Mixing Board Blues

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BluMusic

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Hola ~

I am trying to understand why the industry needs for a simple musicain to become a recording engineer in order to have a home based studio? I built a dedicated PC to run Cubase SX, I bought an M-Audio Delta 66 card and bought a used Mackie CR1604. In the board I plugged in several mods. including a Roland V-Session kit taking two channels. One would think that I'm all set but I have nothing but problems day after day. It seems I don't have my board wired correctly. Whenever I call Mackie Tech support for patching questions, I get, "I'm not going to give you a class on recording 101" . So I'm left with trying to understand the manual that came with the board and even though I have it patched pretty much according to specs, I still have signal problems.
So my question to you all is, instead of giving some guy $75 an hour to come over and wire up my board (which I can't afford) is there a way that I can get the patching answers I need so that I can actually start playing music again?
 
its been a long time since ive used a mackie. but i'll try.
i assume your plugging the stereo out from the session kit brain into two channels of the mackie ? if this is the case. firstly pan one panr all left and the other all right. now listen . do you get stereo drums ?
 
Easy there big fella. Everythings works if you let it. You have a few different options for connection. You can (and should) use 4 of the inserts that are on the first 6 channels as direct outputs from the CR1604 to the 4 inputs of the Delta. You can return the outputs of the Delta to 4 mixer channels with the control room out of the mixer to your monitoring system. When patching like this from the inserts, what you're doing is tapping off some signal right after the mic preamp and before the EQ/Fader part of the channel circuit. This connection is unbalanced but what the hell, it works just fine. Plug a guitar type 1/4" into the insert to the first "click". Don't fully seat it. When patched like this just the gain control on the Mackie drives the input to the Delta/software, the EQ and fader settings have no effect on what is hitting the Delta.
 
I think I understand what you're talking about ... let me tell you what I have up to this point. I'm using the L-R out of ALT 3/4 going into 1-2 input of the Delta - and 1-2 out of Delta going into Bus Insert L-R first click down. My Main outs are going to my stereo amp for monitoring but I mainly use headphones while playing. Now this setup was constructed after talking to Mackie guys. Before that, someone gave me the idea that my 1-2 out of the soundcard into my stereo amp was the best because that would let me hear what was coming from Cubase instead of whatever signal processors I may have had on the board. This made sense to me but I couldn't my midi instruments when I played the guitar through the headphones.
So your thought is using all 4 ins and outs of the card right?
 
** Update **

Well I went down stairs to try some of the suggestions that I got and it still wasn't working. I wasn't getting any signal to my headphones and my (L) Main was not working. Then I happen to take a look at my headphone cord and I discovered that it was chewed from my cat that resides downstairs at night time. I'll bury the cat tomorrow but for now I need a drink to calm down because after all of these hours spent today trying to figure out what was the problem now .. it turns out to be animal intervention.

No really I didn't kill the cat but the thought did cross my mind. I guess I should have considered that this might happen and did something to prevent it.
 
HarleyDavid said:
Hola ~

I am trying to understand why the industry needs for a simple musicain to become a recording engineer in order to have a home based studio?
Click to expand...

Because recording engineers run studios and musicians play instruments. If you want to have a studio, you have to, by definition, become an engineer.

Welcome to our world, we've been expecting you.
 
Fair enough, I get your point but where can I find the Idiots Guide to Recording Studios? I mean I use Cubase SX and you should read the manual, it reads like they expected you to be a working engineer with references to busses & sends and other terminology that boggle the mind.

So now I have it down to where I can get a pretty good recording but I'm certain that I'm not using half the features available.

I really like those Manual based DVD's that people put out. Where you can watch somebody doing something instead of trying to determine what is being talked about.
 
There is a great book out there called Cubase SX POwer. I don't remember the author, but it shouldn't be too hard to find. I had been using Cubase SX for about a year and a half before I bought that book. I was doing pretty well and had become pretty fluent with Cubase SX. Even then though, that book really opened my eyes not to just things I wasn't aware of how to use within Cubase SX, but also better, faster, and more appropriate ways of doing things that I was currently already doing. Next, rather than reading the documentation on your Mackie, try reading the documentation for your soundcard. It should have much more information on how to best route your soundcard to and from your mixer for recording. The Mackie manual for the original 1604 came out quite a bit before all of the current soundcards on the market, so probably doesn't have much info on the recording side of things.

One thing that I do whenever I have a problem is to chase your signal chain down visually in your mind, or even draw it on paper. Often times if you do this you will notice that you have made a serious (yet simple) mistake in your routing and that could affect many other things. Picture in your mind signal going into the mic, down the cable, into the mixer, out rom the mixer to the soundcard etc.... Sometimes that makes it easier to double check your wiring, and even find a better wy of routing. I know it can be frustrating at first, but every time you learn something new it can also be very rewarding. I still have to use the whole visual signal chain quite a bit. Things can get overwhelming when you are in a hurry trying to wire up stage with 8 bi-amped mixes, 3 way drum fill, and a pair of 3 way sidefills. And that is a fairly basic show for me. Its really easy when you are cruising along to misplug one thing and have it feel like everything is wrong. The most importatn thing is to try and get frustrated. On a live show you have no choice but to do things. If you are setting up to record yourself though and you get frustrated, I reccomend you step away from the whole setup for at least a few minutes to calm down. Then return and do the signal chain trick auntil your problems are solved. After over 1000 shows I have become a pro at not getting frustrated so that I can keep a cool head and be solution oriented, but it took years of stress and practice to get to that point. good luck:)
 
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