Band Recording

[NoOneYouknow]

Alright I'm a straight newbie here, with very little recoding backgroud. My band and I are getting started out to record a couple demo tracks. We already, laid some songs down using a single mic, mixer and laptop (with Micrsoft recored, AKA Peice o shit).
With these recodings beging fair in qualityl, I realy want to have some better to show off our true talent. I'm looking to record using a laptop, and a Alesis 8 channel multitrack mixer with a usb out. I have no idea if its possible or the right way to be able to record, each person on a different channel on the mixer, and then be able to control each channel individually on the computer using a multitrack recoding program.

Anyhelp is Apreciated
P.S. I'm only 16 with limited money

 

[peopleperson]

Your Alesis mixer with USB will only dump the main outs into your computer essentially. Just two channels. You should get a mixer that'll accomodate all your inputs, has direct outs, and a soundcard that'll get you enough individual channels into your comp as well.

 

[NoOneYouknow]

Thanks

Sounds like a plan any idea of a good setup out ther that can do that, or the specific name of that type of mixer?

 

[pjh6467]

recording

Well if your budget is tight I'd go with a behringer. Mackie boards a tad more expensive but quieter. Are you recording the band as a whole or track by track? There is cheap software out there that will fit your needs. Power tracks by Pro Audio(pgmusic.com) is 48 tracks, easy to use,great quality and only 50 bucks. Ntrack is 88 tracks for 50 bucks also. I use a behringer ub802 mixer which has 2 xlr mic inputs and 4 line inputs,preamp and phantom power. And get great results with it. And that is only $50 also. If you have a souncard,software and mixer you can get some decent results for burning to cd. And with this set up you can do multitrack recordings(overdubbing) and really take control of your mix. So instead of doing a live take with the everyone you could record drums on tr1,bass on tr2, guitars on 3 and 4,vocals on 5 etc...or lay your rythmn section down live,(bass, guitar,drums) and then overdub your solo's and vocals on top of that. The software can convert those tracks to a stereo wav file that can be burned to cd or you can convert to mp3 and put on your bands website. If you guys can dig up some money it'll be worth it as a beginning setup. There is a lot of good info in all the threads on this site.Take advantage of it. Dig into past threads before you post. Your answer may aready be in here somewhere. But no newbie will turned away. Good luck Pj