Multitrack Live Recordings?

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avieth

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So I'm new to this recording stuff, but I've read up and have a little bit of experience recording some live band stuff. I've got a pretty good computer that I plan on moving to my basement where all my instruments are. Of course I'll need some money first, so I have a lot of time to plan out my studio. I've got the space all planned out, but now I'm a little confused about the way I'll record.

I obviously know how to record a single track into a multi-track recorder (I use ardour, a free DAW for linux). But I'd rather not have to plug in a new instrument every time I have to record a new track in the song. I'd also like to be able to record my band playing live, and have every instrument record to a different track. Oh, and micing drums is another thing, it'll take at least 5 mics, and I'll need 5 mic inputs to be able to get the drums in my song.

So the solution to all this, the firepod. It's got 8 mic inputs, that's perfect. I could run all my drum mics into a preamp (can I? is that what I'm thinking of? What I mean is something to turn all the mics into one signal) then take that out to 1 firepod input. Two guitars, plus a bass and two vocals. That's nothing the firepod can't handle. The only problem, it's very expensive.

So my question is about these computer recording sound cards, like RME hammerfall, or m-audio cards. They say they are great for recording, yet I see only rca inputs, no XLR, or even many 1/4" for that matter. So what's the deal with these audio cards, can they do what the firepod does?
 
All the interfaces depend on certain features. If you look at the MOTU ultralite..the price for it is somewhat the same as the firepod. but i think the preamps on the motu's are better than the firepods. and plus one of the key features such as Cuemix is awesome for software mixing and monitoring. however firepod is good for recording drum kits and multiple guitars since it offers so many inputs. but it's all upto you. personally, i would prefer the motu ultralite.
 
The firepod is definitely my first choice. or maybe something like it. The firepod sure is ugly because of the frontal XLR inputs :p

So I will have/have:
Firepod for input to my comuter
Soundblaster Live for audio output from my computer

I'm just curious about those special recording soundcards. I really don't need one if I have a firepod do I?
 
What special recording soundcard are you talking about?
Firepod is special! :D
 
You say you are going to need 5 Mics for Drums and 2 Guitars and Bass and 2 Vocals all recording Live?? Well you know you don"t have enough Inputs for that on the Firepod....

What you could do is Get a Small 6 or 8 Channel Mixer and use it to Mic up your Drums and ouput from the Mixer into the Firepod useing 2 Firepod Inputs for stereo (You really need Stereo for Drums)...The Problem with that is you need to have all of your Levels set on the Mixer perfectly before recording because you will not be able to adjust the levels and sound of each Drum mic seperately.....

If you would Like to be able to record all Instruments to seperate Tracks includeing the 5 Drum mics then you might take a Look at an Interface with more inputs...
A Friend of mine recently bought an Alesis 16 Channel Firewire Mixer which lets him record 16 seperate Tracks at once and I believe it has 8 Fairly good pre-amps and Good AD/DA Converters and costs about $600 ...He really likes his and hasn"t had any problems with it yet and the recording he has done sound pretty good considering he barely knows anything about recording....

I also hear good things about the "Mackie Onyx 400F" but I don"t think it has enough inputs for your needs....


Cheers
 
That 16-input mixer, is it this?

http://www.alesis.com/product.php?id=94

I don't really want a mixer, I'd rather do all the mixing on my computer, so all I need is something that can take all the mics and put them in my DAW.

Apparantly it's possible to connect multiple firepod's together and get 16, 24, 32, etc. input channels. So I think, since I don't have much money, I should start by getting a firepod, then using that for track-by-track recording, and when I get enough money, add another firepod so I can record live.

The Firepod's also the best choice because I use linux and there's a driver for the Firepod's chipset being released with the next version of my low-latency audio connection kit.
 
You can still Mix on the PC with a Firewire Mixer...The Levels that you record at can still be adjusted in the Software...The levels on the Mixer are just a Referance simular to the Software Mixer on the Firepod or any Interface....

Really Calling it is a Mixer is Misleading because it doesn"t Mix Signals as each Input on the Mixer is a Seperate Audio track in your Software so there really is no Mixing going on...It really isn"t that much Different than the Firepod accept that is has EQ and effect settings and can record 16 seperate Tracks at once were the Firepod can only do 8 seperate tracks at the same time....

The Mixer is really only a Mixer when it is not Plugged into your PC as you can use it as a standard analogue Mixer when it isn"t set up for recording on your PC....

At least this way you don"t have to use a Regular Mixer to Mix the Drums into a stereo Signal and output into the Firepod because You will be able to controll each of the Drum 5 Mics seperately in the Software.....

Cheers
 
Oh really, 16 inputs at one time? Theres 8 XLR and 8 1/4" so I thought you could only do 8 at a time.

Anyways, it seems this thing won't work with my computer since it's chipset isn't supported by linux, as far as I know. The firepod will work though, thanks to freebob.

Heres a list of the interfaces that I could use:
 
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