Newbie Interface question.

[kmartin]

Hey there
I've just been getting into recording, and I've never used an interface before. I'm getting ready to buy one, but I want to clear something up. I'd like to get an interface with 4 inputs, something like the Tascam US-144. When I hook it to my computer via USB, I'll have 4 available channels, right? So I could record with two mics, a guitar, and an electric drum kit, and still be able to send each to it's own track in my DAW?
I have an old digital mixer (Event EZbus). That has quite a few channels, but the USB only outputs a stereo mix. So I can record two things (ie, guitar + vox) by panning them hard left and hard right, but that's the limit to actually recording multiple tracks simultaneously. The newer interfaces aren't going to be like that, are they?


Thanks for helping a newbie out

 

[TimOBrien]

Yes.

What you have to watch out for are the usb mixers with interefaces built-in, as some of them only send a stereo pair to the computer.
The multichannel usb interfaces like the tascam will give you independent channels.

Be aware that a drum kit will need at least 2 channels (a stereo pair) or more.
You might want to consider going up to more channels like a Us-800 instead.
(ALWAYS buy more i/o than you THINK you'll need...)

 

[kmartin]

Cool beans, thanks. I thought that would be the case, but I wanted to be sure before I bought one Thx!!