Need advice on mixer and signal routing

[blinkofeye]

Hello everybody , and happy new year ,my name is Ahmad and this is my first post here .
I mixed and record some stuffs during years and I m happy with it , I always used my computer for record and mixes , i mean I used a Behringer XENYX 802 and M-audio fast track pro to record guitars , vocals and bass , and that was enough for me since i don have a bigger room and never needed to record more than 2 tracks at once , and usually it stays that way since i m not gonna record drums for now , but only for mixing process i m looking for a mixer or control surface (prefer the mixer cause i have the option to maybe use the inputs later) to rout my tracks from DAW (cubase) to it and control tracks from there not from software with a mouse ! and also maybe send individual tracks to some other processor and return it from there , to be honest i m not sure if it is possible with a mid level mixer and what else do I need , so any suggestion and CORRECTION would be appreciated , my budget is limited so cheaper is better and also as more tracks as possible (I had 22 tracks in my previous project)

Reagards
Ahmad

 

[Steenamaroo]

i m looking for a mixer or control surface (prefer the mixer cause i have the option to maybe use the inputs later) to rout my tracks from DAW (cubase) to it and control tracks from there not from software with a mouse !

Hi Ahmad. Welcome to the forums.

This is a bit of a minefield because all of the technology overlaps, but........
A straight up control surface is pretty much a big mouse/keyboard. It wont have any audio processing capabilities.

A straight up mixer will process audio, usually in the format of many in - 2 out. It wont give you hands on control of your daw.
Also, a mixer won't increase your number of discreet audio inputs; That's a limitation of your audio interface.

I mentioned overlap; There are mixers available that have audio, control, and interface capabilities built in.

When you talk about not using the mouse, do you mean you want to actually mix the audio out of the computer, or just control the computer with a control surface?

If you want to actually mix out of the box you'll need an interface with many outputs, and a mixer with the same number of inputs.

 

[blinkofeye]

Thanks for reply ,
you are right I missed some infos on what I m looking for , let me ask it this way i m looking for a digital mixer with option of giving me as much in/outs as it has (not only an stereo out) and the ability to control DAW with it to rout my signals to mixer and control DAWs faders with

 

[Steenamaroo]

Ok, there are a good few audio interfaces with control surface capability.
There are certainly better/cheaper ones out there but I have experience with the digi 002 and 003.

Just as an example, it has four mic preamps and four line inputs (plus some digital IO), and it has the control surface capability.

That means you'd plug your mics in, record to the computer, then use the control surface to mix what's in the computer.
It's exactly the same as mixing ITB except you use real faders/pots instead of a mouse.

Is this what you want, or do you want to do real analog mixing?
The difference is that with real analog mixing, each recorded channel of audio would be passed through a mixer and you'd mix on the fly.
Hardware automation aside, it means you have to get it right in one go.

I expect you want to do the first option, but it's worth checking.

 

[blinkofeye]

thanks , but that would be outta my price range , I m in music as a hobby , it certainly nice to have better equipment and do better but it s outta my price range , mixing analog would be damn good but i think i need an interface plus a mixer and that would be pricey but maybe cost less than a digital mixer , and is it possible to control DAW with analog mixer as you mixing on the fly and have HW automation as well ?

 

[Steenamaroo]

thanks , but that would be outta my price range ,

I'm not suggesting the 002/003. It was just an example an interface/control surface.
I'm trying to figure out exactly what suits your needs.


Bottom line - AFAIK, any kind of true analog mixing setup integrated with your DAW is going to be pretty costly.
Anything with hardware automation and hardware DAW control is going to be super costly.



Maybe it would be better to just work out how many mic inputs you need, get an interface that fits and then pick up a behringer BCF for hands on DAW control?

 

[blinkofeye]

that answered my question , I was looking for a way to control DAW as a control surface and have the option to rout my signals through it and maybe some HW processor ... but i think with my budget i have to stick with a control surface and buy an interface with severals in/outs and use them as send and return for effects ...

 

[Steenamaroo]

that answered my question

Happy days.

i think with my budget i have to stick with a control surface and buy an interface with severals in/outs and use them as send and return for effects ...

Someone else may know of a suitable unit, but if not, this is probably your answer.

As long as your interface has a few line ins and outs, you can always hardware process track at a time as you say.

 

[blinkofeye]

thnx

Regards
Ahmad

 

[Johnny Darkly]

Cubase AI controller does what you want. You'll need Cubase to run them. They come in modular sections so you can buy what you want/need and control the cost. I would post a video link to youtube, but as a noob, I'm banned from doing so until I mature to 10 posts, because I wouldn't possibly have anything helpful to share before my 11th post.

 

[blinkofeye]

because I wouldn't possibly have anything helpful to share before my 11th post.

lol , you got that right , anyway , yup I m using cubase , I was looking for something like digital mixer/control surface , and realized good ones are outta my price range so control surface it is