Amateur

[bluecob]

Amateur

New to this Forum and a frustrated Amateur when it comes to setting up a simple Recording facility, I came here hoping someone might be able to help.

Briefly, I have purchased some equipment, set it up but cannot get it to work. The Manuals that came with the equipment are useless plus YouTube has not been able to help as well. I can record some stuff but not get it to play back plus recording 'live' is proving a problem. I think I may well have the Mixer set up incorrectly.

If anyone can help I would be most grateful. Here is a list of my equipment:

Set Up 1 - Main Studio

Behringer X1832usb Mixer
AKAI MPK49
Behringer MiniAmp Headphone Amp
Kenovo S510p Computer
Rockit 8 Studio Monitors
Pro Tools Software
Ignite Software
Various Mikes, Headphones

Set Up 2 - Office

Apple iMac Computer
Alesis 12 Firewire Mixer
Axiom Air 32
Sennheiser Headphones
Logic Pro X Software
Ignite Software

I am mainly concerned about setting up the Main Studio as this is where I hope to record myself and friends playing Guitars etc.

If this is not the right Forum perhaps just for Professionals maybe someone could point me to somewhere that could help.

Thanks.

 

[mjbphotos]

You'll have to be more specific about what 'doesn't work'. Specific questions will get specific answers. How did you end up with PT without knowing basics on system set-up?

For a start, your choice of audio interface - a Behr USB mixer means you can only record two discreet tracks at one time - whatever is panned fully left and fully right on the mixer's balance controls. Mixers are for live use (mostly) and dedicated audio interfaces are for recording - get one with as many spearate mic preamps as you will need in the future (recording drums usually takes at least 4).
Read the sticky threads at the top of this section of the forum about the basics of computer recording

 

[Steenamaroo]

If this is not the right Forum perhaps just for Professionals maybe someone could point me to somewhere that could help.

Hi,
No, you're in the right place.
As mjb says, though, do give us some specifics. I'm sure we can help.

 

[bluecob]

Soirry for the delay in replying.

I have everything hooked up OK but cannot get my Mixer to work properly. It is down to not knowing how to use the mixer i.e. what knobs to push etc.

The mixer has loads of little buttons and whilst the Manual tells you what they are it does not tell you how to use them. What I am looking for is a simple run through on how to make a recording, how to listen to it then how to make another recording whilst playing along to the previous one.

It is very hard to explain exactly all my problems but I am sure they would be solved with simple instructions on how to make and listen to a basic recording. YouTube is no help.

Thanks.

 

[bluecob]

Hi

I was lead to believe my Mixer is an audio interface. If not what would you recommend?

 

[rob aylestone]

The trouble is, what you need to know depends on what you already know and your level of understanding, plus so much comes down to how you learn.

First thing is that you have a perfectly capable system. The biggest trouble for us, is we don't know how to suggest you get it up and running because it can be done many ways to suit HOW you want to record.


protools is great software, but very much limited by only being able to record two channels at once. It's often not an issue for your own recordings, as work arounds are normal stuff.

Your mixer IS an audio interface - you can connect many sources to it, you can use the internal effects, monitor the result and record direct to your computer via USB, the stereo output. Now if this is what you wish to do, you connect your sources, connect the audio output to your monitors and then it will work. What comes into the mixer you balance, eq, treat with effects and the centre of your activity is the mixer. The computer just records the output. Great for live recordings of a band, for example. However - if you need to record multiple sound sources to INDIVIDUAL channels in your computer, perhaps using the software that came with it (Cubase LE or similar?) then it's more complicated. The mixer then does a different job - you set it to send one individual source to an input channel on the software, and you set an output to send that back to the mixer where you can monitor what the computer is mixing. In this scenario you do not use the mixer's built in effects or eq - that is done in the computer.

The mixer therefore is somewhat limited for this style of recording - you cannot, for example, slap half a dozen mics on a drum kit and record each one separately to a track on the computer for mixing later. It can do two channels one way, and two the other. By hard panning left and right, you can record totally separate sources, but never more than two at a time. So multi tracking is out with this mixer. It is an audio interface, but it's a twin channel/stereo one. If you want to take the mixer and record bands live, direct to stereo, it's great. I suspect that you probably bought it to do recordings without working out how you need a system to work. Happens often, especially if you buy without quite understanding the terminology.
mjbphotos did explain some of this, but I suspect your level of understanding is a bit thin - that's fine, but remember that youtube is rubbish for actually giving help because it's always out of context, and has to assume what you know. Your best port of call is somebody who can come and show you. Mixers do indeed have lots of buttons. The manuals again, are not rubbish, but they assume you understand what they say. If recording is new to you, so much terminology needs to be learned. However, all mixers share a common approach.

