mixer to pc

[daveblue222]

how does the audio out put of a studio mixer enter the daw?

im only used to firewire interfaces. how does each track connect to the pc/ma c?

im used to all tracks being fed to the daw by one firewire cable

what kind of gear/models are used

much appreciated

 

[suprstar]

Typically, firewire mixers stream each individual track to your DAW separately. USB mixers usually only send the L/R main mix. If the mixer doesn't have USB or firewire, then you need some kind of interface, at least a sound card, and the right cabling to send the audio from the mixer to the line-in on the sound card. It depends on the hardware.. A mixer with 8 direct outs could feed a Firepod or something and stream 8 tracks at a time.

USB / firewire mixers have the A/D converters built into the mixer, quality depends on the manufacturer.. Using a sound card line-in is the worst option of all, integrated pc sound cards have the best A/D converters 28¢ can buy, and your typical soundblaster whatever is geared towards output (playback) with practically no thought given to input..

 

[daveblue222]

cheers

i know i can run a mixer in the firestudio, but that would defeat the point a bit.

what kind of interface would the channels from a mixer go into? pci card? usb soundcard???

 

[miroslav]

I run 24 channels A/D/A from/to my mixer and DAW.

I have three 8-channel boxes that connect to the PC/DAW via three PCI cards. The PCI cards only pass the digial audio...the conversions happen in the boxes, which are racked.

 

[Simbo]

i know i can run a mixer in the firestudio, but that would defeat the point a bit.

Not really, a good interface with firewire may be better then a PCI card,

There are PCI cards that will allow up too 10 inputs i believe, i think most have 8 line in's plus two XLR's

Just search some music stores sites for A/D PC cards

 

[suprstar]

cheers

i know i can run a mixer in the firestudio, but that would defeat the point a bit.

what kind of interface would the channels from a mixer go into? pci card? usb soundcard???

Not if your mixer has better pre's than your interface, or your interface only has line-ins and not pre's. Your mixer could send to any kind of interface. A 2 channel USB m-box, an 8 channel motu/whatever, a pci delta 1010, doesn't matter. Firewire is common and very fast. USB is common and slower. Anything with an A/D converter.