NEED HELP BADLY Please.

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shambisam

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Hey guys, well i have had a strong interest in recording for a while, i finally got a decent sound card a couple of days ago and am planning on either an Alto L12/16 or L20 depending on what i can afford later this year.

So here is my problem, i need to know how to set up my PCI soundcard with my current cheapo mixer, even if i get only single track recording. I will give you the details now:

My mixer: Alto AMX140FX (http://www.altopa.com/products.asp?id=107&cat=11&type=18)

And my PCI soundcard. M Audio Delta 1010LT
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Delta1010LT-main.html

Thanks hope you guys can help,
Sam
 
If it were me, looking thru the manual I find this input panel for the mono mic/line channels:

10722864554-Alto_-Products-Mozilla-Firefox.png


I would plug my microphones into the XLR's here, then plug a 1/4" Male jack * HALFWAY* into the insert jack, the other end of this plug would go to the Soundcard Line inputs.

The reason for plugging this in halfway, is that it accesses the insert send and breaks the path so that the microphone input will NOT follow the console's path thru to the output. Also this bypasses as much of the electronics as possible, as according to the manual:

"When you insert a TRS jack in the insert socket, the signal
will be taken out after the input gain control (Trim), sent to an external
processor such as a compressor-limiter, and returned into
the channel strip immediately before the EQ section."

They mean for you to insert a device here, but for recording, instead, this creates the cleanest direct out possible with this device.

I would then take 2 of the soundcard's OUTputs and plug them into the 2-track inputs of the console (labeled "1" in this drawing):

10722865334-Alto_-Products-Mozilla-Firefox.png


PLug the CTRL Room OUTPUT jacks into your speakers (labeled "2" in the above drawing), so that you can use the handy volume control on the console and plug your headphones into the headphone jacks. Hit the "2-track to control room" switch as well.

This should give you the cleanest possible recording chain and the cleanest possible controllable monitoring situation for your setup, with 4 discrete inputs. Once you have a GOOD handle on using it this way, we can talk about more advanced routing to get the rest of the I/O going.

If you haven't got any software picked out yet, I would STRONGLY suggest REAPER (http://reaper.fm/download.php ) as it is very small, easy to use, and has EXTREMELY flexible routing capabilities. The download is uncrippled, fully functional shareware
 
Thank you so much i am trying that right now, i will let you know how it all goes, i also just bought the new adobe audition really cheap as i know a retailer personally so hopefully that will work for me too.

Thanks again.

Sam
 
Hey guys, one more thing i just realised, i am thinking im going to need some RCA conectors to run out of my individual channels right?

and with the:
I would plug my microphones into the XLR's here, then plug a 1/4" Male jack * HALFWAY* into the insert jack, the other end of this plug would go to the Soundcard Line inputs.

yes i plugged it in the insert end halfway til it "clicked" the first time, but i was wondering if there was 1/4" jack to RCA converters around? coz i will need to buy some to connect to my soundcard as the only line ins it has are RCA inputs and 2 XLR

Thanks

Hope i made sence
Sam
 
There are plenty of adapters to choose from and you should always have many handy. Also, it is a GIANT help to learn how to solder, so that with a little bit of a parts supply, you can always just make whatever cable you need, and fix any that go bad.
 
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