Newbie question - mixer/soundcard

[mikethekiwi]

Hi All - Im building a home studio – wanting some advise to clear up a few things

Currently we are using a four track to send our vox/guitars etc into the soundcard, and we are using a home stereo to mix down our tracks. Now am I right in assuming that a “mixer” will enable us to do both things? – bring anolouge tracks in, and bring out whats playing from Cubase into our monitors?? And I presume that you obviously could do both these things at once?

Any suggestion on a good mixer / soundcard?? We would be recording 2 audio tracks at once max.

Apparently the “24/96” is a good card?? Any advise appreicated thankyou all.

ALSO – what version of windows would you guys recommend to run Cubase??


Thanks everybody
Mikey

 

[noisedude]

ok i'll try to answer all of these.

if you have a mixer with four busses (two stereo pairs) you can use the main ones for your inputs to the computer and then bring a stereo pair back from the computer to a stereo channel on your mixer. then route that channel to the other buss pair (often called submix,group 3-4, things like that) and use the outputs for that buss to your monitors. an example of a small mixer with this capability is the behringer UB1204. you can also choose what comes out of the headphone socket, you should choose the submix buss so you get everything coming from the computer including monitoring your inputs.

i would look at the yamaha MG series mixers. great value and higher quality than the behringers.

m-audio is the brand of sound cards most widely used and recommended. the Audiophile 24/96 is a good card, i happen to prefer the Delta 44 for my uses but it doesn't have digital in/out or MIDI onboard.

finally, windows depends on your version of cubase. if you're running VST 5.x you may have troubles with windows XP. if you have a legal copy i understand you can get a free update from steinberg.

windows 2000 is without a doubt the most stable of the windows platforms, but XP is fine if you also want to be able to use the computer for stuff like games. i have a seperate hard drive with a clean operating system just for recording and then let all my junk build up on my normal one. newer versions of cubase should not have any issues with windows xp or 2000.

hope that helps!

Nik

 

[mikethekiwi]

sweet thanks - will get the yamaha mixer.

also a bit of advise need on mics/preamps and monitors

mics - primarily for recording guitar/instruments, maybe a little vocals – Rhodes NT1-A looks alright. Its around the $300US mark. Someone strongly recommended that it would a good idea to get a pre-amp / compressor in addition to a mic. Is this a must?? Or would I would be better buying a $600US mic – instead of a $300 mic and a $300 pre-amp.

Apparently the FAT BOY 2 (?) is a good pre-amp / compressor combo? Should this be used also for recording guitar and other instrument? Advised needed.

And secondly on monitiors – have read a few of the threads here and obviously people have different opinions. MSP5’s in comparison to Truths and BX8’s are priced around the same – my instinct would tell me to go with the 8 inch monitors (hey they are larger so they’ve got to be better eh!!??) – but apparenlty the MSP5’s provide a less-coloured and flat sound. Our choice of music is hip hop based so we a need decent bass, but we wont be CRANKING it – what is your guys take on this???

Thanks guys – your advise has been a big help so far.

PS I will be using cubase SL.

 

[MemoGtr]

mics - primarily for recording guitar/instruments, maybe a little vocals – Rhodes NT1-A looks alright. Its around the $300US mark. Someone strongly recommended that it would a good idea to get a pre-amp / compressor in addition to a mic. Is this a must?? Or would I would be better buying a $600US mic – instead of a $300 mic and a $300 pre-amp.

if youre buying a nice mic then its a good idea to get a nice preamp (so you can get the best of the mic )

check some of the m-audio preamps

 

[noisedude]

you need a pre of some description to bring your microphone up to line level. you can use a mixer with built in pres, or get a dedicated and usually far superior preamp unit. again, the m-audio dmp3 usually gets the best write ups in this price range.

the thing with bass is if you have loads of it coming through your flat monitors then when kid puts it on his mega super enhancer expander bass stereo it's gonna be all rattle and no choon.

go have a listen to them - take your fav recordings and see how they sound on each and pick the ones you like the most. and then you'll know what you want your music to sound like on them too.

 

[Track Rat]

As far as the HHB Fatman 2 goes, it's a VERY colored preamp. I suppose that could be a good thing but it is a one trick pony. I have one and find use for it but I wouldn't want it to be my only preamp.