Have been researching audio interfaces and mics -- need help

[AWK]

My DAW is FL Studio latest version. I have played around with it for years, but now I want to record decent quality vocals on a budget. Anyways, this was what I came up with for the audio interface: Samson SASMIX S-mix - 5-Channel Mini Mixer. I wanted to know if I hooked this up to my sound card mic input with rca to 3.5mm jack. Then bought a non-phantom power xlr mic of some kind, would FL Studio detect it? and would I get a reasonable sound out of it?

Thanks,
AWK

 

[Seidy]

This Samson is not a audio interface and recording via 3,5mm input is a good way to end up with bad recordings. Also usb mic's are not the way to go.
Try to find a decent interface for starters. M-Audio Fast track mk2 for example is cheap and helps you to get decent recordings.

 

[mjbphotos]

Ditto what Seidy said. You don't need a mixer unless you are trying to MIX several sources into 1 or 2 outputs. Get a real audio interface.

 

[ecc83]

+1 to the advice so far...Except! I have lost a bit of faith in M-Audio/Avid these days (and so it seems have Thomman?)
The Steinberg UR22 is a better interface by my reckoning and about the same price.

Dave.

 

[Armistice]

Quality of research = poor. Read the Mixer / Interface sticky up the top of the forum and rethink. Read everything else there too.

 

[Bobbsy]

+1 to the advice so far...Except! I have lost a bit of faith in M-Audio/Avid these days (and so it seems have Thomman?)
The Steinberg UR22 is a better interface by my reckoning and about the same price.

Dave.

It depends a bit on which M Audio since Avid bought them out. I can vouch for the M Track model... Bought one a few months back and have been very pleasantly surprised--decent pre amps, construction seems good and the drivers. (At least on Win 7) seem rock solid--I'm using it for live sound playback in a theatre just now so I must trust it.

FYI it's identical to the Alesis iO2-- who makes it for who I dunno.

 

[ecc83]

It depends a bit on which M Audio since Avid bought them out. I can vouch for the M Track model... Bought one a few months back and have been very pleasantly surprised--decent pre amps, construction seems good and the drivers. (At least on Win 7) seem rock solid--I'm using it for live sound playback in a theatre just now so I must trust it.

FYI it's identical to the Alesis iO2-- who makes it for who I dunno.

Hi Bobbs,
my beef with Avid/M-A was started some time ago when I needed to download the drivers for my Fast track pro to burn to CD and send with the AI to my son in France. I had to jump through a lot of hoops to find said drivers as the company had split off support for different products to different departments.

Having spent most of my working life in the service industry and have always done my best to help people ("the customer is always right, even if he is off his trolley") I get extremely pissed off when companies piss ME about!

However, that M Track looks the bizz! It has MIDI as well for 70ish notes! (why oh why could you not have done that F'rite for the 2i2???)

Slight worry, no native ASIO drivers but hey! I won't knock it till I have tried one, will keep a look out at Cash Generators, should find one under a nifty.

Dave.

 

[Farview]

You guys know that this was a thread for a year ago? AWK never came back and never posted again.

 

[Bobbsy]

Er, I hadn't noticed...it came up near the top of my usual "New Posts" search yesterday and I just replied.

Duh!

Edited to Add for ecc83 (since we're chatting)...yup there are ASIO drivers for the M Track available HERE. For me, at least, they just installed and showed up properly on my Audition Audio Devices list (and other things too) and have worked fine. I won't go farther because I don't want to jinx myself as I have another 7 nights of using it for live playback for some very fussy thespian types!

 

[ecc83]

Er, I hadn't noticed...it came up near the top of my usual "New Posts" search yesterday and I just replied.

Duh!

Edited to Add for ecc83 (since we're chatting)...yup there are ASIO drivers for the M Track available HERE. For me, at least, they just installed and showed up properly on my Audition Audio Devices list (and other things too) and have worked fine. I won't go farther because I don't want to jinx myself as I have another 7 nights of using it for live playback for some very fussy thespian types!

Thanks Bobbs.

You mean you don't have a backup???!!! I have two USB interfaces I would gladly loan you but you are too fekkin' far away!

Just wanted to say...DON'T fill in that bloody great form JUST to get the drivers, you don't need to. Better still, tell porkies!
Dave.

 

[rayc]

Back to the topic of a year ago...I did a few decent songs using the 3.5 stereo input on a semi decent soundcard, (Sewer/Night Out or Wah Wow amongst them: find these on the soundclick links MP3 Player SoundClick or MP3 Player SoundClick), for 4 track cassette, guitar and bass as well as drum machine. Note some of the instruments - drums for exampe were recorded on better HR gear by other folk I collaborated with. It was a no name PIII computer running XP & 250 Meg RAM. Even in the villages of North Wollongong things can be done with very basic gear but it's often a case of having a sound, song or performance that can transend the limitations of that gear.

 

[Bobbsy]

Thanks Bobbs.

You mean you don't have a backup???!!! I have two USB interfaces I would gladly loan you but you are too fekkin' far away!

Just wanted to say...DON'T fill in that bloody great form JUST to get the drivers, you don't need to. Better still, tell porkies!
Dave.

My back up is a set of CDs and four playback decks! Frankly, I think the antique gear in the theatre where I'm working (for the first time) is a bigger "single point of failure" than anything I'm doing.

...and, no, I saw the first answer to the first question involved DJ products so I scrolled down!

Back to the topic of a year ago...I did a few decent songs using the 3.5 stereo input on a semi decent soundcard, (Sewer/Night Out or Wah Wow amongst them: find these on the soundclick links MP3 Player SoundClick or MP3 Player SoundClick), for 4 track cassette, guitar and bass as well as drum machine. Note some of the instruments - drums for exampe were recorded on better HR gear by other folk I collaborated with. It was a no name PIII computer running XP & 250 Meg RAM. Even in the villages of North Wollongong things can be done with very basic gear but it's often a case of having a sound, song or performance that can transend the limitations of that gear.

Back in the late 90's I worked for a while using the outputs of a Yamaha mixer to the 3.5mm line ins of a Soundblaster card. I still like some of the recordings I got then--but, if I'm honest, I can hear the noise floor (which sat at around -60dB) on any quiet bits. That was my biggest issue. However, even Soundblaster (bad as it is) can be a lot better than the typical Realtek or similar that are so common now.