Extreme Newbie Question

[05WideGuy]

Hi All, my real name is Joel, i'm a drummer, 54 YO. I've never recorded before, never thought I would be interested, BUT I AM! Why...well I bought my son a M-Audio with Pro Tools for his birthday, he plays guitar and keybord. He messes around and does some neat stuff. I saw a Musicians Friend "Stupid Deal Of The Day" 7 piece CAD drum mike set for $99 so I bought it. So, what I need to know is this; I have a Phonic Powerpod 7 channel powered mixer with record out (2 RCA jacks) I have the M-Audio with the USB to the computer; How do I hook the mixer up to the M-Audio? or is there an easier way? I'm just doing this out of curiosity and for the learning experiance.

 

[cobaltaudio]

which m-audio interface are we talking about?

 

[cobaltaudio]

Basically, you probably shouldn't need the analogue mixer. Ideally you want to just plug mics straight into the interface and then they will just appear in Pro Tools.

However, I suspect you don't have enough mic inputs on the actual to do that. To make use of a mixer, what you would do is plug the mics into the mixer, and then take a line out of each channel and plug that into the line inputs on the m-audio box. BUT I don't think that mixer has line outs.

As a result, you're either stuck with the number of mic inputs on your interface, OR plug the mics into the mixer, mix it straight down to stereo and record that stereo mix into Pro Tools via the m-audio box.

Short answer is you're probably going to have to cut down the number of channels one way or another

 

[05WideGuy]

which m-audio interface are we talking about?

It's the M-Audio Fast Track USB interface with Pro-Tools LE. It has a Mic XLR jack and a guitar jack and a USB out to the computer.

 

[arcadeko]

your stuck with a single mono input on that M-audio device. That will make it very difficult to record your drums since you can not mix and drum at the same time!

But you should be able to run the mix out into the m-audio to get it in the PC - you really need a multi-track interface

 

[05WideGuy]

your stuck with a single mono input on that M-audio device. That will make it very difficult to record your drums since you can not mix and drum at the same time!

But you should be able to run the mix out into the m-audio to get it in the PC - you really need a multi-track interface

Do you have a not too expensive recommendation?

 

[arcadeko]

Do you have a not too expensive recommendation?

Tascam 1800 is only about $300 and has 8 preamps for those drum mics I haven't used one but several people here have, Jimmys69 uses one and he loves it. I use an Alesis Multimix 16 USB 2.0 which is a little more expensive (around $600) and has more or less the same features, but is set up like a mixer (as opposed to the tascam which is basically just an interface although it does have some basic mixing capabilities) - people also like the Zoom stuff, it's cheap - I don't care for the Zoom series myself, feels like it will break if you drop it (but it apparently works pretty well).

 

[05WideGuy]

What about the Behringer ADA 8000? I found one brand new on EBay for $169 BIN.

 

[Steenamaroo]

ada8000 isn't an interface; It has to USB or Firewire connection.

You'd need an interface with 8 channel lightpipe input to be able to use the ada8000 unfortunately.

I also can't personally vouch for the tascam 1800, but there couldn't be too many interfaces with 8 mic pres for less than $300!

Could someone give first hand opinions on the preamps in it?

 

[CrowsofFritz]

I did a short instrument preamp test on the Tascam US-1641 (same thing as Tascam US-1800). Unfortunately I didn't do a vocal test. I already sold it

Here

 

[LmnLm3]

If you just want to try it out, you might think about spending less on a stereo interface - even a cheapo thing like the behringer 202 (takes RCA plugs in/out) and do a stereo mix. If you're thinking of getting into engineering that's a different story bc you need each mic on a separate track in pro-tools. So something like a tascam would be good - the 800 has enough pres and is cheaper...

Amazon.com: Tascam US-800 8 Input USB 2.0 Computer Audio Interface: Musical Instruments

Also, places (like Musician's Friend) will not only price match sites like amazon, but will do 10% better. I noticed this unit because it was the stupid deal of the day a week or so ago (for 100!!!) I didn't get it mainly because there's no power switch and I heard it's not super with drivers, but I'm on OSX so i had no idea. Probably should have bought it... c'est la vie!