is it possible to have a central point where multiple things are connected (eg, PC Audio, guitar, e-drums) and output everything to a pair of studio monitors? What do I need? An audio interface or a mixer?
Click to expand...
The DAW software will be the center, mixer, multitrack recorder.

Headphones to monitor, a minimum. An interface Like a USB 6i6 or something would be of benefit.
 
LazerBeakShiek said:
The DAW software will be the center, mixer, multitrack recorder.

Headphones to monitor, a minimum. An interface Like a USB 6i6 or something would be of benefit.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply.
So If I just wanted to jam along, would I still need to do it through the DAW? Even if my intention is not to record?
 
It sounds like you will benefit from having an audio interface. This is a piece of hardware thatreplaces the internal audio of your computer, and is designed to allow efficent duplex audio, i.e. audio being input while other audi is being output. You hook up monitors and/or headphones to the interrface, then you can connect guitars or mikes or whatever, and jam along to output coming from youtube or whatever. You don't need to record.
 
Thanks. I knew that I would probably need an audio interface, jut wanted to confirm it.
For a basic home setup, would I benefit from something like this Xenyx Q802USB, which to me looks like a mixer and interface combined?
1635369696356.png
Or is something like this UMC404HD more appropriate?
1635369733267.png

Why would I choose one or the other? (Not necessarily these exact models, just want to know what is the difference between these two types)
 

Attachments

  • 1635369678753.png
    1635369678753.png
    289.7 KB · Views: 0
amark16 said:
Thanks. I knew that I would probably need an audio interface, jut wanted to confirm it.
For a basic home setup, would I benefit from something like this Xenyx Q802USB, which to me looks like a mixer and interface combined?
View attachment 112519
Or is something like this UMC404HD more appropriate?
View attachment 112522

Why would I choose one or the other? (Not necessarily these exact models, just want to know what is the difference between these two types)
Click to expand...
Read this sticky thread: https://homerecording.com/bbs/threads/mixers-and-home-recording.338083/
 
Hi Amark and welcome to the forum. Yours is not a simple question so I shall break it down into chunks if you will allow and deal with each at a time.
1) Recording electric guitar 'directly' into a PC. Yes, best option is an interface and these are legion. The Behringer UMC series you show are in fact superb value for money. I bought my son in France the 204HD and he is very pleased with it recording classical guitar with capacitor mics and 'rock' guitar, tele, with an SM57 in front of a Peavey tranny amp. What he does NOT do however is use software guitar effects in real time to 'jam' with. The fly in that emolument is "Latency". This is the delay caused by several parts of the AI/CPU chain between you hitting a string and getting a sound out. Some folks can live and play with quite a lot of delay, others can bear little or none.

Budget interfaces are not likely to have low latency although in terms of sound quality they are very good. 0ne interface that does give very low latency at modest* cost is the Native Instruments KA6. I am sure many of the very latest generation of AIs also far better than they were in this respect but I have not tried them. People such as MOTU will be excellent but a little out of budget (Ggle "MOTU M4).

2) Jamming/recording with mate: New ball game! You mentioned drums? Notoriously hard things to record well and, although I am NO expert by any means I think 4 mics on a rock drum kit is about the least you will get away with. That would take you to a sixmic input AI but there ain't none AFAIK so you need eight. More money and if you go cheap, latency will bug you. There is a solution.

Get the NI KA6 or similar and a 4 mic input mixer. The KA6 has two extra line inputs and so the combination becomes a 4 mic recorder but, you can make a stereo 'pre-mix' with 4 mics on the kit. (guitar can be DI'ed of mic an amp) You will probably also need a 4 way headphone amp and the Behringer HA400 is really very good for about $30.

Another alternative is to just get a low latency interface for yourself but also a hand held recorder such as the Zoom H2N and record drums and amp 'in the room'.

I am sorry I am suggesting a rather heavy outlay but your requirements are rather extra to the average 'newb'. Of course you will need enough mics and might I suggest the Behringer XM8500? Really rather good for $20 or so and you can use them on drums, cabs and to yell at! Do not BTW stint yourself on cables.

* "modest" is of course in the eye of the card holder!

Dave.
 
I could be wrong but I think the OP is using electronic drums. That would be very easy to incorporate via the normal stereo output of the drums. I use a roland V-Drums Lite set to record and it's great. Not saying e-drums are better....though they have SO MANY sounds.......just easier to recrod IMO only.

Mick
 
Mickster said:
I could be wrong but I think the OP is using electronic drums. That would be very easy to incorporate via the normal stereo output of the drums. I use a roland V-Drums Lite set to record and it's great. Not saying e-drums are better....though they have SO MANY sounds.......just easier to recrod IMO only.

