Even more soundcard questions...

[Mip]

In my last question I asked about having alot of outs on a soundcard for headphone use, but Spider said he wasn't sure if the outs took headphones. In that case, where do you plug in your headphones? And, what are those outs for?
Also, when you're buying a mixer to plug into the input in your soundcard, do you just buy one with enough tracks to accomodate the number of instruments you're recording simultaneously onto one track?

If this is right, when you plug in to a stereo channel, does it sound like that on the finished product? Or, do you have to plug into 2 inputs on the soundcard from the mixer outs?

Well, I hope somebody knows what i'm trying to say. Thanks in advance people!

 

[nubius]

You can plug headphones into anything that has a headphone symbol near it.

The number of channels on a mixer gives you a limit to how many individual signals you can send to the stereo output.
Each channel can be set to a different level or pan or EQ by adjusting the channel faders. Then, all these channels are combined together at the stereo output of the mixer.

Because all the channels are combined at the mixer output, this means L & R on the mixer output go to L & R on the soundcard. This could be two separate mono sockets or just one stereo socket.

 

[gcounselman]

You could possibly plug headphones into your outputs, but you will have to buy a headphone preamp from Radio Shack. However, you might need some other adapters to make it stereo. If not it mught just play out of one of the speakers.
-gman

 

[Spider]

hi all , well mip , i know my soundcard doesnt take headphones.. pretty much most soundcards have to be line level i think .. which means a preamp is needed. I believe this would be the same on the outs. So like the councelman said a headphone amp would be suffice i think . Mip was asking "what are they for if there not for headphones" .. wel primarily i think there for monitoring or even mixdowns .. Quite often ill go out of the soundcard through the desk , effects , whatever and back in .. might seem a lot of unneccesary routing but it works.. I think the best thing to do would be to use a mixer with subgroups.. route a subgroup on the desk to headphone amp , feed this via the outs on your soundcard into a stereo channel on the desk.
hey mip , your right about the recording thing .... really i think u only need heaps of inputs if your going to use them .. certainly its great not having to unplug things but for costs sake i dont think its neccesary. I use eight in , only cos i record drums , and use eight mics .. thats about the most amount of simultaneous tracks i need to record .. Though i would mind a 16 track recorder ...mmmmm..
anyway , hope it helps ,
spider

 

[dobro]

I plug my headphones into my mixer (I run outs from my soundcard to my mixer).

You asked: "when you're buying a mixer to plug into the input in your soundcard, do you just buy one
with enough tracks to accomodate the number of instruments you're recording simultaneously onto
one track?"

That's one way to do it. Or, you can buy a mixer with enough channels to accommodate the number of sources you're recording simultaneously onto as many tracks as your soundcard can handle. I've got an 8-channel soundcard, and an 8-channel mixer. So I can record 8 different sound sources onto 8 different tracks. Loads of possibilities.

You asked: "If this is right, when you plug in to a stereo channel, does it sound like that on the finished
product? Or, do you have to plug into 2 inputs on the soundcard from the mixer outs?"

Dunno, but I'll take a crack at it, which will encourage someone who really knows to correct me. If you record a track in stereo, it will sound like that on the finished product, yes, although it won't be panned left and right through the speakers, I believe. It takes just one channel, one track, one in, one out. However, I've asked people on various occasions why anyone would ever record something in stereo, and most people have suggested that recording mono tracks is the commonest approach, and takes up lots less disk space.

 

[Spider]

i think it has a bit to do with whether your going through a mono channel or stereo channel. Mono and stereo will come out on your speakers with a pan (when going through the mixer), the difference is that stereo channels are able to be panned before the signal actually enters the desk.. thus a stereo reverb with a pingpong delay can transmit its left and right properties. like dobro said , if someone can correct me , please do .. I do the same dobro , i basically use 6 direct outs , sometimes eight , and inputs 7+8 on my souncard are fed by the main mix , so i can send all the other channels there if i need to. I do the same , but i only use the control room headphones on the desk , all the others i need a headphone amp. anyway i hope i didnt dribble too much , haahaa....

spider