Mixer or Digital recorder

A

animesh_joshi

New member
I would be starting to record music on my own soon and i'm am looking for equipment over the internet.

I am a sort of newbie so i had a some questions in my mind..

What is the difference between a mixer (eg Phonic Helix18 FireWire MKII 18-Channel Mixer) and a digital recorder (eg Fostex MR16HD 16-Track Digital Recorder) ? Do both of them deliver the same result?

Is it advisable to plug your guitar/bass to a mixer and then mixer to the recorder?

Please advise. I would be interested in recording rock genre
 
joshi,

difference in the two is that the digital mixer you record directly into the built in harddrive. It also has its own sound effects and other gizmos built in. As for the firewire mixer, it records directly into your computer and you use the recording software in your computer. Both are good, but some have there advantages. Digital mixers are portable, while the fire wire mixer is too, as long as you have a laptop computer to use. Hope this helps, good luck in choosing what you might like.
 
hey soundman,

thanks for the reply, i've just formed a new band and we'd be interested in recording demos to give out to pubs/clubs to get gigs etc.

I believe we should go with digital recorder/mixer with built-in storage etc. The digital recorder also has knobs and controls to control sound so we should be able to have good quality.
 
animesh_joshi said:
hey soundman,

thanks for the reply, i've just formed a new band and we'd be interested in recording demos to give out to pubs/clubs to get gigs etc.

I believe we should go with digital recorder/mixer with built-in storage etc. The digital recorder also has knobs and controls to control sound so we should be able to have good quality.
Click to expand...

I've used both digital mixer (also known as a Studio In The Box) and DAW (computer recording set up). And by far, the DAW is the way to go.
You'll have much more control over your sound than with a SIAB. You can get portability by using a laptop and something like the Phonic Mixer.... which, by the way, I have and find it very versatile.

I believe this thread should be in the Newbies section and I will move it for you.

peace.
 
I dont really like the studio-in-a-box things, I've had a few... Small screens, crazy menus, for me it was very hard and time consuming to figure out how to do simple things.

On a PC, you have a huge screen, great interface, drag and drop tracks, highlight, cut/paste, etc.. You have all your info laid out in front of you, you can see ALL your tracks and their waveforms, the mixer, your plugins, etc. You don't have to go searching for everything.

I'd get the fw mixer and a laptop. I also have that same phonic mixer too, and I like it a lot, for home use. IDK how durable it's gonna be on the road, I hear they're pretty fragile.. I've never taken mine anywhere.
 
Oh well, I'm sure I'll get dissed on this, but...

I'd rather not go through the 6-12 month curve it takes to learn computer DAW, plug ins, vst's blah, blah, blah. I'm a hardware kind of guy...I use a Tascam 2488 MKII as for my multitracking. A Behringer 32 channel board and real guitars, keyboards, sequencers (no mic's...I don't sing). I'm sure I'm a dying breed but what the hell...I'll hang on to it all as long as I can. I like to just grab my instrument, push a button, and go...
 
Sailjunkie said:
I'd rather not go through the 6-12 month curve it takes to learn computer DAW, plug ins, vst's blah, blah, blah. I'm a hardware kind of guy...I use a Tascam 2488 MKII as for my multitracking. A Behringer 32 channel board and real guitars, keyboards, sequencers (no mic's...I don't sing). I'm sure I'm a dying breed but what the hell...I'll hang on to it all as long as I can. I like to just grab my instrument, push a button, and go...
Click to expand...

No bashing from me, everyone's experience is different. I had one of those Roland VS-840's and it was a learning curve everytime I went to use it. I'll agree that there is a steep learning curve with something like Cubase, but once you get the fundamentals, it's very intuitive. I never found that with the VS-840. I always got lost in all the menus. Admittedly, I'm a visual kind of learner, so seeing everything right in front of me makes it stick in the noggin' easier.

With Cubase, I have different templates for different uses. So, if I'm just working on a song, I pull up the songwriting template and it's ready to go for a mic and guitar. If I'm ready to track a full song, pull up the full song template. It will have all my plugs and VSTi's pre-loaded. I think these equate to 'Scenes' on the Roland or Tascam. Maybe a couple of more buttons to push than the Tascam, but it very easy.

peace.
 
I think you guys are referring digital recorder as a digital mixer. On zzsounds there's two sections multi-track recorders and mixers. I wanted an advise reflecting these equipments and their use/end result.

I believe a digital recorder would work better for us as we're only interested in recording demos.
 
A stand-alone digital recorder will have a much quicker learning curve for you, if you just want to record "live" demos. Make sure you get one with enough inputs/channels for the number of mics/inputs you want to record all-at-one-time.
 
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