Do I need a Mixing board?

[billy3000]

I'm sorry if that sounds dumb, but I'm curious. Since Cool Edit has it's own mixer in the software, and on screen looking very much like a board......
why would I need an external board to record and or mixdown using CEP?

Oh....I plan to record everything one track at a time myself if that helps make the Initial question clearer.

Thanks for any/all feedback!

Bill

 

[manning1]

billy , i would suggest you get a book on setting up a recording studio.
and study it carefully.
you need to have an external mixer or preamp to amplify the small microphone level of a few millivolts for recording a track.
the mixer in cool is to mix tracks once recorded and to create a stereo mix which can then be burnt to cd.
if you tell us your gear list currently ie...mics, sound card etc ...
we can make suggestions.

 

[billy3000]

what book do you recommend?

billy , i would suggest you get a book on setting up a recording studio.
and study it carefully.
you need to have an external mixer or preamp to amplify the small microphone level of a few millivolts for recording a track.
the mixer in cool is to mix tracks once recorded and to create a stereo mix which can then be burnt to cd.
if you tell us your gear list currently ie...mics, sound card etc ...
we can make suggestions.

seriously, I think you're right. I have recorded my guitar into the cheesy soundcard I have (SB16) via an old GSP21pro processor. I have recorded from the JV1010 sound canvas straight onto cool edit also....just experimenting.

I have a soundcraftsman stereo power amp, 200 watts per channel.

I'm planning to buy a new PC and probably an EMU soundcard, but not necessarily......

just putting things together, slowly

 

[billy3000]

what's your thoughts on this board?

billy , i would suggest you get a book on setting up a recording studio.
and study it carefully.
you need to have an external mixer or preamp to amplify the small microphone level of a few millivolts for recording a track.
the mixer in cool is to mix tracks once recorded and to create a stereo mix which can then be burnt to cd.
if you tell us your gear list currently ie...mics, sound card etc ...
we can make suggestions.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=rec/s=mixers/search/detail/base_pid/630168/

 

[manning1]

thats a new product. i know nothing about.
for cheap i would suggest you look at a good proven solution
Yamaha mg mixer and a delta pci sound card.
i'm very leery of usb solutions. but it might work for you.

 

[billy3000]

I'm clueless

thats a new product. i know nothing about.
for cheap i would suggest you look at a good proven solution
Yamaha mg mixer and a delta pci sound card.
i'm very leery of usb solutions. but it might work for you.

I am just making my best guess that the capabilities of a PC are greater than a
Tascam 2488 or one of the various models which 'compare' to it.

I saw a post to somebody on here indicating that if one is doing one track at a time (which is what I'll be doing) maybe a vocal preamp and some guitar processors are more useful than an actual board.

unless I buy a sound card or interface with 16 outs on it, I still don't see why I would need a board to mix. I think we agree on that.

I'll be recording our stuff one track at a time, with me playing all the parts including some kind of drums......a keyboard thru a sound module suits me.

And then a vocalist, who has a mike preamp.

I have a playback amp and good speakers. I think what we're lacking is decent headphones and a new PC. I'm just sold on computer recording, and am very leery of desktop HD recorders.

And if I can avoid USB connectons, so be it

a yamaha mg mixer......a new product? or something I could find second hand? Thanks for your feedback btw. much appreciated

 

[billy3000]

How bout this one?

billy , i would suggest you get a book on setting up a recording studio.
and study it carefully.
you need to have an external mixer or preamp to amplify the small microphone level of a few millivolts for recording a track.
the mixer in cool is to mix tracks once recorded and to create a stereo mix which can then be burnt to cd.
if you tell us your gear list currently ie...mics, sound card etc ...
we can make suggestions.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=live/search/bigpid/base_id/104861/

 

