help me decide to select recoding setup

  • Thread starter Thread starter firstoctave
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firstoctave

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Hello folks,

New forum member here. Hi!

You may consider me a bit advanced newbie in terms of recording digital audio, but newbie nevertheless.

I am planning on setting up home recording equipment to record vocal, a harmonium and drums.

At first, I had the idea of buying a mixer with at least 3 mic inputs and to record the stereo signal available from it on an M-audio 2496 audio card on my Ubuntu computer. At first, I was looking at a Behringer and then gravitated towards a Mackie.

Then I realized I should try to record all the tracks individually for greater flexibility in post processing. That is when I started looking at various options at how to do this and came across USB mixers. Specifically, I am now looking at Alesis 8 channels multimix USB 2.0 which appears to work fine with Audacity in Ubuntu.

So, of the two mixer options I have described about (stereo recording vs mutli-channel), am I correct in understanding that the latter is more versatile? Please feel free to argue for one option or the other, would love to hear from experienced people here.

Next up, what kinds of microphones should I be looking for vocal and drums? For now, I can get by just for vocals only.

Finally, my budget is not much. All this is mostly for personal and home recording only. At most, I am looking not to spend more than $500 in all. The Alesis USB mixer is for around $250. If I want to go with mixer for stereo outputs only, a Mackie will be around the same price, but it would need a audio input card on my computer, that is another $100.

Please feel free to correct me in all this, or to suggest alternatives.

Thanks.
 
Google up USB interfaces, that is what you need, then when you make a choice we will move on to microphones.

And while your at it down load Reaper as your DAW.
 
By USB interfaces, you mean to google for info about mixer interfaces like the one I mentioned earlier (Alesis USB 8 multimix)? Sorry, I am not familiar with the terminology in audio recording context.

Reaper seems to be only for Windows and Mac. I have neither at the moment, only Ubuntu. That is why I have Audacity or Ardour in mind.
 
Well, just read the wikipedia page for sound cards. Now I know why I was a bit confused what you were referring to. USB interface, it turns out, is a misnomer. What I should be looking for is a USB sound card.

If I am right track, did you mean that I look at USB sound cards which can capture multiple input and record the various channels? Do these USB sound cards have features for pre-amps and stuff (like the Trim and Level pots on mixers)?
 
Virginia, US.

(just a filler since the "message I am trying to post is too short").
 
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An interface is basically just an external sound card that has preamps, phantom power and mic/line inputs(basic things that you would need to record). The DAW(digital audio workstation) is where you'll add all of your fun effects ie; eq, reverb, compression and distortion.

The fast track ultra is a 8 channel interface that is about 350$. USB interface's have built in sound cards specifically designed for recording.
 
USB fast track (solo, pro, ultra) seem to be pretty popular. I've used the pro (4 inputs) and it's great. Range in price from $130 for 2 inputs, $170 for the pro with 4 inputs, and up.

I like firewire, just because that's what I've always used...no real reason for the preference, but the focusrite saffire pro 40 is great and B&H has it for $399 which is crazy for an interface like that.

So, yeah, check some of those out and you'll see what we are talking about. Interfaces are more popular than mixers right now because you can do all your mixing in Reaper (which is awesome for a free no limits demo, and $40 when you decide you love it) or any other software. Mixers kinda limit what you can do later on, or they are just redundant.
 
cannot hear when i'm recording

When i'm recording a keyboard using jack plug from keyboard to pc I cannot hear the sound while recording, this is very anoying for me, i cannot continue.
Can someon help me
Meggy
 
Also, if you hava a firewire port on your computer you can check out firewire interfaces such as the Focusrite Saffire pro which has 8 Input/6 Output, 2 Microphone Preamps and Phantom Power. For $199. Wish this was out and this price in '99.
 
firstoctave said:
By USB interfaces, you mean to google for info about mixer interfaces like the one I mentioned earlier (Alesis USB 8 multimix)? Sorry, I am not familiar with the terminology in audio recording context.

Reaper seems to be only for Windows and Mac. I have neither at the moment, only Ubuntu. That is why I have Audacity or Ardour in mind.
Click to expand...

The Alesis is a board that can function as an interface.

The term "interface" is used to suggest the thing that translates your audio devices to your computer and vice versa. The device (usually a microphone, but could also be a guitar, keyboard, drum machine or whatever) usually has a very low signal output and is brought up to "line level" by a preamp. The vast majority of mic preamps have 48v phantom power for running condenser mics that require it. The output is analog. The next thing in the chain is typically a converter to go from analog to digital. To play recorded audio back through speakers you need another converter to get the digital audio back to analog.

High end, standalone converters will output digital audio but perhaps not in a format that a computer can receive without some other kind of interface. Maybe an ADAT PCI card or something with the correct digital protocol is required.

On the cheaper end of the scale geared towards home recording, you can get something that essentially functions as a sound card. A sound card is an interface. The M-Audio Delta 44 is an example of a 4 channel in, 4 channel out "interface" that does not have its own mic preamps. It does have A/D and D/A converters and a PCI card.

Again, the Alesis is a board that has mic preamps, converters and USB output, so it can function as a recording interface. There are a lot of products like this. You don't necessarily need the rest of the stuff on the mixing board. If you go to the music store websites and search for an interface, you might be looking in a category that says "soundcards" or "converters".

There's lots to choose from.

Audacity is pretty basic as far as a DAW goes but it works. Haven't used Ardour much beyond installing it and having a look, but it seems like it might be half decent. You can install the Windows version of Reaper on Linux through Wine and it works, but on my machine it made popping noises once in a while. The noises didn't seem to get written to the audio files though. I don't know if this would be an issue or not with different hardware.
 
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