HELP! Starting a digital studio; Need Help-- Several Questions

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Crafter

New member
Hello Everyone,

It's good to be a part of the board and I'm excited that I may have finally found a source that can help me. Due to my being a neophyte in all areas of recording, I have a hodgepodge of riddles needing solutions-- a sort of inquiry cocktail that entails questions that range of from being completely stupid to only marginally idiotic. :) If anyone could answer one/some/all of these questions, I would be very thankful.

I should go ahead and let you know what my studio consists of:

E-MU E-Synth fully expanded
Roland XP-80
Mackie 1202VLZ
Shure SM58 Mic
Alesis Monitor Ones

Things that I am soon to get:

Pentium III 533 MhZ
128 Megs RAM
Zip Drive
8.4 GIG HD
Perhaps the Lexicon Core2

And possibly an Alesis RA-100 amplifier depending on some answers to questions.

Okay-- for about a week, I've been staring at my keyboards, both of which I used to run through a regular stereo system and record to the cassette tape that's on the system. Then, as my seriousness grew, I decided to get a mixer and a mic since I now have a vocalist-- and needed to hear what I was doing. Always a good idea, right? :)

So, I bought some monitors. The Alesis Monitor Ones. I thought proper wiring would come with them, but they have these odd banana plug female jacks on the back of them. Where do I find these cables?

And, while I'm at it, do I HAVE to have an amplifier?

If I were to hook my monitors--->amp--->Mackie 1202VLZ mixer, what cabling would I need and where would I get such cable? It's so frustrating and makes one feel like an idiot to sit back and watch all of this expensive equipment gather dust.

Also, I was looking into getting the Lexicon Core2, but some people are saying there are problems with it, but not specifying what they are. I am basically looking to use it with my intruments listed above and Cubase VST, Sound Forge, etc.

If I had several instruments plugged into my mixer, and only one analog in on my sound card, I wouldn't have to worry since all my mixer accounts for all the instruments, correct?

Thanks for any help you can provide.
 
Yo Crafty One:

I can't answer all of your questions, but I do know about the banana cables; My integrated amplifier and my speakers were equipped to take the banana plug or the bent wire sliding into a groove and then tightened by hand; they always seemed to come loose until I got some better cable with the banana plug; it just goes right into the opening; you need to exert a little push and it locks in pace when you tighten down the hatch. No problems with those plugs coming loose.

Alesis Monitor Ones: I have a pair; they are all right but there are much better monitors out there for sure.

You should be able to midi your two keyboards and one would be slave and the other the master keyboard; this should enable you to use both synths at once and create some great stuff. I had two keyboards once and I hooked them up; I got some results but it was confusing. I didn't like the Alesis Q synth so I sold it; now I rely on my old faithful Yamaha DX=7; a great box but, as you may know, it is not multi-timberal; so, I'll get by for a while.

I'm sure the troops out there can help you with your other questions; maybe you should submit a question dealing with one item, like an amplifier? Make it easy on us.

Have fun twiddling the dials,

Green Hornet
 
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