4 Simultaneous??

[greendate]

Hi guys.

can anyone point me in the right direction?

all im looking to do is. record 4 tracks at the same to from a device to my pc, so that for example i can record for instruments at once thus giving me 4 tracks onto my computer screen to edit accordingly.

any ideas? not looking to spend a bomb though.

any help welcomed.

 

[cusebassman]

Budget and the quality of your PC are major considerations. Also, what are you looking to record, and what microphones do you have?

If you have a few mics already, and you can afford it, the Presonus Firepod works very well, and comes with Cubase LE - out of the box, you are basically set to go with 8 recordable channels.

As for the computer, you would need a firewire input (its like usb, but not usb itself).

More info will be supplied upon receipt of your info

 

[greendate]

hi mate.

what it is exactly is.

i want to do some home recording, nothing pro just basic stuff.

i have a decent computer/software and a decent guitar effects module.

so basically at the minimum i only need to record 2 tracks at once (bass and electronic drumkit we have).

so all i want is something to record the electronic drums and bass straight onto my computer at the same time, but i wanna see the tracks recording onto the computer onto 2 indivudual tracks at the same time. regarding guitars and vocals i will record these after the rythme is down.

i know u can buy proper mixers etc to do this, but is there something (a shortcut) to do this.

i will mix all tracks on the computer at the end of recording, so i literally need a device to get these tracks onto the computer screen.

thanks mate

joe

 

[raven46]

Budget and the quality of your PC are major considerations. Also, what are you looking to record, and what microphones do you have?

If you have a few mics already, and you can afford it, the Presonus Firepod works very well, and comes with Cubase LE - out of the box, you are basically set to go with 8 recordable channels.

As for the computer, you would need a firewire input (its like usb, but not usb itself).

More info will be supplied upon receipt of your info

that presonus firepod looks like something that i could use, only thing is i dont have firewall is there any decent version that is usb

 

[cusebassman]

If you have a desktop, you can buy a firewire PCI card that fits into a slot in the computer, and I think they run about 20 bucks. USB interfaces tend to be slower, and people on this board seem to run into problems with them quicker.

 

[greendate]

thanks for that mate, will give it a whirl.

thank you very much

 

[raven46]

If you have a desktop, you can buy a firewire PCI card that fits into a slot in the computer, and I think they run about 20 bucks. USB interfaces tend to be slower, and people on this board seem to run into problems with them quicker.

they will probably be 50euro here

i was thinking about recording direct to the computer lately but did'nt know where to or what to start looking for but this looks like the way to go...

cheers...

 

[raven46]

they will probably be 50euro here

just did a search on ebay for the firewire PCI card and they are dead cheap just a couple of euro

 

[Nick98338]

(snip)
so basically at the minimum i only need to record 2 tracks at once (bass and electronic drumkit we have).

so all i want is something to record the electronic drums and bass straight onto my computer at the same time, but i wanna see the tracks recording onto the computer onto 2 indivudual tracks at the same time. regarding guitars and vocals i will record these after the rythme is down.

Drums are usually done as a stereo track. That requires 2 input channels. 1 left, 1 right. The bass is normally a mono track. That requires just one channel input. That's really only 3 channels total that you need simultaneously. You could very easily get that done with any of the smaller Firewire or USB interfaces. Almost all of them come bundled with decent software that will allow you to "see the tracks recording onto the computer onto 2 indivudual tracks at the same time". One of the tracks would be a stereo track, and the other would be a mono track. Easy stuff.

 

[cusebassman]

As far as I know, many end up recording a set with a bass mic, snare mic, and two overheads minimum. You can get away with two overheads, but in my experience it is easier to get a tight sound from 3 or 4. Just one man's opinion though.

As for the need for X number of channels, I figured this would come up. I only recommend an interface with 8 inputs because I have used the Firepod and it works very well. I also feel it is best to invest (if at all possible) in something that is slightly more expensive if it will aid greatly in later uses that might otherwise require an upgrade.

Of course, this is a means to an end, and you can only go so far - yea, you could justify buying a 5,000 dollar Neumann if you kept up-ing the anty by saying "Well, I'll only be replacing X mic later with a better one"... but there's also a bottom limit, as far as I'm concerned.

When I was shopping around for interfaces, I thought to myself "Well, I'm a singer/songwriter type, so I really only need two or three inputs", but then when I read all the reviews of the Firepod, I said "screw it" and went for the 8-input dealie.

A week later, a friend asked me to record him and a friend of his at a show they were playing locally, two acoustic, two vocals and an upright bass. Tight little group - but between their mics and mine, I tapped the 8 inputs.

I might eventually want to do that kind of work with my stuff, so I felt justified in the end.

Again, just one man's experience - if you really think you won't need 8 input, maybe look at the smaller Presonus interfaces. Haven't used any of them so I can't help ya out there - but once you find em, do a title-only search on the product names, and read up on em before you buy - the preamps on these little interfaces, I've found (per reviews on this board), are extremely unreliable (i.e. one unit wil have decent pre's and another brand with similar specs will have crap, essentially).

 

[greendate]

http://www.dv247.com/invt/31552/

would? this do the job

 

[surfmaster]

http://www.dv247.com/invt/31552/

would? this do the job

no, they only give you a stereo mix through usb. check out the tascam 1804. its $299 at musician's friend right now. 8 inputs, 4 preamps. real nice for the price.

 

[greendate]

no, they only give you a stereo mix through usb. check out the tascam 1804. its $299 at musician's friend right now. 8 inputs, 4 preamps. real nice for the price.

how many stereo usb's??

just the one or 2?

 

[cusebassman]

USB is a digital data transfer system - not a strictly audio transport system.

To that end, All that gets sent into the computer is the stereo output of the mixer - not specific channels.