Advice on monitoring

[sd_guitars]

Hi folks,

I have an audiophile 2496 sound card and a Behringer UB1204 mixer, which I'm trying to connect up (see another thread elsewhere!)

At the moment the audio out from my soundcard is going to my hi-fi. However, having read the tweakheadz forum, it suggests I can monitor my mixing directly i.e. cabling between Control Room output on mixer to hi-fi input. If this is the case, how should I output my sound from my soundcard? Can I presume that I need to get separate speakers or is there some other way I can utilise my hi-fi for both soundcard and mixer?

If it's any consolation I'm a better guitarist than I am a sound engineer! Curse my peers for making me do this computer recording malarkey!

 

[Kevin Deschwazi]

First off it's better to use monitors made for assessing mixes, most hi fi speakers don't really cut it as they hype certain frequencies to sweeten what's going through them. Having said that there are some very nice hi fi speakers around which are pretty accurate. They're the exception though.

Anyway I'm sure you just want to get on and record for now (and hear it played back). I'm not familiar with the mixer but you should be able to go into the tape ins from the soundcard and then go from the tape outs to the amp. You'll then have your signal going through the mixer and you can use other outputs for monitor mixes, headphones etc.

 

[sd_guitars]

Thanks Kevin - I'm thinking longer-term a more dedicated route might be appropriate i.e speakers.

Any recommendations? Are they self-powered or will I need a separate amp? Again, any recommendations on an amp if required?

Thanks again!

 

[Kevin Deschwazi]

Thanks Kevin - I'm thinking longer-term a more dedicated route might be appropriate i.e speakers.

Any recommendations? Are they self-powered or will I need a separate amp? Again, any recommendations on an amp if required?

Thanks again!

You can get active monitors which have the power built in and passive monitors for which you need an external power amp. Neither is really better, actives save space and you don't have to worry about matching specs but there are some very fine passive monitors available. I'm loathe to recommend lots of monitors because I haven't used much of what's around at the moment (my monitors were made in the 70's!). Try a search on 'monitors' in the thread title and you'll get hordes of info and opinion.

As important as the speakers you use is the acoustic environment in which you mix. Acoustic treatment is a pretty involving subject (a fair bit of physics and maths) but it's important to get a basic understanding if you want to take things seriously. You can spend £1000's on acoustic treatment (and commercial studios do) but there are cheaper solutions available (particularly if you're handy with a saw and a hammer ). If you head over to the studio building and display forum there's plenty of good reading over there.

This series of articles from Sound on sound will probably be of interest as well:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul98/articles/acoustics1.html

That's the first article, if you use the search box in the top right corner you should find the other 4.

Hope this helps.