need help on my setup...please??

[LoserFriendly]

Hi...i'm totally new to digital recording so no flames please I have the following gear:

Maxi Studio Isis XL with 8 input box
Behringer Eurorack MX802a 8 channel mixer
900mhz computer running Vegas Audio
a pair of powered monitors...

basically i need a sort of tutorial about which inputs/outputs connection should i do from the mixer to the breakout box etc...

In my understanding, Vegas and Cakewalk doesn't support multiple input soundcards like Maxi Isis...when i choose a an audio input from Vegas it only shows 1/2 or L/R ...and from cakewalk, i can only pick a pair from my breakout box like 1/2, 3/4 etc...How can i take advantage of all the 8 inputs in my soundcard??? are there other multitrack software that support multiple inputs?? I thought using a mixer would solve this...plus i would need one anyway for the phantom power mics and also it would be easier to control the volumes of the sources from the mixer...right??

Now the mixer has 8 channels and 4 of them are Mono Mic/Line while the last four can be stereo/mono...has two stereo aux returns and two aux sends and a L/R Main Out. I'm confused about the aux sends...what do they do...i understand that they are for FX purposes...but can i use them to route the channel signals to the breakout box...? they are labeled as AUX send 1 and AUX Send 2...also each of the 8 channels has an Aux Prefader (1) and Aux Postfader (2)...do these knobs control the two Aux Sends respectively??? what do they do?

Right now, i'm using the Main OUTs (left and right)of the mixer to route the signals to 1/2 of the breakout box...can i use the aux sends instead to free the Main Outs of the mixer for monitoring purposes??? but even if this was possible, i still would only be using 2 of the 8 inputs of the soundcard...is this a problem??? cuz basically we will be needing to record drums, guitar, vocals and bass simultaneosly...

Also, what's the best way to setup the powered monitors...? the breakout box has monitor outs...should i connect the speakers there?? or can i also route them to the mixer?? how?

Vegas audio says it cannot record and playback at the same time...so how do i monitor the recorded tracks while recording other tracks??

can anyone show me an efficient way to setup my gear??? i know this is just a simple task...but like i said, i'm totally new to this stuff...ive read several books but they don't cover mixer connections or show any diagrams at all...i also tried the manuals...still confused.


can somebody help me please???? any advice would be appreciated...

 

[James HE]

Vegas and Cakewalk DO support multiple input cards. You are either A) having a problem with your sound card drivers and the software is not seeing the inputs. or... B) you're doing somthing wrong! In Vegas (don't know Cakewalk- don't have it loaded- ) Go to Options-prefrences-routing, then select "use custom buss routing" this should enable you to select all the inputs.

For the mixer. You don't have many options with that particular behringer. It's only two busses and no inserts. so you can only get two channels out of the mixer. BUT! One of your FX sends is pre fader (that's what the pre means) and you can use it as another buss if you turn the fader all the way down on a channel, then the pre aux send level on whatever channel will act as the fader (yopu will get no EQ this way either) If it's post then it will be post fader and you will have to turn up the fader in order to hear it and therefore sending it to the L/R buss. SO at most you can get three busses out of it.

The monitor out's would where to plug your powered speaker into. depending on the card (don't know anyhting about the ISIS) you may have a fader in the control panel to adjust the level)

So you either need a bigger mixer with more busses (or inserts or direct outs), or either outbord pre amps or direct boxes to get signals to all 8 inputs.

-jhe