Help me understand!

[getuhgrip]

"1ManRockBand" and rookie at recording needs to know if my thinking is in the right order: Been recording tracks using full version of PowerTracs Pro with RadioShack mic direct into SoundBlasterLive. Using the one mic at guitar amp and then as a room mic to catch my drums. The ability to do multi-tracking and editing is cool but finished cuts sound like CRAP!
O.K., I've got a Darla 24 and a Behriger 1602 on the way. I'm also replacing the R.S. mic with 6 Samson R11's. I'm getting 6 so I can mic my drums with more control(?). A really limited budget accounts for these equipment choices. Anyway, my main question concerns the physical order in which mic, mixer and breakout box are laid out. My mics run to the mixer (so I can adjust levels), then out of the mixer (stereo pair?) into the breakout box of the Darla...right?
My next question has to do with I guess "post recording" mix down. Am I playin this back through the mixer to my tape deck or have I already prepared final editing with software?
Lastly, my keyboards run to an amp which is mic'ed, as are guitars and bass. This being the case, what does "midi sequencing" mean to me if anything? Sorry to build such a long-ass question..THANKS

 

[dragonworks]

If you are not recording midi then midi sequencing will be
of no use to you. I think, just opinion.

 

[AlChuck]

getuhgrip,

You seem to have it right about the signal path of your mics.

You can play back out of the Darla to the mixer and use it for mixdown... or you can do the mixing in software on the computer and make a CD if you have a CD-R or CD-RW drive. Depends on how you want to mix. Advantages of the software way include being able to use DirectX effects, automate events, etc. You lose the physical feel of the faders, etc., but you have much more flexibility, unless you have a more fully-features mixer than the Behringer you mention and already have enough external effects processors.

Finally, if you mic the keyboards through a guitar amp, you will probably have a better sound if you take the line out straight into the Darla. Electronic keyboards, unlike guitars, don't usually benefit from being heard through a guitar amp, unless that's a specific effect that you dig and are going after. Also, if the keys don't have a huge variety of sounds and you would like more, you can use the SB Live as another sound source using the keyboard as a MIDI controller (I'm assuming it is a MIDI keyboard you're talking about and not an old Rhodes or Hammond B-3 or something like that). And with the mixer automation stuff I mentioned earlier you might find uses for the keyboard as a remote MIDI controller to trigger the sequencer. So, yeah, there's a lot of uses for MIDI sequencing and MIDI synthesis even if you're just recording audio.

-AlChuck