Extreme Newbie needs help .

R

Rakesh

New member
Hi ,
I have never worked with recording music other than Schiender software which I used on my computer to record some karaoke songs. I was planning to buy a VFM mixer which would help me set my karaoke system as well as an added bonus record it directly on my system HD.

I have narrowed down my search to
1. Behringer Xenyx Q 502 USB .
2. AIR 4 StudioMaster
3. 6.2 DX Studiomaster
4. Behringer XENYX 1202
5. XENYX 802.

I want to connect 2 mics , Amplifier and speakers , DVD Player for my karaoke setup .
Additionally , this setup to be connected to my laptop for recording the same .

My question is ,

if I take the USB mixer , will I have to necessarily use my laptop to drive the system ?

and If I take the non USB option , is it still possible for me to connect my laptop with some adapter and still use it for recording.

Need all the help to take a decision .

Thanks in advance to all the responses .

Regards,
Rakesh
 
The mixers are not recorders! (I assume that on the AIR and Studiomaster as well, never heard of them). Using a mixer to plug all your gear in/together is probably the best bet, but you need something to record what is going into/out of the mixer - either a laptop with recording software (DAW) or a stand-alone recorder.
Using a USB mixer will allow you to send the stereo output of the mixer (with the Xenxy USB mixers, it is only the MAIN output that goes out via USB) to your computer. If you use a non-USB mixer, you would send the audio ouput to the line-in your computer (or recorder), and use the built-in A-D converter in the laptop, note that these are typically not very good quality. You should also note that the USB converter in a mixer can also be somewhat noisy, specially if turned up in volume. Some mixers (not the Xenyx line) have a volume control on the USB, so it can be turned down and avoid some of the noise issue.
 
Thanx Mike.
I did know that recording isnt possible with mixers .
Maybe I did not word it right .
What I meant was that I needed to record it in my laptop . Bascially, wanted to understand if there was any advantage of having a USB mixer if my recording device would be a laptop/ desktop computer .
 
I can understand I think why in this particular case a mixer plus some means of recording is going to be preferred to a straight Audio Interface but I would steer clear of both the USB mixer option and definitely the laptop's internal sound system!

What you need IMHO is a decent line level AI and the only one that I know of at anything like sane moneys is this....


ESI Maya 44 USB+ - Thomann UK
Never used one but I do have an ESI 1010e soundcard system and that works pretty well.

I too am ignorant of the Studiomaster mixers but I would expect them to be AT LEAST as good as Behringer!

Dave.
 
Allen + Heath ZED USB mixers are well received. I have a Mackie ProFX12 USB mixer - one advantage it is over the Xenyx units is a USB 'volume' control - this controls the actual USB output level, so it can be set low enough that the USB high-frequencey A-D noise is not an issue.

But Dave's comments are valid - your best is to have a standard mixer (not USB) for your karaoke use, then use a separate audio interface for A-D coversion of the mixed signal to your laptop.
 
Wow ! That's a lovely mixer . Mu budget is around $150 , and my need is more of a karaoke singing at home and sometimes maybe recording it . Will try and go for a $120 mixer without USB probably the AIR 4 or XENYX 1202 / 802 and the Behringer UCA 222 for audio interface .

Thanx for the suggestion and Help , Dave and Mike .
 
The Mackie mixer and others that use different names but look exactly the same are all Chinese made garbage and are in no way repairable. Unless you treat them very well they will be losing channels pretty fast. The pro stuff is what I like to use and have used a Tascam set of mixer for a long time with no problems- I repair this stuff so I know what is inside and how they were built. I just purchases a Roland Tri Capture device for some small level work and it seems top work well. It was not expensive. Use the mixer in you computer and get what interfaces you need. The Roland might be all you need if not then on to the bigger stuff which will take your budget out. I have dealt with Yamaha digital boards and I find them way too complicated. If an Engineer can not walk up to a mixer and get a signal going through it then there is something way too complicated to the design. Of course these digitals at this facility were $21,000 a copy.
 
