Podcast noob

S

Stiksandstones

New member
Hello,
I need help.
Some friends and I are going to start a podcast show ( what a concepts, right? Haha) I know zip about audio and recording, but I do know I like good sound. Between trying to find a good how to on the web and trying to think for myself, I picked up the following:
Alto 122 mixer
Zoom h4n
3 sennheiser e835 mics
Behringer headphone amp (this is still in the mail)
A whole crapload of cables and adapters
And my MacBook pro laptop.

So I guess I will have lots of questions as I go along,I barely just got it all rigged up last night to the point I could get the mic going through to Skype and I could hear it all through the head phones (only one side though on phones??).

What my first of many questions is, I was trying to hear the effects on the alto mixer? Turned the effects button on, red light on, but no reverb, chorus, etc....nada, anyone know why I wasn't getting any effects to sound through/applied to my test vocals or music?

Thanks in advance, and this won't be the last of me, because like I said, I am clueless about all of this.

Craig
 
Dont have it with me, so bare with me.

I have a 1/4" Y-cable going from the alto zmx122 MAIN MIX to the input of my macbook

I have a 1/4" Y cable going to the 5/6 portion of the board...

I have an XLR mic plugged into the '1' section.

I have headphones plugged into the 'PHONES' jack (1/8" to 1/4" adapter for my headphones) and only can hear on ONE side, but if I barely plug the headphones into the adapter, I get both sides?

I have not even plugged in the h4n yet because I have no clue....I just wanted to see if I could get somewhere first! haha...so I could hear myself on the mic, and my laptops audio-which I did, I just did not hear the effects on the board come into play??
 
Much as I don't want to start you doubting your choices, unless your mixer runs individual track outs via USB, and I'd suggest it doesn't have ANY output to USB at all, you're already constrained bascially to operating on a stereo output instead of individual tracks.

I'm reading between the lines but the fact that you have 3 microphones suggests three people all talking at once with some sort of interplay between them?

If you want to be able to do something to voice #1 on the grounds that it's a little whiny, or has said something that you want to edit out, bleed issues aside, then unless you have individual control of tracks, you can't.

Of course if you're only recording a voice at a time, or indeed not recording at all, but streaming live, then this is less of an issue.

How were you planning on recording your podcast? Software?
 
Doubt away, I can still take the items back.

My mixer (alto) does not have USB.

The 3 of us will be talking at the same time, well, in theory-not over each other haha.

My plan was to record to software (audition or audacity?) and backup record to my h4n.

But all that aside, more curiosity, how come the effects don't work off this board? is it the way I am hooked up? i just don't get how everything is seemingly plugged in correctly, effects light on, but no effects? I also assume the effects are done in the board, no need to go through any software to hear them (i don't want to get to caught up in the effects issue, because I won't be using them much, but I did want to know if the board might be jacked).

Thanks


Armistice said:
Much as I don't want to start you doubting your choices, unless your mixer runs individual track outs via USB, and I'd suggest it doesn't have ANY output to USB at all, you're already constrained bascially to operating on a stereo output instead of individual tracks.

I'm reading between the lines but the fact that you have 3 microphones suggests three people all talking at once with some sort of interplay between them?

If you want to be able to do something to voice #1 on the grounds that it's a little whiny, or has said something that you want to edit out, bleed issues aside, then unless you have individual control of tracks, you can't.

Of course if you're only recording a voice at a time, or indeed not recording at all, but streaming live, then this is less of an issue.

How were you planning on recording your podcast? Software?
Click to expand...
 
Return the zoom and the alto and get something like the Zoom r16 or the Alesis Multimix 8 USB 2.0 which will allow you to record each mic on a discreet track and mix it later in a DAW like Reaper or Cubase

as far as your effects, are you sure you are sending the signal through the effects (Aux) send?
 
Was reading about that multimix, sounds like a better thing for me... I would like the ability to isolate voices and get some sound bytes of the funnier guests and hosts.
I want to keep the h4n for doing interviews at races and stuff.. but would also be good to tape to backup on it, if possible. I hear the alesis firewire is a turd? Go with usb?
 
Also, would a r16 or multimix allow me to drop in audio clips DURING the recording of the show of soundbytes, music, sound effects, etc...that are on my computer?

2-3 people hosting, another person on skype getting interviewed, music intro, sound effects, etc...can all this be done with those units?
 
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