Getting more mics into the machine

[WaveForm]

Short version:
Anyone know how I can hotwire two cheap little USB boxes together to give me more I/O?

Long version:
I got into the recording game back when I was a university student, taking all the audio classes that I could. Now I'm in the process of putting together a small home studio on a very limited budget. I've been at it a year now, steadily upgrading everything but my interface, which is a Tascam US-122L. I was recently approached by a local band asking me to track them, but the 122 only gives me a pair of mic ins and pre-amps. A nice, new multichannel interface is out of my tax bracket, but another little USB box isn't. The question is will I be able to use more than one of these things simultaneously, giving me 4 inputs, so i can at least do the basic kick-snare-overheads on the drum kit,
and stitch together a half-decent recording for these kid's website.


Software:
Cubase LE 4
Acoustica Mixcraft
Audacity

Hardware:
Tascam US-122L
(+ another interface?)

Platform:
WinXP

Also have a Vista machine, and linux dual-booted on both, if there's a way to do it under those platforms.

Some google-fu and a search of this forum has pulled up a few hints, but no real answers.

So far i know that:
-The devices cannot be identical or named the same, or XP will excrete the proverbial brick

-vista can't do it (which doesn't surprise me, it can't do much else right either)

-AISO4ALL may provide a way to do this, but I've got no verification on that

-even if A4A can do it, there's some latency issues

Related question: can something like JACK or ReWire help with this/what are they how do you use em?

Thanks in advance, everybody.

 

[TheChikenMaster]

try it see what happens but there might be some clocking issues as there different interfaces running on different time codes. Look into ways of syncing them.
how many tracks at a time do you need? you seem to have 4, 2 mic and 2 lines. if four is enough get a 2 channel preamp for the line ins.

 

[saads]

If all else fails you could just plug another 2 input into another computer? Take the tracks onto the original computer afterwards?

 

[WaveForm]

I need 4+ mics simultaneously recording. 2 machines and copying the tracks over is an option if i record at home, but one of them is a desktop that I can't take to the band's private practice space where they want to record. My home space has poor acoustics and would be a tight fit for much more than a drumset, nor is it soundproofed enough to run the amps they wish to use without upsetting the neighborhood.

If all else fails, what's the cheapest way of getting more inputs?

 

[WaveForm]

Another Idea:

Is anyone familiar with the Lexicon Omega Interface?

It gives 2 mic preamps and 4 Line-ins. Do you think i could run the line-outs of the Tascam into 2 of the ins on the Omega? Basically i;d be reducing the 122L into just a preamp. The question is, will the Omega allow simultaneous use of the preamps and the line-ins, or does it only give 4 ins when all 4 are lines?

 

[Kingofpain678]

Short version:
Anyone know how I can hotwire two cheap little USB boxes together to give me more I/O?

Long version:
I got into the recording game back when I was a university student, taking all the audio classes that I could. Now I'm in the process of putting together a small home studio on a very limited budget. I've been at it a year now, steadily upgrading everything but my interface, which is a Tascam US-122L. I was recently approached by a local band asking me to track them, but the 122 only gives me a pair of mic ins and pre-amps. A nice, new multichannel interface is out of my tax bracket, but another little USB box isn't. The question is will I be able to use more than one of these things simultaneously, giving me 4 inputs, so i can at least do the basic kick-snare-overheads on the drum kit,
and stitch together a half-decent recording for these kid's website.


Software:
Cubase LE 4
Acoustica Mixcraft
Audacity

Hardware:
Tascam US-122L
(+ another interface?)

Platform:
WinXP

Also have a Vista machine, and linux dual-booted on both, if there's a way to do it under those platforms.

Some google-fu and a search of this forum has pulled up a few hints, but no real answers.

So far i know that:
-The devices cannot be identical or named the same, or XP will excrete the proverbial brick

-vista can't do it (which doesn't surprise me, it can't do much else right either)

-AISO4ALL may provide a way to do this, but I've got no verification on that

-even if A4A can do it, there's some latency issues

Related question: can something like JACK or ReWire help with this/what are they how do you use em?

Thanks in advance, everybody.

Just grab a mixer with mic pre's built in and run the outputs of the mixer to the inputs of your USB box. Of course you would have to get all your level's and such right before the signal hit's the computer.

Probably not the best idea but it would work.

 

[darrin_h2000]

The Tascam with 16 inputs is arround $300 right now...you should look into that one.

 

[WaveForm]

That $300 tascam box is just too much. I'm on such a limited budget that even the $160 for the omega is a stretch. also, I feel like I'd be throwing away the 122L. It's a decent converter with okay preamps that i paid a hundred bucks and change for, but has the resale value of pocket lint.

 

[Kingofpain678]

but has the resale value of pocket lint.

That's next to nothing!

 

[WaveForm]

Okay so trying to do a test run of using AISO4ALL to have 2 devices run at once (the 122L and my on-board sound card) led to cubase-LE crashing and burning. I'm running out of ideas here, anyone else got anything?