Screaming Eagle
New member
Best, cheap mixer USB or FW for 4 separate channels or more to DAW ..my studio build
Hello all!
Come follow my studio bulid!
This is my first post here, or anywhere on the internet really..
-First-
I am looking for a cheap temporary multitrack digital mixer with 4 separate channels going into my DAW (minimum). It will be temporary, so I want a cheap one that doesn't sacrifice sound quality, as I will be replacing it eventually.
Currently, I have two old little mixers. I am using a Behringer UB-502 to either record 2 seperate channels, or "live style" with 5 mics mixed down to two independent tracks at a time. I can then "bounce" or overdub infinite stereo tracks on top. Until I can get my 32 track mixer, I just want to buy something to use until then. Something that can get me up to at least 4 or 8 individual tracks into the DAW. So what is the best to tide me over until I can afford a giant 32 track???
I want a mixer with interface not just an interface because;
1: I will be recording 80% in an old school "live style" where the levels and channels will never change. (I can just walk in and press record without having to set levels or anything in the DAW)
2: I will be sending a mix to tape (sometimes just two tracks of ribbon mics), then re-importing them to the DAW as two mono tracks.
3: 80% of the time I will be playing also, so all adjustments will be in post.
4: Idealy I could have a digital "backup" recording per film protocall (though we rarely use these pre-mixed tracks, they are invaluable when needed).
5: If I will have a mixer anyway, I want to cut down on lines and connectors, adding an interface would add two more anologe connectors to each track.
6: Monitoring for mono, mixing down ..and headphones
-Background-
I have been slowly building up my arsenal this way (piece by piece). I just rewired my whole house. I have circuits everywhere!! I have played music for around 25 years. I did some rock records and some film sound recording through the Nineties mostly on tape and a little early digital stuff. I did a little sound recording in the film industry around 2000-2005 mostly on a sound design 788t to protools/final cut, but then I switched to another department fulltime for the last 15 years (though I still interact with the Sound Dept. constantly). I do however have lots of experience editing and working with computers and analogue hardware.
The style of music I will be recording is all over the map, although 80% of it will be Swamp Pop and R&B recorded in the "Cosimo Sound", which was the predecessor to Motown, Chess, Stax and the Muscle Shoals "live style". There will be some Wrecking Crew inspirations (in overdubbing).
The other 20% could be anything! Living here in New Orleans I have played everything from the extremest punk/metal to acoustic and experimental stuff and all the way back to swing! I would love to be able to help a lot of local "starving artists" I know as well, who still play every style you can imagine (and every instrument).
Mainly; vocals, snapping, clapping, guitar, bass, drums, horns, piano, fiddle, slap bass and acoustic music, "bluegrass recording style". My main focus though is dialing in that 50's "soul" and 40's "swing", "live room" sound like Cosimo Matassa had (without an Ampex 300). Long story short, I have always been meaning to set up a studio in my house and well, now our band has a ton of songs and it is time to start!!
I have learned in life, that if you set a goal and work towards it piece by piece, you get old so fast that before you know it you are there!!
I have spent the last two years reading everything I can on here and at "gearslutz" to come up with a plan. My objective with this post is to present this plan and hopefully I can avoid making mistakes and wasting money.
~ ~ ~ ol Buddhist saying
"Knowledge is learning from your mistakes, wisdom is learning from others mistakes"
-The Plan-
A 32 channel mixer w/ timecode to record 16 tracks and send 16 tracks. It will all go to my computer and also 2 mixed tracks will go onto tape (with the possibility of sending just the 2 ribbon mics live style) while it all still goes to the computer also. When I sell my current deck and upgrade to a 2" 16 track tape machine (then 15 tracks plus timecode would also go to tape).
20% of the final mixs will be "modern recording style, or be 48k for film ADR.
80% of the final mixs will go from 24/88 WAV to mono 45 RPM record mastering.
I plan to run "a snake" under the house from my mixing room in the back, to two junction boxes in two other rooms about 40' away.
It is detailed on the floor-plan.
