computer recording

[Julian]

okay, i have a few questions for you guys out there. thanks in advance for your expertise. here goes:

1. I'm getting a new Dell computer for graduation (i'm just a senior in high school) which I'll use to record my music. I have an option between getting the SBLive soundcard or Pebble Beach Santa Cruz. Which one is better? (the latter is only a few dollars more). or should I buy a different soundcard?

2. Though I am still a high school student, I have been doing a lot of work for myself and friends and would like my products to sound as good as possible. Lately, my band has considered purchasing the Roland Studio Pack to record directly into my computer. It costs like $650, comes with a mixer that plugs via a bus port into a soundcard which it also comes with, and with Logic software. If i get this, it really doesn't matter which soundcard i get. But, should I? I do all of my recording on the computer currently with N-Track. I have a Peavey mixer (the center of our PA for live shows - the loudest piece of metal God ever made), a few 57s and 58s which we use for live shows. We just bought a MXL v67 which we've been plugging into the mixer for phantom power and then running to my computer. Combined with the shures, we can get an okay sound, but we have to premix everything on the mixer before it runs into one track on my computer. Tracking each instrument individually isn't an issue, i know that, but on things where there are multiple mics, like drums for instance, I hate having only 1 track to work with. If the snare is a little two quiet on our otherwise perfect recording, we have to do it again. The Roland Studio Pack would allow us to record 8 tracks simultaneously, allowing me to have a seperate snare track, for instance, on my computer screen to manipulate. So, after much ado, my question is, i want to be able to have that capability but is there another way I can do this? Does someone else besides Roland have a similar package? or, should I buy a dirth of seperate components?

3. Lastly, sorry for taking all of your time, but I wanted to point out that the Roland has only 2 XLRS. Now, since drums take more mics, would it be okay to use unbalanced cables, to go xlr to 1/4? sorry about that super long post. i just don't have much money, being a high school student and all, and i need to spend it in the right places. much of what i know now is due to your guys' posts, and guys like Harvey's or Tex's are very appreciated. (or anybody with any experience. i just don't remember all of your names.)

thanks a lot,
julian

 

[crawdad]

Lot of questions--and some I can't answer, but I'll point out a couple of things. First, does your current mixer have "direct outs"? If it does, you could buy an eight in soundcard/digital interface and record multiple tracks that way. Since I am a Mac guy, I am unfamiliar with the soundcards for PC's. I use a MOTU 2408 with my Mac and it works well. The LAYLA was a hot item a while back too.

Now, another way to get those 8 tracks into your computer using 8xlr mics would be to get a Mackie 1202 VLZ PRO and two Audio Buddy mic pres. That would give you 8 xlr ins for about $500, but you'd still need the digital interface. Gadgetlabs used to make one that was pretty reasonable. Anyway, for about a grand you could achieve what you want to do--unless there are some much cheaper soundcards out there. Maybe some of the PC folks here can steer you to something.

Are you sure the Roland package won't let you record more than two tracks?

 

[oldseed]

ok, here are your options.

1. you already have one mixer. get another mixer to get more inputs/outputs. and like crawdad said, in the mackie or behringer mixers you can use the inserts/direct outs/etc for outputs also.

then you need to get a soundcard for all the inputs. for info on soundcards, go to this website:

http://home.earthlink.net/~rongonz/home_rec/soundcard.html

it totally rocks ass for a good summary of what's out there. if you choose this route, with the mixers providing the preamps, you want something like the midiman1010, which as 8 inputs and 8 outputs, plus midi and spdif. the midiman1010 doesn't have XLR inputs or preamps. it's just a a/d/a converter and soundcard.

2. you can get a soundcard that has preamps built in. the aardvark direct pro is one example. (info on the website above)

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both solutions should keep you under the $650 mark, and give you proven sound quality.

you aren't specific enough with exactly how many inputs/outputs you need. if you need 8 inputs, then the mixer+midiman1010 (or echolayla or a terratec ews88mt) is a standard setup you'll see. if you only need 4 inputs or so, the aardvark direct pro is a good solution.


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to answer your last question, you can go from balanced into unbalanced without much problem. it is a problem to go the other way, from unbalanced into balanced.
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oh, the roland is a solution that will do the job, i'm sure. but personally i think you can do better with more research and getting exactly what you want. the specs in sound cards like the midiman1010 are excellent.

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finally, you need to really evaluate what you want. you tell us you're looking at a SBlive or a turtle beach card, which are on the budget end of recording, costing less than $100. but then you tell us you watn to spring a whopping $650 on a roland studio pack...

so do you really watn to spend $650 or $100? if you want to spend $100, then the truth is both the SB live and turtle beach are fine cards. if you want to spend $650, i'd recommend doing a lot more research before you decide to plug for a roland.

 

[wilkee]

Also consider the STaudio Cport it has 10 in and 10 out and is an external rack unit with PCI card like the Delta1010 but at a great price.

The inputs are not balanced but that does not really matter at line level. It also has 2 Mic pre.s plus phantom power etc. but these are not too great sound wise ( a bit noisy).

This unit works well when used with inserts ( inserts are usually pre EQ which I prefer) as I can confirm with my Beh 2004.

 

[Julian]

thanks

thanks a lot you guys. i don't know if i articulated everything very well above. the reason i asked about turtle beach and sblive specifically is because those are the two choices i have with the new computer i'm getting. they're the only soundcards dell will include in the package. so i get one or the other. but, if i go with the roland, i'll just sign up for the cheaper one because i'll be putting in a new soundcard.

to answer another question, i need to record probably 4-5 tracks at once. having the ability to do 8 would be nice because my whole band could record at once in different rooms to prevent bleeding and we could go back and redo some of the tracks. and having 8 wouldn't limit me much on micing things, if for some reason some day i need 8 mics on my drums, i have some huge tom thing going on or something, then i could do it.

those other things are interesting, though, specifically what would i need to buy to complete the circuit? i have no pres, compressors, efx boxes, nothing. the roland comes with some of this stuff and that would help me out. thanks for all of your help. i appreciate it you guys.

julian