Best way to mix straight from file off a laptop?

[matthew_a]

Hi, I'm looking for wisdom on the best low-key setup for mixing my music in Cubase. I just finished a full solo album and used a set of decent computer speakers+sub to mix, as well as various headphones and testing it on other platforms, etc. But I want to upgrade my home-recording/producing rig with some studio monitors and probably a new firewire interface, etc. for my next few projects. SO my question is: whats the best signal chain for mixing from a computer? My current plan is to just run a firewire interface like a Motu 8pre or Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 off my PC (Dell Latitude D830, going to upgrade to macbook pro ASAP), then run the main 1/4inch outs to a pair of powered studio monitors, or maybe unpowered through an amp or whatnot.

The reason I'm asking about this is because my current interface is a Presonus Audiobox USB (piece of crap), and the outs, both the mains and the stereo headphone out are terrible, very tinny and no bass response. I would never want to run serious mix through it, so I'm understandably leary about running a mix through a new interface, even if it's a better one than my crappy Audiobox. Thanks, hope this wasn't too confusing. Peace

 

[gecko zzed]

The reason I'm asking about this is because my current interface is a Presonus Audiobox USB (piece of crap), and the outs, both the mains and the stereo headphone out are terrible, very tinny and no bass response. I would never want to run serious mix through it, so I'm understandably leary about running a mix through a new interface, even if it's a better one than my crappy Audiobox. Thanks, hope this wasn't too confusing. Peace

If you are not getting a good sound through your audiobox then the chances are high that there is something amiss with your monitoring signal path. It is less likely that the fault lies directly with the audiobox.

For example, it sounds to me that you might be getting a mixture of two near-identical signals that's causing low end phase cancellation. Perhaps you have both software and hardware monitoring occuring.

 

[matthew_a]

If you are not getting a good sound through your audiobox then the chances are high that there is something amiss with your monitoring signal path. It is less likely that the fault lies directly with the audiobox.

For example, it sounds to me that you might be getting a mixture of two near-identical signals that's causing low end phase cancellation. Perhaps you have both software and hardware monitoring occuring.

Thanks for the advice, I think you're on the money with that. The audiobox has a headphone monitor control nob that switches between the inputs and playback from the computer, allowing me to mix what I hear...but I usually monitor any inputs I need to hear straight from Cubase. This sounds like it could be the problem. Do you have any suggestions on how to correct this, or is the Audiobox just cursed with this feature? Thanks

Matthew

 

[gecko zzed]

Thanks for the advice, I think you're on the money with that. The audiobox has a headphone monitor control nob that switches between the inputs and playback from the computer, allowing me to mix what I hear...but I usually monitor any inputs I need to hear straight from Cubase. This sounds like it could be the problem. Do you have any suggestions on how to correct this, or is the Audiobox just cursed with this feature? Thanks

Matthew

I think you are generally better off not monitoring straight from Cubase, and instead using the the monitoring functionality of the Audiobox.