A sound card mixer

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chewie
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Chewie

Chewie

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This is my first post. So, hey all.
My question is I have a band with 2 vocals, 2 guitars, bass and drums. I want to know can I run all these into my PC all at once but have each recorded to a different file simultaneously?
 
Sometimes what you can do is record a scratch track (live 1 take) of the tune you want to record, then go back and re-record the different insturments separately and tweak and trim till it sounds like a fine studio recording. Eventually, you can cut the scratch track from the mix. What software are you recording with and do you have a real mixer? Good luck, Charva

www.geocities.com/charvster
 
If you want to do this simultaneously you'll need a soundcard with multiple inputs. Typical configurations are 2, 4, 6 or 8 analog inputs plus (sometimes) a digital pair or two. Other techniques include tracking with an ADAT (or two) and then dumping these into the PC via an ADAT interface card.

What Charva was talking about is do-able with any stereo soundcard and the appropriate software.

Welcome aboard, and have fun!
 
Thanks drstawl. But what kinda card can support what you speak of?
 
Aardvark makes a card with 8 inputs, and so does M Audio (Delta). You might need two of them to do what you want to do.
 
There are tons of multiple I/O systems on the market...

http://www.m-audio.com
http://www.aardvark-pro.com
http://www.rme-audio.com
http://www.hoontech.com/
http://www.echoaudio.com/
http://www.motu.com
http://www.lynxone.com

As a general rule, if you're wanting to mic up a drum kit, an 8 input card definately gives you more options. Drstawl mentioned a 6 input card, but I'm not aware of any, as they usually jump from 4 to 8.

If you're going to record the whole band at once, well then you'll probably need more than 8, which would require using a system that supports multiple cards.

Expensive? Yes. From about $400 to $1000+ for 8 inputs. However, you're also paying for decent quality sound.

Now you might be able to get away with 8 inputs or less if you record parts seperately, which is really quite normal and has benefits other than requiring fewer inputs. If you can mic your drum kit with only 4 mics, and you overdub all your guitars and vocals, then a simple 4 input card can get the job done (say in the $230-300 range).

Slackmaster 2000
 
Hmm.... Ok. Sounds good. But assuming I some day will win the lotto. How whould I go about micing drums with 8 mics and mics for the rest. I'd really like to know how each input gets onto a separate file.
 
Your software, which is going to run you from $60 to $600, is going to support soundcards with multiple inputs. It's very easy.

As for the mic'ing question, well, that's better left to the mic forum up above. There are a lot of microphone selections, and doing drums is extremely challenging.

BTW, you can already record two channels to seperate files using just about any stereo soundcard and multitracking software. (e.g. stereo is just two mono channels, and your multitracking software can be configured to record from them as such)

Slackmaster 2000
 
 
Can all these programs record from 8 or more inputs and let each input be recorded to it's own track simultaneously? I'm pretty sure Sound Forge can't do it.
 
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