Newbie quesiton about mixers and mics

T

ThePhoenix

New member
Hey there!

What is the difference between a mixer and a powered mixer? the powered mixers are for PAs right? can you use either one when recording? I was looking at somnething along these lines . would this work for recording? also is it a bad brand of mixer?

thanks
 
Powered' typically have less routing and output options. Looks like you're headed in the right general direction though.
Wayne
 
you dont want a powered mixer for recording....unless you are using it only for powering your monitors....for recording...you need an unpowered mixing board.
 
that looks cool

peavey is an ok brand...

i use a behringer which is even cheaper but a lot of people belittle anything with that name.

a powered mixer would work if you bypassed the power amplifier.

and yes powered mixers are for pa

i was looking at the new alesis recording mixers and they have usb out! they must be combo mixer/interface and they have effects built in

you may want to check that out cause its too cool if thats what it is
 
So which one?

this or this or this

can i get some opinions on which would be the best for me to get? the first one has USB capabilities which seem nice. the second one has 10 channels, which could be useful. the last one has a preamp, which i figureded would save me some money. what do ya tink?
 
ThePhoenix said:
Hey there!

What is the difference between a mixer and a powered mixer? the powered mixers are for PAs right? can you use either one when recording? I was looking at somnething along these lines . would this work for recording? also is it a bad brand of mixer?

thanks
Click to expand...

A powered mixer has built-in amplifiers for driving speakers. A non-powered mixer does not. Powered mixers are generally used as practice PAs in live scenarios. Non-powered mixers are generally used for everything else from practice PAs (with seperate amps) to recording consoles.

You could theoretically use either for recording, it has been done.

That mixer's basic functions would technically "work," yes.

A bad brand?

Umm...no, I don't think Peavey is a bad brand...but I think most of those mixers in the $129 and under range are cheap Chinese turds.

If this is anything more than a hobby for you, throw budgetary concerns out the window, as you will exceed them at every turn. Scrape together every penny you can find, then save up another 10%. Now buy the biggest, highest-tech mixer you can afford.

Believe me, as a former Guitar Center Corporate employee, I can assure you that most of those products in the under $250 range are entirely shite, designed and built for one purpose:

separating you from your money.

they all have at least a 50% profit margin on them for GC or MF or wherever you're buying.
 
ThePhoenix said:
this or this or this

can i get some opinions on which would be the best for me to get? the first one has USB capabilities which seem nice. the second one has 10 channels, which could be useful. the last one has a preamp, which i figureded would save me some money. what do ya tink?
Click to expand...


If you had to get one of those I would recommend the Alesis. It's seems to be well built and has more features and is better quality than the other two you showed.
 
cheap mixers are not so bad if you dont use the mic preamps

the preamps are fine to start with and later you can get a dmp3 or something like that and use the line ins

you will likely never regret getting something like that

they are like swiss army knives

yep thats the alesis i saw and thats cool as hell

let us know how you like it when you get it
 
I have a question along these lines so I figured I'd post it in this thread. I'm recording with my band and we wanted to do it cheaply. Thus far, everything has been running smoothly, but we're going to run into a problem when we try to record our drummer.

The original plan, because we're recording on to a laptop with only one input to the soundcard, was to run the drums through our 8 channel mixer, mix it there, and then run one line into the soundcard. I went to test out the idea the other day by running a guitar through the mixer and then into the laptop, but discovered that I get about -30dbs of white electronic noise in the background. The mixer I'm using is the one that we use for our live shows and is a "powered mixer" and I'm guess it is the power that is causing all the background noise.
This is the mixer we have:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/fg=42/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/630105/

From reading this post, I now understand that this setup is not ideal, but a couple of you mentioned it was possible to record through a powered mixer. Can anyone explain how?

I would really like to avoid having to spend several hundred dollars to buy another mixer or a big soundcard with multiple inputs just to record drums--particularly since all the other instruments have come through so well without one.

Thanks in advance!
 
violin andy said:
I went to test out the idea the other day by running a guitar through the mixer and then into the laptop, but discovered that I get about -30dbs of white electronic noise in the background. The mixer I'm using is the one that we use for our live shows and is a "powered mixer" and I'm guess it is the power that is causing all the background noise.
Click to expand...
If you use the record out rca jacks you shouldn't be getting the noise. Try sending the record out to a line in on a stereo system and see if the noise is still there. If it is, then check out the gain structure you're using. If not then it's probably the laptop that's causing the problem.
 
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