Plug in a source to a channel. First thing is to set the gain. pushing a button marked solo, pal or monitor sends what that channel can hear to the meters (and speakers) you turn up the gain, at the top until it's loud enough without turning LEDs red. On yours you also have a clip led on each channel, so turning the gain up until this almost just lights is the aim. Pushing the main button on each channel routes it to the two output faders. The aux sends let you send an output to your musicians, using your headphone amp - it can be different to the mast outputs. The only thing I don't know is that while you can switch the computer output to the monitors, you can't bring it back in as two channels and then incorporate it as an extra two channels - but some things are just too much for a budget product.

The design philosophy is clearly to record bands playing live - hopefully that is what you want to do. Protools will be using a very small percentage of it's capability - if you wish to do studio recording rather than live sound, then you may have bought the wrong product, and what you needed was a multi-channel interface, like the Tascam. However, you can't use that as a live mixer .............

 

[bluecob]

Rob

Thank you so much for your advice. Still a bit confused but getting there.

I wanted to use the mixer as in a studio set up recording 'live' secondary so it appears I might well have purchased the wrong mixer. However I will persevere with this until I can get it working.

My main problem at the moment is getting something recording but not hearing it during recording via the monitor speakers but via headphones. There seems no way to switch between monitors or headphones for listening.

Also, and this is where I will really sound stupid, what is meant when people talk about 'subs'?

Finally, would purchasing a Tascam US-16X08 help and would it link to the Behringer mixer so I could use it to control the individual channels or would the software do this?

 

[rob aylestone]

Subs are the common name for the extra bass loudspeakers - our band PA, for example - our main loudspeakers are bi-amped - one amp drives the HF end - from around 3/4KHz upwards, and then the bass part covers about 50Hz up to the 3/4KHz area. At the bottom, though, it struggles a bit. The big subs we use cover the bottom octave of the 5 string bass - once it goes above that the main speakers take over. A lot of money for serious power for just a few notes. For our own band, we don't even need it - so often we simply use the mains - one song has a loud low note that really can't be handled by the main speakers.

However, subs also refer to sub-groups on a mixer. Smaller mixer can send the channel faders to groups rather than the main outputs - you could group up all the drum mics, so one master fader would bring the whole thing up and down retaining the balance. Without groups, you'd have to shove a whole pile of faders up and down. For recording, you can use groups to isolate the channel you want to record separately - but this you can't do because your mixer just has a stereo output, not multichannel. Your mixer has each channel switchable to the subgroup outputs, which can be used for all sorts - BUT - for you, you can't use them for recording, as they don't go to the stereo output.

You can, once you are happy with how things connect, produce all sorts of workarounds, using panning - so maybe anything you pan left you can record in protools or whatever, but anything right you use simply to hear it. Same with monitoring. Your mixer has an aux bus - this is what would normally go to the musicians headphones, so they can have their own mix - independent of the channel faders.

Personally, I'd go with the US-1800 Tascam - just that I've got one and I like it, and it's trouble free. The one you suggest is a mixer too, but if you intend recording on protools, or cubase, or any of the other proper platforms, then all you want is in and out. I do everything in the machine now, and have a few audio mixers - simple and complex, and realistically, all they are used for is letting me hear the various synths, samplers and keyboards I have, plus the outputs from the Tasacm. Your mixer would be a handy gizmo for this. Your mixer has useful facilities that would work well with the Tascam. You could wire it many ways, but maybe just wire these so they can go into the line inputs of the Tascam? Your band mics go direct to the Tascam XLRs, and if that isn't quite enough, you use the Behringer inputs for an extra two channels to go to the line inputs - being a bit creative.

Does this make sense?

 

[bluecob]

I have just come in and read your email. After a bit of linch (I live in France) I will go try your suggestions once I get my head around them. I will post my results if you are around later.

Thomann don't sell the US 1800 any more plus it is a rack mount which I don't really want as I have no rack. Would the one I suggested work though if I bought it?

Would you prefer to liase via email? My email address is: dwo@gmx.co.uk.

Thanks again.