mixers vs. interfaces

S

sewellnc

New member
i am new to recording and looking to buy something to record tracks of my band and i was wondering what the difference was between buying an interface such as the presonus firepod compared to something like buying a Mackie Onyx 1620 16-Channel Mixer. I would be looking to plug both into my hp laptop and use either protools or cubase editing software. Can anyone help me out? And also it says something about using the mixer for live shows. How does this compare to an interface.
Thanks
 
You posted what's basically this same question in this same forum six hours ago.

That's not good policy and won't get you're question answered any faster.


If you want to use a laptop for recording a full band there are two major things to take into account.

The first --- most laptops have 5400 rpm drives, and depending on the software used that may or may not be enough to record 8 or 12 or 16 tracks at once, depending on the complexity of your microphone setup and the number of players in your band.

The second --- both of the devices you list are Firewire devices and laptops almost universally have 4 pin Firewire input which do not provide power. That means you'll need an external power supply and an adapter cable before you even find out if your laptop is up to the job.


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Also, ProTools won't work with the specific units you listed (apart from possibly ProTools Free which you can only do 8 at a time anywho and is somewhat outdated).
 
i own a mackie onyx 1620 - to hook it up to your computer you have to have the firewire option card, which effectivley turns it into an interface. you should check if they still come with a copy of traktion 2, mackie's DAW. it's pretty powerful and intuitive for someone with little experience. i use it. when you use the 1620 with the firewire option the signal is pulled DIRECTLY after the pre-amp. this means it does not run through the eq, insert, or any external effects you have hooked through the auxiliary send/returns. so it functions as an interface. the 'mixer part' comes in handy for monitoring, (you can tweak each input without affecting what is recorded) also for live sound applications (it's a regular analog mixer, just like any you would use for a live show). so if plan using it for any live sound applications, the onyx 1620 is a great option, otherwise something like the onyx 800r might make more sense. also both of these have only 8 mic preamps, so if you plan on running more than 8 mics at once you'll have to get some external pre-amps. - goodluck,
ben
 
thanks for the responses and sorry for posting something that was already posted...Im just getting into these forums and such...
 
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