[manning1]

yes billy THAT mg mixer for recording one track at a time.. you can always add a nice standalone preamp later if you wish. just make sure you have enough mic channels. you can always add another anyway later if you get a multi input sound card.
for soundcard IF ONLY RECORDING ONE TRACK AT A TIME...
audiophile 2496. someone reported to me on another forum he likes his terratec as well.
heres a pc confign youll have trouble outgrowing unless you do a zillion plug ins. should do 40 tracks easy.
amd athlon, 512 ram, plus two 7200 rpm drives. 8mb cache drives are preferable.
STAY AWAY FROM FANCY VIDEO CARDS IN PCI SLOTS.
have the sound card as the only card in a pci slot.
peace.
ps..if you want an interesting piece of software that will let you build a back up band in software (if you dont have other musicians to play with)
check out band in a box sometime. demo at pgmusic.com.
bit pricey...but very addictive.

 

[thajeremy]

actually...if you wanted to...with the sound card you have, and the mixer, you can get 2 seperate tracks recorded. Mic in channel one and mic in channel 2 of the mixer. mic 1 panned right, mic 2 panned left. Out from the mixer to the sound card with a stereo cable and you have 2 channels. you will need an adapter to take your left and right outs of the mixer and put them into one stereo cable to go to the soundcard.

 

[manning1]

jeremy ...its my understanding he doesnt have a mixer currently feeding the mic signal to the pc..
you just cant slap mics into consumer sound card mic inputs. they are terrible quality.

 

[thajeremy]

jeremy ...its my understanding he doesnt have a mixer currently feeding the mic signal to the pc..
you just cant slap mics into consumer sound card mic inputs. they are terrible quality.

No doubt...I was just giving him another reason to go for the MG mixer you suggested.

 

[manning1]

sorry jeremy. i misunderstood your post. i thought you were suggesting directly connecting a mic to sound card input. apologies.
the correct way is mic>>>mg mixer mic input>>>sound card LINE INPUT.
peace.

 

[billy3000]

Thank you sir!

yes billy THAT mg mixer for recording one track at a time.. you can always add a nice standalone preamp later if you wish. just make sure you have enough mic channels. you can always add another anyway later if you get a multi input sound card.
for soundcard IF ONLY RECORDING ONE TRACK AT A TIME...
audiophile 2496. someone reported to me on another forum he likes his terratec as well.
heres a pc confign youll have trouble outgrowing unless you do a zillion plug ins. should do 40 tracks easy.
amd athlon, 512 ram, plus two 7200 rpm drives. 8mb cache drives are preferable.
STAY AWAY FROM FANCY VIDEO CARDS IN PCI SLOTS.
have the sound card as the only card in a pci slot.
peace.
ps..if you want an interesting piece of software that will let you build a back up band in software (if you dont have other musicians to play with)
check out band in a box sometime. demo at pgmusic.com.
bit pricey...but very addictive.

actually, I have both Band In a Box and PowerTracks. Also, the old version of CEP. I like the old version. besides, money is an object I'm afraid. reality sucks it's for people who can't handle drugs or something like that.

already had the 2496 scoped as well. I foolishly thought that I could at least start doing 'trial demos' with my boat anchor PC. wrong. but I have software when I snag a new PC. now then, since I'm picking your brain.....I have a PNY video card in this PC. it's a VERTO GeForce4 MX/Ti VGA card....whatever the hell all that means. Is it too fancy? it has 64megs of it's own memory or RAM.

also, I will heed the advice about HD's 8000cache. got it. Thanks much. I really appreciate the chat. cheers!

 

[billy3000]

thanks jeremy

actually...if you wanted to...with the sound card you have, and the mixer, you can get 2 seperate tracks recorded. Mic in channel one and mic in channel 2 of the mixer. mic 1 panned right, mic 2 panned left. Out from the mixer to the sound card with a stereo cable and you have 2 channels. you will need an adapter to take your left and right outs of the mixer and put them into one stereo cable to go to the soundcard.

yes, we have a vocal preamp that can stereo split and I also use my GSP21PRO for vocals sometimes. it actually has some really decent reverbs and eq. it's useless for live guitar playing (it's intended use obviously) and the compression is pretty so so. but, it works nicely with just a smidge of reverb and a dab of EQing. I also record the guitar thru it, either directly or played thru an amp/miked/and run the the gsp21 and into the sound card.

amazingly, in spite the fact that the soundcard is a SBextracheezy and the PC is a boat anchor, I've gotten a feel for wht PC recording is like. I like it.