Mick
Click to expand...
If that is the case Mick then the KA6 makes even more sense as it has two line inputs for the drums output. MIDI as well which I 'think' most E drums have?

Dave.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies, especially ecc83 for your thorough explanation. Mickster is correct, I'm using Roland e-drums (TD-11). The module is connected directly to the PC via USB. So this has generated another question which is, what is the best way to connect e-drums?
  1. USB direct into the PC?
  2. Midi cable into the audio interface? or
  3. Line into the audio interface?
Apart from this, I now get that the audio interface is a must, and a mixer is perhaps not what I need.
Just to clarify everything, here is another set of points/questions:
Guitar (or bass): Connected direct into the AI
Mics for vocals or acoustic instruments: XLR into AI
e-Drums: USB direct, MIDI, or Line in AI? What is the best option here?
MIDI Keyboard: I have a midi to USB cable and also regular in/out midi cables. What is the best way to connect my midi keyboard? Direct to PC via USB or midi into the AI?
PC audio: I currently have a regular pair of PC speakers connected to the 3.5mm port on the back of my PC tower, to which I can also connect my headphones if I wish to. I do plan though to move onto studio monitors at some point. My understanding is that the studio monitors will be connected to the AI, and not to the PC itself, like the PC speakers where. Does this mean that my PC audio (eg youtube, spotify etc) is now routed from the PC to the AI and then out of the studio monitors?
Multiple headphones: Let's say I'm jamming with someone else, and we both want to listen through headphones. If my AI only has one headphone output, are we stuck? or is there a way around it, without buying an AI with multiple headphone outputs?
 
Generally, your Youtube , spotify etc audio would go throutgh the interface and the PC speakers would be redundant.

Most interfaces come with one headphone socket. Some come with a pair. If you need more, you can get a headphone amp that you connect to the interface to give you more outputs.
 
The Mk2 KA6 has two headphone outputs with separate level controls. Re drum box? Record the audio output (inputs 3/4) but you can also record the MIDI data as well giving you the ability to edit or change* the triggered sounds/instruments.

You CAN do all that without a mixer but I would keep and eye out for one in cash converter/charity shops, few things are as handy an addition to the home recordist as a small mixer.

*My son used to play MIDI into a PC using Cubase Ess 6 and an M-A 2496 card because that gave him the lowest latency. He would then import the data into Cakewalk because he thought the MIDI instruments sounded better!

Dave.
 
Just to clarify: does the mixer below offer all the functionality an Audio interface does? How does the sound quality compare to an actual AI?
1635369696356-png.112519
 
That little mixer should work for you as an interface.

However, it will only send two channels via USB to the computer. You can have a single stereo track (for example a keyboard), or two mono tracks (e.g. a vocal and a guitar). With the latrer you would need to pan the chennles hard left and right to keep voice and guitar separate.


Also, you would probably need to run your monitors from the ctrl room outputs, rather than the main mix. That's so you can keep recorded material being played back separate from new material being recorded via the main mix.
 
amark16 said:
Just to clarify: does the mixer below offer all the functionality an Audio interface does? How does the sound quality compare to an actual AI?
1635369696356-png.112519
Click to expand...
That mixer is I am sure one of the first generation of USB mixers. They were 'ok' but suffered certain problems the main one being that they were limited to 16bits. That in itself is not a problem, CD is 16 bit after all and is more than adequate for domestic playback no, the problem is the limit of dynamic range on record. 24 bits gives you a system that is only limited by the ANALOGUE noise in the system and these days even budget interfaces can have a DR of 100dB or better.

The other problem is that they use CRAP 16 bit converters! These generate a low level whine. The mixers are fine for recording a band in a noisy pub but fall down for quiet stuff at home.

Later Gen' mixers such as the Soundcraft 8FX are 24 bit and as quiet as a comparable AI. Bought my son one and he finds it very good but they are still limited in how they route the USB signal source.

Bottom line : Mixers are VERY useful but for the main recording/dubbing job you need a decent interface.


Dave.
 
I have decided to go with the Behringer UMC404HD AI.
After hearing you all out I think it's the best fit for my needs.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Thank you all for your advice, much appreciated.
 
amark16 said:
I have decided to go with the Behringer UMC404HD AI.
After hearing you all out I think it's the best fit for my needs.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Thank you all for your advice, much appreciated.
Click to expand...
That interface should serve you well. I assume the mic pre amps are the same as on my son's 204 and thus are really very good for such a low priced device. By "good" I mean they have enough gain for spoken word or picked guitar into a dynamic mic (though it needs to be pretty close) and low noise levels.

Have fun. 'We' are always here!

Dave.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top