Rakesh said:
Wow ! That's a lovely mixer . Mu budget is around $150 , and my need is more of a karaoke singing at home and sometimes maybe recording it . Will try and go for a $120 mixer without USB probably the AIR 4 or XENYX 1202 / 802 and the Behringer UCA 222 for audio interface .

Thanx for the suggestion and Help , Dave and Mike .
Click to expand...

Yes, they are good mixers, "entry level pro" would I think be a fair description? I have the ZED10 FX USB and love it. I do not use the USB facility but feed to an M-Audio 2496 sound card but I have tried the USB side and the performance is close to theoretical 16bit limits, i.e. close to CD performance. The mixer would be fine for instance for recording a rock band in a noisy pub.

I was actually going to mention the UCA 202/222! These boxes are remarkably good for the price (and that causes me to wonder so why many of the built in, USB mixer converters are so bad?) but there are some caveats....

The noise performance is fair, easily good enough I would say (WGR!) for Karaoke but you need to watch input levels. Never peak hotter than -6 on whatever software meters you are using (and I would suggest Reaper).

These basic USB converters need their levels set in Windows 7 (don't know about 8 at all) . In the Sounds and Audio Devices menu find the level for the device. It will surely be slammed to 100%. Too hot by far, take it down to 5% or even less. Some experimentation here with record and replay levels will reap rewards in terms of noise and easier operation.

You might find that things work better (in THIS instance) using the ASIO4All driver wrapper.

Dave.
 
skywaveTDR said:
The Mackie mixer and others that use different names but look exactly the same are all Chinese made garbage and are in no way repairable. Unless you treat them very well they will be losing channels pretty fast. The pro stuff is what I like to use and have used a Tascam set of mixer for a long time with no problems- I repair this stuff so I know what is inside and how they were built. I just purchases a Roland Tri Capture device for some small level work and it seems top work well. It was not expensive. Use the mixer in you computer and get what interfaces you need. The Roland might be all you need if not then on to the bigger stuff which will take your budget out. I have dealt with Yamaha digital boards and I find them way too complicated. If an Engineer can not walk up to a mixer and get a signal going through it then there is something way too complicated to the design. Of course these digitals at this facility were $21,000 a copy.
Click to expand...

The Roland (for the OP, it's an audio interface) would take most of the OP's budget and not serve the mixing purpose he needs.

As to the mixers, there's still a fair amount of difference between the different brands. 'Repairable' doesn't really enter the equation for low-price consumer goods these days. When tech labor goes for $75/hour (with a minimum charge), you don't try to have broken devices that sell for less than $250 (new - under $200 used) fixed, you just replace them. Not sure why you are bringing up digital mixers that sell for more than $1000 in this thread - the OP is looking for inexpensive way to hook stuff for home use!
 
There was one last doubt I had . If I buy a Behringer XENYX 1204 USB , can I use it without connecting it to the computer ?
 
Rakesh said:
There was one last doubt I had . If I buy a Behringer XENYX 1204 USB , can I use it without connecting it to the computer ?
Click to expand...

Yes, you can use it as a mixer/mic pre amp to feed a tape machine or a PA system. People with a lot of music sources, synths, CD player, tuner, VCR etc, often use a small mixer to organise all the inputs.
NB they normally use just one source at a time and thus such mixers are very rarely used for "mixing" (which is just as well because they are not terribly good at that!) .

I in fact use a small mixer to route the output of 3 soundcards to a pair of Tannoy monitors and I still have 4, 2 channel inputs to spare for sometime connection of an AI on a laptop or the output of one of several tape machines.

Dave.
 
Yeah, you can use it without the computer. You just wouldn't be using the USB attachment that comes with it. The XENYX is just a regular mixer, it's the USB attachment that comes with it that would be going to your computer (if you wanted to record, for example). I believe Behringer even sells the USB attachment separately for mixers that don't come with these kinds of attachments. It's a fairly straightforward mixer (I've owned the XENYX 1204 before) and it gets all the basic stuff done, no problem.
 
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