3 tracks, maybe 4 and this PC tilts. not a prayer to finish a whole song. I realize that now. but the peripheral dinosaur entrails laying about are still quite useful. thanks!

 

[billy3000]

hey there!

yes billy THAT mg mixer for recording one track at a time.. you can always add a nice standalone preamp later if you wish. just make sure you have enough mic channels. you can always add another anyway later if you get a multi input sound card.
for soundcard IF ONLY RECORDING ONE TRACK AT A TIME...
audiophile 2496. someone reported to me on another forum he likes his terratec as well.
heres a pc confign youll have trouble outgrowing unless you do a zillion plug ins. should do 40 tracks easy.
amd athlon, 512 ram, plus two 7200 rpm drives. 8mb cache drives are preferable.
STAY AWAY FROM FANCY VIDEO CARDS IN PCI SLOTS.
have the sound card as the only card in a pci slot.
peace.
ps..if you want an interesting piece of software that will let you build a back up band in software (if you dont have other musicians to play with)
check out band in a box sometime. demo at pgmusic.com.
bit pricey...but very addictive.

I copy/pasted all the tips/ideas/particulars from you...and jeremy and emailed it to myself.

the one thing I still don't grasp is the video card. you put it in caps, sounds like trouble. I can only ssume that a fancypants gimcrack 'gaming' type video card would/will screw with the recording process somehow.

as I said the one I have was about 100 bucks........a VERTO GeForce4 MX/Ti VGA card by PNY....sounds pretty gimcrack and gaming oriented. befor I yank it and pitch it in the bin, I'll wait and see what you have to say. if it's misbehaver, it'll have to go. thanks for all your help!

 

[billy3000]

Thanks Again

billy , i would suggest you get a book on setting up a recording studio.
and study it carefully.
you need to have an external mixer or preamp to amplify the small microphone level of a few millivolts for recording a track.
the mixer in cool is to mix tracks once recorded and to create a stereo mix which can then be burnt to cd.
if you tell us your gear list currently ie...mics, sound card etc ...
we can make suggestions.

feel free to drop an email sometime if you're of a mind! between now and then, I hope to have some rough demos to show ya.

take care,

Bill

 

[manning1]

billy - if you need my help. i need info on your system in FULL.
OS, memory, processor...and anything else you can tell me.
also if you can run diskbench from prorec.com that would help for me to determine how good your drive(s) is/are etc. its a bit like a doctor diagnosing.
i cant do it blindly. thanks. then i can make suggestions.
i think you probably need that video card unless you have other video
facilities.

 

[tonsofpcs]

Where I work, we use a Lynx One digital soundcard and an analog mixer [Mackie CFX-16 iirc]. The Lynx One has XLR ins and outs [3 each, left, right, and digital] via a breakout cable.

 

[billy3000]

my system in full?

billy - if you need my help. i need info on your system in FULL.
OS, memory, processor...and anything else you can tell me.
also if you can run diskbench from prorec.com that would help for me to determine how good your drive(s) is/are etc. its a bit like a doctor diagnosing.
i cant do it blindly. thanks. then i can make suggestions.
i think you probably need that video card unless you have other video
facilities.

ok....I'm more excited about the dream system you suggested with the 2 7200rpm HD's 8000cache etc...

what I HAVE is a PII 233mghtz, 6gig HD and 290 megs ram. a SB16/that new video card I described. what else......that's about it. a boat anchor essentially. I think the video card is the only salvagable part in the whole unit

software: Powertracks 7.0/BITB 2004 and the original version of CEP

 

[tonsofpcs]

That system sounds fine to me. May be a bit sluggish with layers, but just recording and playback in single-track should be fine. I have computers MUCH older than that with MUCH lower specs that work fine.