Cart..then horse...I think

[getuhgrip]

Folks, this thread was to be a relpy in another thread, but I lost my AOL connection as I was posting and it wound up here. DSL... hopefully week after next!


I'm still trying to get my mind around some of this tech and protocol. You told me before about the midiman for use with the Darla. Made sense, so I bought the dual port unit. Then I was told that I should be useing XLR cables from mixer to pre or computer interface.
I don't know that the signal will be bottlenecked. I'm just leary of getting deep into a system that I'll be disappointed with down the road. Kind like that sprayer you almost bought!
I'm told that this Darla's A/D convertor is on line with other cards. But I'm hung up on the connectivity issues. It does have balanced 1/4" I/O. TRS? I don't know. This is where I run into trouble. Still trying to digest "balanced" and TRS.
Here's another one. If I'm burnin' CDs in the same box, do I need to be concerned with S/PDIF, coax or other digital links?

At this point I don't know if I'm asking the right questions. But here's the ones I have now...which is the cart..which is the horse?

1. Do I need to run XLR mixer to interface or does 1/4" suffice if I/O are balanced? I do not understand this relationship yet.

2. Is the 24/96 A/D on the Darla up to reasonable standards?

3. Darla is a budget card. What are the compromises that should concern me?

4. Based on answers to above, does a "keep the Darla" decision have any bearing up or down the signal path as to mixer selection, mics, FX or preamp, ect.?

5. Internal CD burning negates special outputs?

I appreciate the help. Thanks in advance. I'm getting a headache!

Too many variables. Like I said a year ago....I thought I was gonna buy a mic and a CD burner and go to town! Do the kids still say "..Not!"

 

[getuhgrip]

I ditched the Behringer. My choices for replacement are 1402 VLZ or Tascam TMD1000. The TMD is digital. I heard that keeping everything in one big happy digital family was a good thing.

The jury is still out on mics. SM57, NT2, C1000, I don't know. Multiple mics on drums.

Let's clear something up. Balanced is balanced whether its TRS or XLR? Right? And 1/4" TRS is fine for mixer to Darla? Or not?

I assume (please correct me if I'm wrong) the following signal path: Mics into mixer Signal out of mixer into effects box and then into Darla. Recorded tracks on hard drive are mastered then pasted to CD burning software internally, negating the need for S/PDIF or other digital output.
I think a light bulb just lit up. Are all those (8) outputs on the Darla (I've only been using 2 for monitoring) for playing tracks back THRU effects processors? If so, where do they go then? Back thru the mixer and back to Darla?

Maybe I'm dislexing or just being dense here. I feel like if I could understand the signal path most folks use, and gain some insight on this "XLR,TRS, 1/4" balanced or not" relationship, other chips would fall into place.

Thanks again. I'm gonna go find some square pegs to fill until 5:00.

 

[keith turner]

i believe the darla24 uses akm5393ad converters(117db).spdif would be good to add a standalone converter to your setup at a later date.i believe my mackies direct outs (channel inserts) are unbalanced so if you want to make a balanced output connection using the mackie you are limited to the main outputs. c7 correct me if i am wrong, but the mackie faq page says the channel inserts (direct outs) are unbalanced. this isn't really that big a deal since your darla only has 2 inputs. the 8 outputs can have a couple of subtle advantages: 1. if your using recording s/w without metering on individual tracks during playback you could assign each track to a different output of your darla and use your recording s/w main out busses to check each tracks individual levels up to 8_tracks.( i.e cakewalk pro 9 doesn't have playback meters on individual tracks, sonar does.) 2. say you want to make wave files of all your separate tracks; you can assign each track to a different darla output up to 8 at a time or 4 at a time for stereo and export to wave file . this would be good if you were collaborating with someone or for remixing. 3. you could run up to 8 tracks to adat or reel to reel for archiving/backup. unfortunately, without digital outputs you suffer another d/a;a/d conversion anytime you tape or mix these outputs on your darla.

 

[keith turner]

i am using an original 1604 and fwiw the channel inserts are the direct outs they are also unbalanced. guess i haven't shopped for a mixer in so long i didn't realize the newer vlz models come with direct outs that are balanced.