The snake would contain;
16 balanced lines in
12 TRS out (6 headphones)
4 RCA (audio)
2 RCA (video)
2 USB
An Ethernet or two
-The Rooms Acoustics-
Ideally I can use five of the rooms for recording (C,E,F,H and I) their sizes are in the floor-plan.
"H" and "I" are both hot, live rooms.
"I" will be my "main live sound room", "E" is a hallway perfect size and sound for a vocal booth,
"C" Is on it's way to being completely dead and
"F" is balanced about half as dead as "C" (or mostly dead), but it slightly bleeds into "E" and "I".
My goal is to use "i" as my main room for live sound from two ribbon mics, while every other channel mics an instrument or an amp. Having the other rooms is nice because right now I can put my guitar amp in one room "F", bass in another "C", vocals in the hallway with the PA micd in "H" and all of us with drums in the big room "i". This allows an old school live room mix or control over every instrument separately. This is perfect to lay down a full live mix then overdub just the vocals. ...or a thousand other overdub tweaks.
I have about half of the snake cables right now and just need to build the junction boxes and get two Cascade Fat Head Ribbon mics and a digital 32 track mixer w/ timecode. And one day a "big fat" tape recorder. Rewiring the house actually cost more and was the biggest expense I forsee. I pretty much have all the rest finally!!!
-The Arsenal-
Powermac desktop and a few PC's w/soundcards
2 crappy mixers
Behringer UB-502 5in/2out
Fostex FD4 4in/2out (weird ol thing)
Z600 (old Taec church tape deck w/new heads)
-Mics-
SM 58
SM 61
Neuman KM 184
MXL D.R.K
(The band has a few more 57 and 58s)
Buying 2 "paired" Cascade Fathead ribbons next, also want two RCA 77's, or two U-47's!!!
*What other mics and mic preamps do you recomend?
-Instruments-
vocals
snapping/clapping
guitar di, vintage tube amps and solid state
drums
horns
piano
banjo
fiddle
mandolin
steel guitar
slap bass and some electric bass di and cabs
**Full acoustic groups and swing groups Live/"bluegrass style"
***Film sound adr/overdubs at 48k
Thanks for all the years of help when I was just creepin the site and thanks in advance!!!
Cheers and Beers!!!
Da Drunken Eagle
Hello all!
Come follow my studio bulid!
This is my first post here, or anywhere on the internet really..
-First-
I am looking for a cheap temporary multitrack digital mixer with 4 separate channels going into my DAW (minimum). It will be temporary, so I want a cheap one that doesn't sacrifice sound quality, as I will be replacing it eventually.
Currently, I have two old little mixers. I am using a Behringer UB-502 to either record 2 seperate channels, or "live style" with 5 mics mixed down to two independent tracks at a time. I can then "bounce" or overdub infinite stereo tracks on top. Until I can get my 32 track mixer, I just want to buy something to use until then. Something that can get me up to at least 4 or 8 individual tracks into the DAW. So what is the best to tide me over until I can afford a giant 32 track???
I want a mixer with interface not just an interface because;
1: I will be recording 80% in an old school "live style" where the levels and channels will never change. (I can just walk in and press record without having to set levels or anything in the DAW)
2: I will be sending a mix to tape (sometimes just two tracks of ribbon mics), then re-importing them to the DAW as two mono tracks.
3: 80% of the time I will be playing also, so all adjustments will be in post.
4: Idealy I could have a digital "backup" recording per film protocall (though we rarely use these pre-mixed tracks, they are invaluable when needed).
5: If I will have a mixer anyway, I want to cut down on lines and connectors, adding an interface would add two more anologe connectors to each track.
6: Monitoring for mono, mixing down ..and headphones
-Background-
I have been slowly building up my arsenal this way (piece by piece). I just rewired my whole house. I have circuits everywhere!! I have played music for around 25 years. I did some rock records and some film sound recording through the Nineties mostly on tape and a little early digital stuff. I did a little sound recording in the film industry around 2000-2005 mostly on a sound design 788t to protools/final cut, but then I switched to another department fulltime for the last 15 years (though I still interact with the Sound Dept. constantly). I do however have lots of experience editing and working with computers and analogue hardware.
