Do I really need Aardvark 24/96?

C

cwillu

New member
You may find that the aardvark has quieter preamps than the mixer; also, hy using the preamps in the mixer, your signal will have to go through the mixer's preamps, channel eq, channel gain and master gain before it even gets to the soundcard. Each one of those stages will add some noise to the signal. On the other hand, using the DP's preamps, there is only the preamp in the DP, and then the signal is converted to digital, where it will not, for the most part, gain any more noise.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, Tascam's current 8 channel mixer only has 2 balanced outputs, if yours is the same, you won't get any of the advantages of a multiple input sound card, because it will mix all of it's inputs down to just two tracks.

Hope this is useful

William Underwood
 
Recently, I contacted a tech rep at Sweetwater.com looking for suggestions re:sound cards. After explaining my needs, etc. he recommended the Aardvark 24/96. Aside from 4 inputs (which I need), one of the big benefits of this sound card is the built-in mic pre-amps. My question is this: I already own a mixer (10-year-old Tascam 8 channel analog). If I have this mixer already, am I paying up for mic pre-amps in the sound card which I may not need?
 
Thanks, William. Actually, my mixer, a Tascam M-208, has 4 PGM outputs which I currently run to the 4 tape inputs of my 4-track cassette recorder. They utilize RCA jacks. Are they not balanced? Can they not be run to the inputs of a soundcard such as a Core 2 or AArdvark? What does "balanced" mean exactly? Thanks!
 
A balanced connection requires three conductors... rca connections only have two.

Unbalanced connections have one wire which carries the audio signal, and a shield. The wire is quite capable of picking up radio frequencies, especially on long cable lengths. For this reason, they invented...

Balanced connections have two wires which carry the audio signal, and a shield. The signal is inverted, on one wire, however. Any radio interference is picked up in the same phase by both wires. When the signal gets to it's final destination, the inverted signal is flipped back, inverting the radio noise. When the two signals are recombined, the radio noise from the two wires now cancels out. Hence the advantage of a balanced signal.

Most soundcards will work with both balanced signals and unbalanced signals. As long as the cable runs are fairly short, it probably won't make much difference either way.

Hope this is useful

William Underwood
 
Thanks again, William! Actually, the cable runs are very short (3 feet or less). I actually did a little homework last night (Craig Anderton's Home Recording For Musicians), as well as consulting the manual for my Tascam M-208. Although I have 8 BALANCED (XLR) and 8 unbalanced (1/4 inch phone) inputs, the outputs are unbalanced (both the 4 PGM outs as well as the Stereo outs). I was pretty confused at first, because the mixer offers both XLR and RCA connections for the 4 PGM outputs,and XLR and 1/4 inch phone connections for the stereo outputs. I was always under the belief that XLR outputs are always balanced. I guess I was wrong! Yhanks again for all your help!!! Keith.
 
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