Help a guy out...

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RedHeffer

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I know you guys get a lot of posts asking for advice on soundcards and such, and this is just another one of those. But I was wondering if anyone could help me with my situation. I have a soundcraft spirit folio sx which has 20 channels. I want to be able to record acoustic drums. As of now ive been recording drums through my mixer, taking the main outs in the the line in of my BR-8. So i basically have two tracks for drums to work with. Do you guys think that i think get a soundcard that has eight inputs so that i can take the direct outs of my mixer straight into the soundcard so that i can have more control over each individual part of the set? Or do you think its good enough to have a stereo track of drums just like the way ive been doing it now. If i keep on doing it the same way that i do now, i was thinking about getting the m audio omni studio, because i would then have two inputs with preamps so i can still have a stereo track for drums. Along with drums would be recording acoustic and electric guitar, bass, piano, vocals, and possibly other instruments. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Brian
 
I'm a newbie but I think it all depends on how great the drummer is and if YOU are happy with the recording of the drums. I think for the most part you might want more control of the drums. As far as I know the omni only comes with 6 channels. The delta 1010 has more if you want to record eight tracks of drums. So the questions you'll probably get are: How much do you have to spend? What are the specs on your comp? Are the other instruments going to be recorded simultaneusly(hope that was spelled right)?

p.s
play until you die, It's the only way to get away from the everyday.
 
Brian, are you wanting to record all pieces as a band, or seperately?

The Omni Studio has 6X6 I/O, jsut enough to cover drums nicely. The C-Port has 10 I/O and would allow cover drums and guitars at the same time.
 
I would definitely recommend tracking drums with more than 2 inputs.....even if you record it to the stereo mix and it sounds great at the time, you dont know how it will sound within the context of the whole mix.......

how many mics do you use to mic the drum kit?......
 
Just to clarify something getuhgrip said, the OMNI has only four independent analog tracks, not six. So it it has six inputs two of them need to be submixed somehow before being recorded. There are two more channels of i/o via the digital S/PDIF digital port, but you need a digital source to use this.
 
Ill be recording the rest of the instruments separately. As of now, I think that I have a decent sounding kit going into two stereo tracks. I'm actually the drummer, which doesnt say much because I picked up the instrument on my own. Ill also be playing the guitar and bass tracks myself and then having my friend sing. I was basically just wondering if it would be more convenient to have more control over each part of the kit.
My computer now isnt very powerful. Its a 400Mhz PII, with 64 megs of ram. However I think when I graduate I might be getting a new computer for when I go to college. So I might just have to save up for the soundcard. The omni shouldnt be too far from my reach if i save up, but the delta 1010 might have to wait longer if i want that. I'm also thinking long term as well. I probably wont be buying another card or anything like that for a long time, so the next card i get will be what ill use for a while. I appreciate the help.
 
You might consider a card with 4 inputs like a Delta 66 etc. What I like to do is to record a guide track with a guitar or piano and then if there's vocals, do a lead vocal track which might also be a guide track or sometimes it's the one you might want to go with. Then come the drums. I don't like individual miked drums myself because you can get a huge noise build-up and phase cansellation going with all those mics. But to each his own. I like just 2 overheads, a kick and a snare. That's the way a lot of guys do it. Anyhow, no matter how many mics you use it's fine to submix them to a stereo pair but I also like to place the snare and kick on tracks by themselves. If there's a drum that needs to be worked on a bit in post production it's generally one of those two. And of course if you want to gate the reverb on the snare track it's nice to have it sitting by itself. So 4 inputs is really all you need for drums I think.
 
Red, I'm sort of in your situation. I have a Gadget Labs Wave 824, which is a 8in/8out board. Nice unit, although the company is out of business. Anyway I do exactly what you refer to. Most of my tracking is done with an Roland electronic kit, which in essence "submixes" itself down to a stereo out. I assign it a pair of inputs and use the other six for bass/guitar/ vocals etc. I always assign it to my mixer's (Alesis Studio 32, 16x4x2) sub outs 1 & 2

When I track with a REAL drum kit (which hasn't happened much in some time, but is going to happen more) I use a group of mics and mix them down to the same subs 1 & 2, panning the mics and doing the sub-mix "live". So I may have 5 mics but still just take up two inputs.

If you had a 4 input card, you could still do two inputs for drums, two more for guitar & bass, and then overdub the vocals / keyboards / whatever.
 
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