I'm a little confused about Mixers

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darknailblue

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Okay lemme see if I got this straight. Now the point of having a soundcard with multiple in's out's is so that you can mix down to outboard gear. Right? Now if you chose to do all you mixing/mastering ONNNNN the computer wouldn't a digital mixer make more sense? Help!!!!

~darknail
 
The point of multiple ins is to be able to record to seperate tracks simultaneously.

Multiple outs can (but don't have to) be used to go back & mix outboard.

Mixers are also handy for providing preamps, phantom power, maybe Hi-Z inputs, and for monitoring, headphone and 2track outputs. At least that's what I use mine for. I mix in the box.

The potential benefit of a digital mixer is thet the a/d conversion happens outside of the pc
 
darknailblue said:
Okay lemme see if I got this straight. Now the point of having a soundcard with multiple in's out's is so that you can mix down to outboard gear. Right? Now if you chose to do all you mixing/mastering ONNNNN the computer wouldn't a digital mixer make more sense? Help!!!!

~darknail
Click to expand...

Actually, I think that the most logical use of a digital mixer would be as a front end to some kind of DTR (digital tape recorder). Essentially, if you have a multi-channel soundcard, your COMPUTER becomes a digital mixer. What would make more sense would be to get some kind of control surface so you can manipulate the signals within the computer more easily than with a mouse. The major audio recording programs allow you to do this with MIDI. Products such as the Mackie Control and the new BCF2000 and BCR2000 from Behringer are designed for such uses.

Tell us what it is that you're trying to do and what equipment and software you have. That will help us if you are looking for recommendations.

Ted
 
Well I want to record drums... but I don't want to drop like 1000 on JUST a mixer. A friend of mine told me that he has an ADAT sound card and he can record up to 8 tracks at a time with his mixer. But I am confused about it because he uses a Behringer 12 track mixer, and I KNOW that its an analog mixer. So if I got a multichannel sound card and then a controller? Well thats good but I would need mic preamps. Man I'm confused. What I'm using right now is an audiophile soundcard, and cubase. I've got a variety of mics available and want to put them to good use. help!!!

~darknail
 
Some mixers have a/d converters and output a digital signal instead of analog.

The other way is for the mixer to output analog signals into the soundcard and the a/d conversion happens on the card.

You want to record 8 tracks of drums, all you need is a Yamaha MG12/4 mixer and an M-Audio Delta1010LT sound card. That lot will cost you $440 at zzounds.com
 
Would all the line inserts go into the soundcard at that point?
 
darknailblue said:
Well I want to record drums... but I don't want to drop like 1000 on JUST a mixer. A friend of mine told me that he has an ADAT sound card and he can record up to 8 tracks at a time with his mixer. But I am confused about it because he uses a Behringer 12 track mixer, and I KNOW that its an analog mixer. So if I got a multichannel sound card and then a controller? Well thats good but I would need mic preamps. Man I'm confused. What I'm using right now is an audiophile soundcard, and cubase. I've got a variety of mics available and want to put them to good use. help!!!

~darknail
Click to expand...

Yeah, that would confuse me too. The only Behringer mixer that has ADAT on it, I believe, is their DDX3216 which is a digital mixer. The ADAT card is a $170.00 option. The mixers are selling for around $900.00. But that's obviously not what your friend is using as it's a 32 channel mixer with 16 input channels.

One of the reasons so many people are using inexpensive mixers are for the extra mic pres they have. They're usually not of great quality, but they're serviceable.

Another option would be the Behringer ADA8000 and a soundcard like the Steinberg VSL2020. This combination is also in the $400.00 to $450.00 range. Add a second ADA8000 and you have 16 input channels for around $600.00!!

Just another possibility to consider! :)

Ted
 
darknailblue said:
Would all the line inserts go into the soundcard at that point?
Click to expand...

With that mixer/soundcard combo, you'd have 4 inserts + 2 Mains coming from the mixer into the card, and the last 2 mics going straight into the LT's preamps
 
Okay.... this is clearing up a little. Lets say though, if every channel had an insert, then could you put the insert into the soundcard? Or are the busses in stereo? And I don't see why you would record the mains because that would defeat the purpose of having a multi channel soundcard.... right? What about mic preamps? I saw a few that have 8 channels. The way you would route that would be to put all the mics obviously into the preamp and then all 8 channels into the soundcard. Wouldn't that be a little simpler?

~darknail
 
darknailblue said:
Okay.... this is clearing up a little. Lets say though, if every channel had an insert, then could you put the insert into the soundcard? Or are the busses in stereo? And I don't see why you would record the mains because that would defeat the purpose of having a multi channel soundcard.... right? What about mic preamps? I saw a few that have 8 channels. The way you would route that would be to put all the mics obviously into the preamp and then all 8 channels into the soundcard. Wouldn't that be a little simpler?

~darknail
Click to expand...

By Jove, I think he's got it! (Well, more or less.)

Inserts use a stereo plug, but are mono. One contact is the out and the other is the in. Think of it as a loop. You take the output and send it to a processor, then bring the processed audio back into the channel. Hence the term
"insert". You're inserting a processor into the channel. But, you can use an insert as a direct out by simply not using the return portion. IOW, take the output and run that into your soundcard. Voila!

I don't understand your last question. Simpler than what?

Ted
 
darknailblue said:
And I don't see why you would record the mains because that would defeat the purpose of having a multi channel soundcard.... right? What about mic preamps? I saw a few that have 8 channels. The way you would route that would be to put all the mics obviously into the preamp and then all 8 channels into the soundcard. Wouldn't that be a little simpler?

~darknail
Click to expand...

In this case, with 4 channels going direct out via the inserts, you've just got 2 channels left so they can go on the main bus, 1 panned to the left, 1 panned to the right.
The MG12/4 has 6 preamps, and the LT has another couple
 
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