A few questions about my setup...

[MDR]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum but have been recording for a while now with various setups. Despite that, I'm really not sure if the setup I have currently is easily improvable or not. Any advice I could get from you more experienced folks would be much appreciated. Here is the current setup I am using:

All instruments (keyboard, e-drums, guitars, etc.) all patch into a Yamaha MG10/2 mixer. The mics go through a Behringer MDX1000 compressor as well. The output from the mixer goes into an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card, which records into Cakewalk Home Studio 2004. From there, all of my audio comes out of the card to a stereo reciever with 2 speakers and a subwoofer, so I use that setup instead of monitors.

Here's where I have questions. A lot of questions. I really like the compressor (which I just bought) on the vocals, and I wanted to try using it on the entire mix to see what I can get. I just don't know how to do that...would I run the RCA's from the output of the card into the compressor, then back into the mixer? Then how would I hear it if the output is not connected to the speakers? Woud I then be forced to monitor with headphones?. Or could I use powered monitors plugged directly into the 1/4 outputs of the mixer? Also, should I scrap the receiver setup for some powered monitors anyway?

Sorry for all of the questions, and I hope someone can help me out. I don't want to go out and buy more cables or monitors if I don't know what I'm doing, or worse, don't need them at all. Thanks for reading my post!

 

[Bobbsy]

Well, you have several options.

Probably the easiest would be to not use the Behringer compressor but, rather, download a compressor plug in for Cakewalk. My memory of Home Studio 2004 is that built in compressors are limited or non existent but one of THESE would work well for you--the "classic" is probably a nicer compressor than the Behringer anyway.

However, if you want to use the hardware compressor, you have several ways to patch it. You could come out of your sound card to the compressor, then back into the mixer and into your sound card/computer as you say. Your amp/monitors could plug into the control room out on the mixer.

Or, if you don't mind playing with patching between record and mix sessions, bring your sound card output into the mixer and either use the Insert jacks (you'll need a special cable) if you're on inputs 1/2. Again, monitoring could be via the CR outputs.

However, I'd go with option one and download the plug in!

Bob