Bedroom dj looking to start recording mixes: Need advise on sound cards

[jbmurphy]

I have done some background research, but not alot. Like the subject says, I have 2 turn tables and a mixer. I have a record-out on my mixer that I send in to my current sound card. I have read alot of different opinions about what is the best cards to get. It seems like the Gina card (I believe by echo) is a really good card. Is this over kill? Is it a kind of card that I can learn to use and will allow me to do a bounch of different things?
Another question. Reading the first page, Hoemrecording.com says "We're also breaking up the Recording section into Analog (a $2 word for "cassette tape", mostly) and Digital". Which am I doing? I know that the sound going to my card is analog, and that there is a analog to digital converter. So my tunes are both analog and digital. Which section would my situation fall under?
With the answer to that, should I be looking at a card for analog recording or digital recoring? or does that question nat even make sense.

 

[AlChuck]

The terms "digital recording" and "analog recording" refer to the means of recording the sounds, not where the sounds originate. Analog means that in some way, an electrical waveform that is analogous to the sound waves that you were seeking to record is preserved somehow. Cassette tape is a good example. With tape, the vibrations of the air are turned into electrical signals (by a microphone, for example) that are then preserved by rearranging the magnetic material on the surface of the tape. When played back, the new arrangement of the magnetic particles causes almost the same electrical signal to be re-created, which is then turned back into sound waves through an amplifier and speakers.

Digital recording is a means of describing the same waveform as a series of numbers that can be stored on and manipulated by a computer. The vibrations of the air are again turned into electrical signals, and these are turned into numbers by a device called an analog-to-digital converter. Basically, this device measures the wave's amplitude at very short intervals, called the sampling rate, and turns this measurement into a binary number. The measurement can only have certain values, depending on the number of bits or binary digits used to divide up the entire range from silence to the loudest sound. So-called "CD quality" recording is 16-bit, 44.1 kHz recording. 16 bits is the number of binary digits used to store the numbers. 16 bits allows the number to take on 65, 536 possible discrete values. A sampling rate of 44.1 kHz means that the waveform is measured 44,100 times every second. If the sampling rate is great enough, and so the interval between samples is extremely tiny, and if we use a fine enough scale to measure the value at each instant, the numbers recorded will very accurately represent the original waveform. The idea is much like the way that motion picture camersa work. Basically movie cameras take a series of snapshots one after the other with small increments of time (every 1/30th of a second) between each image. When you see them played back at that rate, your eye sees very smooth, realistic motion, instead of a bunch of still pictures that are really there .

Any recording that occurs through a sound card on a computer is digital. Any real sound that you record -- miked guitars, flutes, voices, or signals from a turntable -- start out as analog signals, and get digitized by the sound card.

If you have two turntables, I assume you have a stereo signal from each. If you want to record each L and R signal onto a separate track on the computer, you would probably prefer a card with at least 4 ins, like the M Audio Delta 44 or the Gadget Labs WavePro. The Gina has only two inputs.

-AlChuck

 

[drstawl]

<I have done some background res

First off- do some more!
It's worth it!

<Like the subject says,
<I have 2 turn tables and a mixer.
<I have a record-out on my
<mixer that I send in to my current.

I don't meen to seem flip here,
but how about a microphone?
What've you got now?

<I have read alot of different
<the Gina card (I believe by echo)
<can learn to use and

Gina is not overkill quality wise.
All my stuff is done on a Gina.
Samples in the clinic.
But Alchuck's got a point
about 4 ins...
unfortunately you'll need 8!
you'll probably will want two more
for mixing with another stereo
source like CD/MD/tape
one more instrument input
So your choice of small mixer with
decent pres will impact the overall
sound more than your choice of any
$300 soundcard.

<Another question. Reading the first
<section into Analog (a $2 word
<the sound going to my card
<both analog and digital.
<I be looking at a card for a
<sense.

The analog thing is <storing> your
recording in analog format. The
sound is dependent on the "conversion"
between the analog data on the tape/LP
etc. to an electrical signal that is
amplified to line level and then
depends on your output chain.
The digital thing is storing the
recording as a series of bytes
representing the waveform. The sound
is dependent on the D/A
converters and your output chain.