What do mixers do? Do you record, and say that's TAKE 1, and do EQ stuff to it? If so, where does it store it at, and how does it know whitch record to use? Also, what are they for? To control dB levels and EQ levels? Can you make all vocals 1 solid dB with them, so that there is no lows or high?
Mixers?
- Thread starter wvsoulja
- Start date
A mixer is used for bringing in all your vocals(mics), instruments(direct in,mic'ed cabnets,mic'ed direct) And directing signal to the band(monitoring), recording device. Then its used for bringing the signal from recording device and building a mix to usually a stereo.It has EQ(tone control), levels(loudness),It's used as a centrol control device in a studio, or for live sound.
Last 2 questions Yes, may not sound real good.
Its used with a recorder, amplifier, effects units,monitors, other assorted tools,toys, technologies, And of coarse your instruments
To elaborate
To elaborate a little...
Consider the mixer (also commonly refered to as a "console", "desk", or "board") the "traffic cop" of the studio. It tells stuff where to go. (Sorry Muttley, but I have to disagree with the "central control device" analogy as it implies much more functionality and wvsoulja appears to be new to the wonderful world of audio. That would probably make it more confusing than it needs to be right now) It takes signals from the performers (microphones, etc...) and tells them where to go (multi-track recorder which, with the exception of some all-in-one boxes, is a seperate unit). Then when you mix (combine all of your individually recorded instruments into a unified piece... for instance to a CD) it takes the signals from the recorder and allows you to manipulate the volume of each channel (intstrument/source... for instance it is not uncommon to see 10 or more tracks of different drums... 1 for kick, 1 for snare, and so on) change the equalization of each channel (depending on the console it may be simple or elaborate), send that signal to other gear in the studio for further prossesing (ie reverb and other processing gear), and in higher end consoles compression and gating (both of which are dynamic processes).
Most decent boards give you several options for sending signal out of and recieving signal into it allowing you to inter-connect gear more easily and in different configurations. They also (again in anything that is at least decent) have outputs for control room monitoring and sometimes headphone outputs.
I'm not quite sure what you are asking when you say:
"Can you make all vocals 1 solid dB with them, so that there is no lows or high?"
But....
dB's refer to signal strength (generally associated with volume) and lows and highs are an EQ thing. If you are asking if you can change the tonal characteristics of your vocals (lows and highs) AND set all of your vocals to be at the same volume, then the answer is yes, but they are 2 seperate things.
Like I said earlier, you sound like you are new to audio, so this is a great place to start learning the basics and concepts. There are a ton of books out there too. For instance "Modern Recording Techniques" by David Huber (and someone else, but I can't remember his name...)
I'm glad to offer my knowledge if you have any other questions (such as multi-track recorders and other stuff like that). I'll keep an eye on this board or feel free to email me if you like at audiobond@aol.com.
Sorry about the long post! If this isn't clear, let me know and I'll try another approach.
Later
-Chris
To elaborate a little...
Consider the mixer (also commonly refered to as a "console", "desk", or "board") the "traffic cop" of the studio. It tells stuff where to go. (Sorry Muttley, but I have to disagree with the "central control device" analogy as it implies much more functionality and wvsoulja appears to be new to the wonderful world of audio. That would probably make it more confusing than it needs to be right now) It takes signals from the performers (microphones, etc...) and tells them where to go (multi-track recorder which, with the exception of some all-in-one boxes, is a seperate unit). Then when you mix (combine all of your individually recorded instruments into a unified piece... for instance to a CD) it takes the signals from the recorder and allows you to manipulate the volume of each channel (intstrument/source... for instance it is not uncommon to see 10 or more tracks of different drums... 1 for kick, 1 for snare, and so on) change the equalization of each channel (depending on the console it may be simple or elaborate), send that signal to other gear in the studio for further prossesing (ie reverb and other processing gear), and in higher end consoles compression and gating (both of which are dynamic processes).
Most decent boards give you several options for sending signal out of and recieving signal into it allowing you to inter-connect gear more easily and in different configurations. They also (again in anything that is at least decent) have outputs for control room monitoring and sometimes headphone outputs.
I'm not quite sure what you are asking when you say:
"Can you make all vocals 1 solid dB with them, so that there is no lows or high?"
But....
dB's refer to signal strength (generally associated with volume) and lows and highs are an EQ thing. If you are asking if you can change the tonal characteristics of your vocals (lows and highs) AND set all of your vocals to be at the same volume, then the answer is yes, but they are 2 seperate things.
Like I said earlier, you sound like you are new to audio, so this is a great place to start learning the basics and concepts. There are a ton of books out there too. For instance "Modern Recording Techniques" by David Huber (and someone else, but I can't remember his name...)
I'm glad to offer my knowledge if you have any other questions (such as multi-track recorders and other stuff like that). I'll keep an eye on this board or feel free to email me if you like at audiobond@aol.com.
Sorry about the long post! If this isn't clear, let me know and I'll try another approach.
Later
-Chris
wvsoulja,
So you want to record? get one microphone, plug it into any mixer and fix a minidisc/pc/tape-rec on the mixer and record!
Sorry, but seems like that's what you need since you don't have a clue what the difference is between a mixer and eq device.
But it is never to late to learn, right!
So just start out with simple setup, explore the mixer later on to see if it can do more for you. Then after a while you will get familair with audio equipment (even an EQ device
)
good luck with it!
So you want to record? get one microphone, plug it into any mixer and fix a minidisc/pc/tape-rec on the mixer and record!
Sorry, but seems like that's what you need since you don't have a clue what the difference is between a mixer and eq device.
But it is never to late to learn, right!
So just start out with simple setup, explore the mixer later on to see if it can do more for you. Then after a while you will get familair with audio equipment (even an EQ device
)good luck with it!
