Cutting drums to multiple tracks

M

McParadigm

New member
I'm not sure I can do this. Hear me out.

I have a Mackie DFX6 6-Channel Mixer, which I feed 4 drum mics into. The Mackie goes out via the two "tape outs" into the computer through an Audiophile 2496.

Until recently, that was fine. Hell, when I started I was using the goddamn pres on the Mackie and had no monitors, so it's not like I was chiefing the sound or anything. But now I've got nicer pres (2 Grace 101's, Art MPA Gold with some nice new tubes) and some quality monitors. I figure I'll have to spend some money to be able to start tracking each mic individually on the comp, but I wanted to double-check it here and, really, get the following questions answered:

1. Is it possible to track individually with what I have?
2. If not, what do I need to replace and what should I get?
 
Welcome,

To get individual tracks into you computer you'll need an interface capable of handling multiple "ins". The interface you mentioned only allows two ins at a time.

There are a number of interfaces on the market with multiple ins, USB, Firewire, and PCI cards all come to mind. There's also the option of getting an all-in-one recorder that can provide multiple channels and download these into your DAW software via USB.

Many, many options, and all have their pro's and con's. Personally, if I were starting from scratch, I'd be looking at the all-in-one route because that gets you more portability, better manufacturer support, and a learning curve that's on par with a Portastudio.

Tascam 2488
Korg D888
Zoom HD16CD (can double as a DAW controller)

Look at the forum here for Recording Soundcards for a plethura of opinions on DAW interfaces.
 
Thanks. Thing is, I'm not starting from scratch. I've acquired about $8,000 worth of equipment and treatment during the last 5 years, it just happened to grow up around this extremely simplistic input system. All I really need is to be able to get from the pres into Cakewalk on one track per input, nothing more. I've always thought the Audiophile might be capable of this, I'm just not sure about how or whether the mixer is holding me back.
 
"The M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI Digital Audio Card gives you 2 analog ins and 2 outs on RCA jacks plus S/PPIF for total of 4 ins and 4 outs of high-quality I/O. Channels support 24-bit data width and any sampling rate from 8kHz to 96kHz."

Like I said, I think you need a new interface. Only a digital mixer could get you four "ins" on this soundcard. Do the Grace or MPA have digital outs?
 
You might want to double check to see if that USB 2.0 actually records all the tracks individually on your computer. Regular USB just condenses them all into two tracks. I just don't know if 2.0 was able to do more or not.
 
Not entirely sure how to find that out. Did a lot of searching, didn't find anything that referenced this information.
 
Look into the Motu stuff. They have a number of solutions for this. All the way up to 24 inputs.
 
So like the motu 8pre 16x12? That's a bit out of my price range, but I'm planning on selling one of my amps soon anyway. Might as well use it to fund a good purchase.
 
I'd look to have at least 4 inputs to record drums (overhead pair, snare, kick)

Since you're already PCI based, if you want to save some money (I personally love my MOTU 828, but it was a pain in the wallet for a hobbyist like me) you could try this:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Delta44/
and use the inserts on your mixer to send channels 1&2 to the interface, and then route channels 3 and 4 into the two aux sends or the mains then into the box. So all in all you'd get 4 independent pre-amp'ed channels going into your computer.

I'm not too familiar with PCI cards, but according to one of the reviews on sweetwater, a guy is running this interface together with his audiophile 2496 to get 6 channels in :) If that turns out to be true, it might be a little kludgy, but I think with some cleaver routing you could get all 6 channels pre-amped by your current mixer (although your gain controls would be a little tricky on the stereo in channels).

Hope that helps... good luck! I just recently upgraded to a multi-channel device as well. Recording drums on multiple tracks is sooooo much more fun (i.e. no more tedious "pre-mixing" :) )
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top