Broadening my horizons

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kevin Deschwazi
  • Start date Start date
Kevin Deschwazi

Kevin Deschwazi

Well-known member
I'm new to recording.

I currently use a Zoom all in one studio thing which is great to an extent but I feel I'm not learning as much as I could about the recording process because of the way these things are laid out. I've bought a few outboard processors (multi effect and compressor) which I find much easier to use and they sound better than the Zoom's internal effects.

I'm wandering if it's possible to hook up an external mixer and use the Zoom just as a recorder . My (admittedly naïve) thinking is that I could then have the routing and input/output options that the mixer would give me and also reasonable eq and panning that I could tweak and be able to see as I mixed tracks.

This might sound really stupid but I'd like to at least rule it out. Of course ideas on how I could do it would be greatly appreciated.

Here's the spec of the machine:

http://www.soundslive.co.uk/moreinfo.asp?ID=2073
 
Yes. Get a mixing board. Since your recorder can record 6 tracks at the same time then you should get an 8 bus mixer.
 
Thanks very much for your response.
Could you expand a bit on how I'd hook the two up? I'm assuming I'd route recording source/s through the mixer and then record onto the Zoom's master track. My concern is that I won't be able to bypass the Zoom's input mixer and record direct onto the master track.
 
What are you recording, a live band? I don't know if that machine will record directly to the master track, but if it does, you will be mixing on the fly and eliminating the ability to do overdubs. You might be better off recording through the mixer, using whatever inserts you want and recording to separate tracks. Then you still have the ability to edit, add other effects, do overdubs and not have to mix in real time.
 
it's a lot about whether you want to do your mixing 'in the box'. i use just a stereo pair from my mixer into two of my soundcard inputs (apart from when i'm tracking drums). the mixer is essentially an elaborate patchbay and preamp combination for me, i don't 'mix' using it once recorded.
 
I need to overdub tracks.

I very much want to do my mixing 'out of the box'. It's a real hassle to go into a menu, adjust a bit of eq, then go into another menu for panning etc. More importantly there's no visual reference of how everythings eq'd and panned which is probably ok if you know what you're doing because it's how it sounds that's important. But because I'm learning I want to be able to see where it all is and then relate that to the sound I'm getting.

The more I look into it and from people's responses I'm thinking I might have to rethink my current setup. I like the Zoom because it has a hard drive and it's very easy to burn onto CD-R but I want the flexibility, ease of use and visibility of a proper mixing console.

I think my ideal setup would be a standalone hard disk recorder, and standalone CD-R/RW along with a mixer, but these seem to cost a fortune.

Any ideas on alternative setups? I don't want to go the PC route because I've already spent a fairbit on the Zoom and some outboard stuff.

I'm grateful for your advice.
 
well, for your actual mixing, post-tracking, it depends on the number of outputs on your zoom. can you group things? that way if you had four outputs you could have, say, two groups that you can fiddle with on an outboard mixer. i think the standalone HDD recorder + mixer is a great way to go, but because of the price i went the PC route. i have a friend who does a lot of stuff on an all-in-one like yours and then gets it all into his PC via SPDIF (digital) and that gives him many more options from there.
 
I forgot that the zoom doesn't have an output for each channel.

If you find the outboard equipment easier to use than your digital mixer/recorder then you shouldn't go the PC route.

Sounds like you would be more at ease using an anolog mixer with 8 buses hooked up to a recorder with 8 channels of I/O, either digital or analog. That way you will feel like you have hands on control like your outboard gear.


Good luck with it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top