Another good way to learn about audio eqpt. is read all the catalogues you can, they give accurate descriptions of all the toys, tools, techniques, and technologies. This was one starting point for me.wvsoulja,
Sorry... perhaps I mislead you when I said:
"If you are asking if you can change the tonal characteristics of your vocals (lows and highs) AND set all of your vocals to be at the same volume, then the answer is yes, but they are 2 seperate things."
They are 2 seperate PROCESSES that are both handled by the same mixing console. The eq section of the board handles the tonal stuff (lows and highs) and the fader handles the volume. So... If you had 2 vocals and set the eq sections of their channels so that they sounded the same tonally, you could then set their levels with the faders to be the same volume. Thus accomplishing what I think you were asking.
In a basic multi track setup (excluding premixing, outboard effects, etc...), you would have a microphone (or multiple microphones) plugged into a mixer that would send those signals to a multi-track recorder (a recorder that has the ability to record multiple things individually onto seperate "tracks" and has seperate inputs and outputs for each track. Therefore an 8-track recorder would have 8 ins and 8 outs, a 24 track has 24 ins and 24 outs and so on). The multi track recorder outputs would come back into the board where they can be mixed and the main "composite" output of the board would go to a 2 track (Left and Right) "mix-down" device such as a reel to reel tape machine, DAT (Digital Audio Tape) machine, or a CD recorder. What gear specifically you get depends on your budget.
For example...
An 8 buss console (the number of audio busses refers to how many outputs [usually in addition to the main output] you can assign any given channel to go to... ie an 8 buss console has 8 seperate outputs you can send a signal to... higher end boards can have up to 32 busses or more) with the 8 buss outputs feeding the inputs of an Alesis ADAT (an 8 track digital multitrack machine. Not that I'm a big fan of ADATs, but it serves the purpose for this example.) and the outputs of each of those 8 tracks coming back onto 8 channels of the mixer. In this setup you would plug your microphones into channels 1 thru 8, and assign those to buss outputs 1 thru 8. Record. Then when you mix you would mix on channels 9 thru 16 and assign those channels to the main output (which is hooked up to the CD recorder or whatever). I've attached a diagram that will hopefully help it make more sense. By the way, this is known as a SPLIT CONSOLE setup because you are using different sections of the console to send to and return from the multitrack (It's split).
In the setup that roman mentions, you mix all of your vocals, instruments, etc... BEFORE you record them. So your microphones would be pluged into seperate channels of the mixer, each would be EQ'd (bass and treble) their levels set with the faders (volume) and the combined result would be sent thru the main output to the CD recorder (or whatever you have). This eliminates the multitrack recorder. But once you've recorded it, you can't go back and change anything. It is more or less set in stone (you can EQ the song as a whole, but you won't be able to add more bass to just one vocal or anything like that). If you're doing simple stuff, this can work fine but be aware of it's limitations.
Again, I hope this is clear and makes sense. If it doesn't, let me know.
Later!
-Chris
Sorry... perhaps I mislead you when I said:
"If you are asking if you can change the tonal characteristics of your vocals (lows and highs) AND set all of your vocals to be at the same volume, then the answer is yes, but they are 2 seperate things."
They are 2 seperate PROCESSES that are both handled by the same mixing console. The eq section of the board handles the tonal stuff (lows and highs) and the fader handles the volume. So... If you had 2 vocals and set the eq sections of their channels so that they sounded the same tonally, you could then set their levels with the faders to be the same volume. Thus accomplishing what I think you were asking.
In a basic multi track setup (excluding premixing, outboard effects, etc...), you would have a microphone (or multiple microphones) plugged into a mixer that would send those signals to a multi-track recorder (a recorder that has the ability to record multiple things individually onto seperate "tracks" and has seperate inputs and outputs for each track. Therefore an 8-track recorder would have 8 ins and 8 outs, a 24 track has 24 ins and 24 outs and so on). The multi track recorder outputs would come back into the board where they can be mixed and the main "composite" output of the board would go to a 2 track (Left and Right) "mix-down" device such as a reel to reel tape machine, DAT (Digital Audio Tape) machine, or a CD recorder. What gear specifically you get depends on your budget.
For example...
An 8 buss console (the number of audio busses refers to how many outputs [usually in addition to the main output] you can assign any given channel to go to... ie an 8 buss console has 8 seperate outputs you can send a signal to... higher end boards can have up to 32 busses or more) with the 8 buss outputs feeding the inputs of an Alesis ADAT (an 8 track digital multitrack machine. Not that I'm a big fan of ADATs, but it serves the purpose for this example.) and the outputs of each of those 8 tracks coming back onto 8 channels of the mixer. In this setup you would plug your microphones into channels 1 thru 8, and assign those to buss outputs 1 thru 8. Record. Then when you mix you would mix on channels 9 thru 16 and assign those channels to the main output (which is hooked up to the CD recorder or whatever). I've attached a diagram that will hopefully help it make more sense. By the way, this is known as a SPLIT CONSOLE setup because you are using different sections of the console to send to and return from the multitrack (It's split).
In the setup that roman mentions, you mix all of your vocals, instruments, etc... BEFORE you record them. So your microphones would be pluged into seperate channels of the mixer, each would be EQ'd (bass and treble) their levels set with the faders (volume) and the combined result would be sent thru the main output to the CD recorder (or whatever you have). This eliminates the multitrack recorder. But once you've recorded it, you can't go back and change anything. It is more or less set in stone (you can EQ the song as a whole, but you won't be able to add more bass to just one vocal or anything like that). If you're doing simple stuff, this can work fine but be aware of it's limitations.
Again, I hope this is clear and makes sense. If it doesn't, let me know.
Later!
-Chris