The style of music I will be recording is all over the map, although 80% of it will be Swamp Pop and R&B recorded in the "Cosimo Sound", which was the predecessor to Motown, Chess, Stax and the Muscle Shoals "live style". There will be some Wrecking Crew inspirations (in overdubbing).
The other 20% could be anything! Living here in New Orleans I have played everything from the extremest punk/metal to acoustic and experimental stuff and all the way back to swing! I would love to be able to help a lot of local "starving artists" I know as well, who still play every style you can imagine (and every instrument).
Mainly; vocals, snapping, clapping, guitar, bass, drums, horns, piano, fiddle, slap bass and acoustic music, "bluegrass recording style". My main focus though is dialing in that 50's "soul" and 40's "swing", "live room" sound like Cosimo Matassa had (without an Ampex 300). Long story short, I have always been meaning to set up a studio in my house and well, now our band has a ton of songs and it is time to start!!
I have learned in life, that if you set a goal and work towards it piece by piece, you get old so fast that before you know it you are there!!
I have spent the last two years reading everything I can on here and at "gearslutz" to come up with a plan. My objective with this post is to present this plan and hopefully I can avoid making mistakes and wasting money.
~ ~ ~ ol Buddhist saying
"Knowledge is learning from your mistakes, wisdom is learning from others mistakes"
-The Plan-
A 32 channel mixer w/ timecode to record 16 tracks and send 16 tracks. It will all go to my computer and also 2 mixed tracks will go onto tape (with the possibility of sending just the 2 ribbon mics live style) while it all still goes to the computer also. When I sell my current deck and upgrade to a 2" 16 track tape machine (then 15 tracks plus timecode would also go to tape).
20% of the final mixs will be "modern recording style, or be 48k for film ADR.
80% of the final mixs will go from 24/88 WAV to mono 45 RPM record mastering.
I plan to run "a snake" under the house from my mixing room in the back, to two junction boxes in two other rooms about 40' away.
It is detailed on the floor-plan.
The snake would contain;
16 balanced lines in
12 TRS out (6 headphones)
4 RCA (audio)
2 RCA (video)
2 USB
An Ethernet or two
-The Rooms Acoustics-
Ideally I can use five of the rooms for recording (C,E,F,H and I) their sizes are in the floor-plan.
"H" and "I" are both hot, live rooms.
"I" will be my "main live sound room", "E" is a hallway perfect size and sound for a vocal booth,
"C" Is on it's way to being completely dead and
"F" is balanced about half as dead as "C" (or mostly dead), but it slightly bleeds into "E" and "I".
My goal is to use "i" as my main room for live sound from two ribbon mics, while every other channel mics an instrument or an amp. Having the other rooms is nice because right now I can put my guitar amp in one room "F", bass in another "C", vocals in the hallway with the PA micd in "H" and all of us with drums in the big room "i". This allows an old school live room mix or control over every instrument separately. This is perfect to lay down a full live mix then overdub just the vocals. ...or a thousand other overdub tweaks.
I have about half of the snake cables right now and just need to build the junction boxes and get two Cascade Fat Head Ribbon mics and a digital 32 track mixer w/ timecode. And one day a "big fat" tape recorder. Rewiring the house actually cost more and was the biggest expense I forsee. I pretty much have all the rest finally!!!
-The Arsenal-
Powermac desktop and a few PC's w/soundcards
2 crappy mixers
Behringer UB-502 5in/2out
Fostex FD4 4in/2out (weird ol thing)
Z600 (old Taec church tape deck w/new heads)
-Mics-
SM 58
SM 61
Neuman KM 184
MXL D.R.K
(The band has a few more 57 and 58s)
Buying 2 "paired" Cascade Fathead ribbons next, also want two RCA 77's, or two U-47's!!!
*What other mics and mic preamps do you recomend?
-Instruments-
vocals
snapping/clapping
guitar di, vintage tube amps and solid state
drums
horns
piano
banjo
fiddle
mandolin
steel guitar
slap bass and some electric bass di and cabs
**Full acoustic groups and swing groups Live/"bluegrass style"
***Film sound adr/overdubs at 48k
Thanks for all the years of help when I was just creepin the site and thanks in advance!!!
Cheers and Beers!!!
Da Drunken Eagle
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