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evadbowl
Member
What do you experts think about the M-Audio 2496 sound card? Does it work well enough for the $99 price tag? Thanks.
Jeff_D
New member
Yes, its a fine card if it has the features you need. What will you be using it for?
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evadbowl
Member
I want to run my mixer into it to do some recording. I have an old Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card right now and it works ok, im sure this would be a step up in quality. If I purcahsed one used, can drivers be downloaded?
Jeff_D
New member
Sure- Drivers are available here... http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support&tab=driver
You udnerstand that if you run the stereo mix from your mixer into a 2 channel / stereo soundcard like the 2496, you wont be able to adjust levels of individual instruments once you've recorded them. There are options for multi-channel soundcards or interfaces out there too...
I'm not sure what your level of experience with recording is. Maybe you knew that, or maybe you're new, in which case, ask all the questions you want- there are lots of knowledgeable people here to answer...
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evadbowl
Member
If i understand correctly, I can adjust levels of each instrument once recorded into reaper if I record one track at a time. Thats what I do now. I can see if I were recording multiple instruments at one time, like a band. Am I correct?
Jeff_D
New member
Yup, sounds like you get it. The MAudio is capable of 2 simultaneous mono or 1 stereo source. You'll just tell Reaper what source to use for each track. Reaper will let you pile on about as many tracks as your computer can handle...
What kind of mixer do you use? What kind of music are you recording?
What kind of mixer do you use? What kind of music are you recording?
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evadbowl
Member
Small Behringer 1204 mixer. Does a fine job for what im doing. As far as music, man just a variety. Country, Jazz, Soft Rock, etc. I love writing songs and I play about 5 different instruments. I was really suprised of the quality I got from using 4 drum mics on my recordings. Since I cant control each mic separately it all goes into one channel all at once but im cool with that. I just have to get my levels right before I record. Thanks for all your help.
Jeff_D
New member
No problem- this might help you get a little more control...
Lets say you have two microphone that you want to record- maybe an acoustic guitar and a vocal for instance. A microphone by its nature is a single mono source. So plug a mic into channel one of your mixer and pan it hard left, then plug a mic into channel two of your mixer and pan that hard right. In Reaper, make one mono track record the left input and another mono track record the right input. That will get both your mics recorded onto separate tracks, then you can pan, mix etc from there.
Hope that helps...
Lets say you have two microphone that you want to record- maybe an acoustic guitar and a vocal for instance. A microphone by its nature is a single mono source. So plug a mic into channel one of your mixer and pan it hard left, then plug a mic into channel two of your mixer and pan that hard right. In Reaper, make one mono track record the left input and another mono track record the right input. That will get both your mics recorded onto separate tracks, then you can pan, mix etc from there.
Hope that helps...
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evadbowl
Member
Awesome, yeah I will try that. Since you seem to have knowledge about Reaper, I have a couple questions for you. When I do the Punch Recording and I play it back, the volume in the one section that I re-recorded is lower than the rest of the track. How can I get the section to blend exactly into the original? Second question I have is Midi. Ok, so lets say I record my midi keyboard into Reaper AS midi. Then I record the remaining tracks as Wave/Audio ie. guitar,drums,vocal. When I try and Render my project the midi is left out. Do I have to record my keyboard as Wave/audio? If so, then midi is a waste and I cant use the quantize. I hope you can help me out, I have been struggling with these 2 topics. Thanks.
Jeff_D
New member
Boy- the two things I dont do. lol.
MIDI, I dont do anything with. But, I'd look at the render dialog box and see of there a checkbox or something.
As for punches, I never do punches. I just cue up a new track right below the one I'm not quite happy with and I can cross fad between the two. There might be an easier way to do that, but I couldnt tell ya. Try the forum over at the Reaper website. Those guys are all very helpful.
MIDI, I dont do anything with. But, I'd look at the render dialog box and see of there a checkbox or something.
As for punches, I never do punches. I just cue up a new track right below the one I'm not quite happy with and I can cross fad between the two. There might be an easier way to do that, but I couldnt tell ya. Try the forum over at the Reaper website. Those guys are all very helpful.
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retronoodle
New member
Looks like you are getting your questions answered here, so Id just like to add that I have that card and its been great.
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dintymoore
Guest
On Cubase I have 2 choices:
record a MIDI track to audio, which I don't like to do.
or I have all the tracks, MIDI and audio, going into a mixer that has SPDIF out that I bring back into the computer via SPDIF and that is recorded and becomes my final 2 track master. I believe that that is a common method, and I'm not sure if you have the SPDIF in's or out's to do that.
Maybe that doesn't help much...
Why couldn't you record a MIDI track, mess with it, then play it out solo and record it on to one track as audio? I don't know why that wouldn't work.
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evadbowl
Member
now that may work. Is that the same thing as bouncing?
timodell7
New member
When your punching in you have to set it so it sounds the same before you punch in. You sohould not even notice a diffrence when you start the punch in from what you where hearing. Did you add effects to what was already recorded? Mixdown just your midi as a wav when you are happy with it. I have never used Reaper, so I don't know the procedure.
timodell7
New member
I've had one for 10 years and it's outlasted 4 computers. I've always been happy with it.
Jeff_D
New member
yup. I had a 2496. Used it, then sold it. Then I bought another to put in my living room computer just to plug into the stereo for music listening. My recording computer is stocked with 2 delta 1010lts (had em for about 5 years now). Out of the 4 MAudio cards I've owned over the past 8 years, I've never had trouble with any of them.
Solid.
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dintymoore
Guest
I guess you could call it bouncing... sorta.
When we used to record on 4 track reel to reel tape recorders, we'd record on two tracks then record them over to another single track so we could erase the first two tracks. You could keep doing that forever except for the accumulating noise.
That's more what I think of as bouncing. But I guess bouncing a track means when you record it from one location to another.
What makes this not seem like bouncing is the fact that MIDI isn't really recording, it's more like those player piano rolls on Gunsmoke - it just triggers things.
The benefit of making a MIDI track into an audio one is that you can use processing like compression, reverb etc...
The drawback is that you can't edit it like you can MIDI (what if the hihat is too loud?) and to my ears it sounds better to leave it 'til the final mix.
wheelema
Boner-obo
I'd have to vote for the 1010LT over the 2496. You get so much more and the preamps (specially for the price) are solid. I drive my SM7B with them and that's not an accomplishment that every preamp can boast. For $200 it's hard to beat.yup. I had a 2496. Used it, then sold it. Then I bought another to put in my living room computer just to plug into the stereo for music listening. My recording computer is stocked with 2 delta 1010lts (had em for about 5 years now). Out of the 4 MAudio cards I've owned over the past 8 years, I've never had trouble with any of them.
Solid.
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dintymoore
Guest
Overall, is there any difference that you can hear in the quality of the A/D & D/A convertors in the 1010LT as compared to the 2496?
Jeff_D
New member
None that I can tell... However, I dont get the use out of the preamps that Wheelie does. But there is a jumper on the card that you can set those first two channels as line level instead of mic level.
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