Basic question

[mark kwasny]

All on post,
my band is exploring recording for the first time at a "studio/demo"quality level. I have a 16ch board with main(mono), sub (stereo) , and monitor (mono) outputs, as well as individual loops on each channel. What I think I need is to be able to pull a signal from the board ( off the loop per channel) to the PC and then manipulate each channel to a software driven program. I guess I would be looking for something similar to a 16x1 multiplexer (from each channel loop) to get into the computer, then an internal software demux off of the audio card to apply each channel to a soft mixing board.

Any ideas?
mark

 

[knightfly]

If you want to be able to manipulate tracks independantly, and need to record simultaneous tracks, then you would need as many inputs from your audio interface (sound card) as you need to record in one pass. If that means all 16 inputs at one time with the ability to change ANY ONE of the tracks later, then you would need a 16 input sound card.

Those can be had, either by using two 8-channel sound cards, such as those from MOTU, Layla, M-audio, etc, or one 16 channel unit. Creamware makes a unit called the A16 Ultra, which does this but requires at least one of their proprietary cards with their "Z-link" protocol. The A16 runs about $1100, with the least expensive host card at about $400.

Using multiple 8 channel cards can be a pain because of bussing Word Clock between cards so they stay synced together - also, some multichannel cards allow you to use several cards with one PCI interface (MOTU) some allow the same thing with standard firewire connections (usually an add-in card for PC's) Sooo, if you think you need more than 8 or 10 inputs to be separately recorded simultaneously, it would be easier to do with one of the cards that allow multiple units with only one PCI card or firewire.

The other option is for the band members to learn how to record in "Studio mode", where each member listens to previous tracks on headphones and lays down his/her part, then you mix in the computer. That method only requires two or four channels, so is a lot cheaper to get started.

For software, N-track from www.fasoft.com is a good entry level, or possibly Cool Edit Pro. The long list here goes from nearly free to a few thousand$ just for software... Steve