Of course...

  • Thread starter Thread starter DrumRookie
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DrumRookie

DrumRookie

"That" kid.
Hi everyone, my first thread here. It's unfortunate it has to be on this issue though.
So bear with me while I vent a little :facepalm:


I had a Tascam US122L I sold yesterday for 55 bucks, and I got my MultiMix 8 USB today.
Well everything was going as planned, till I opened the box :P
The sales associate at GC told me it was a USB 2.0. Well, I trusted him. Bad idea.
He also said it was a "little" dirty. I didn't think it would be too bad. Not so.
It was also missing the USB cord which I had a spare laying around, so I was fine about that.

I opened it up, and to my dismay it was the old, USB 1.1 version, all dirty and smelled like it was used in a bar 800 times. Oh, and the Alesis logo on the side had been painted yellow. I'm guessing whoever painted it was high at the time.

So I called them back and told them the situation. So it came that I could get a refund of my money (including shipping), by returning it to my local GC, and the money could be applied to a MultiMix 8 USB 2.0 (from GC). I spent $63 bucks (down the toilet) on it.
So he looked online for it and we discussed some things, and he told me that with the MultiMix 8 USB 2.0 I could NOT select each individual track on the DAW I was going to use, it was just going to be compressed into 1 track.
I think he is right on that, which I was unaware of.

What's probably going to happen is I'm going to get a US800 from B&H for 100 bucks, OR get an Alesis Multimix 8 FireWire for a bit less (I think) so I could select each individual track on my DAW. But I heard that the firewire version of that mixer had some issues. What are your thoughts on this?

Then there was another option of getting a PV8 USB without the power supply for 70 (guy said I could potentially get it for less, hasn't called back yet..), which won't allow me to tweak each different channel individually.

So my day was just a load of stress, the 50 bucks I was going to get back on the US122L was going to pay for the mixer. Or be used to get a nice bass drum mic..
:( this stinks..
 
Drummers! :facepalm: You need to read this thread about mixers.
I'm pretty sure none of those mixers you are looking at will do what you want except for the Alesis Firewire - but that baby is $299 not $99.
Get the Tascam US-800 and thank jimmys69 in the morning!
 
Hey, I'm sorry to hear about your grief. You sound like a good kid, and it really gets me when anyone gets ripped off but especially rookie drummers!

This may sound crazy, but you might want to check e-bay or your local Kijiji. I have bought tons of stuff especially on e-bay and knock on wood, I have not had a bad experience yet. Check the sellers rep and customer comments. Make sure they are not a new seller. People that sell a lot on e-bay want good feedback, so they usually are honest about what they are selling. Be wary of new sellers and overseas mega sellers. Ask questions and if they don't have good answers, move on. I have bought gear, tried it, resold it for pretty much what I paid. I've also found some great deals for stuff that is now my goto equipment.

Just do your homework. Research what you want. Look at new prices from Sweetwater, ZZounds, GC etc, then see what it is going for on e-bay. You can get great deals on slightly older equipment because people are always upgrading. I bought my Alesis Mastercontrol on e-bay about 3 years ago for $500. At the time they were about $1000 new. I love this thing and it was in immaculate shape. I won't be parting with it anytime soon.

Good luck and wish you the best. Keep us posted!
 
mjbphotos said:
Drummers! :facepalm: You need to read this thread about mixers.
I'm pretty sure none of those mixers you are looking at will do what you want except for the Alesis Firewire - but that baby is $299 not $99.
Get the Tascam US-800 and thank jimmys69 in the morning!
Click to expand...

lol :D

The Alesis Multimix 8 FireWire was used for around $100. Is it worth it?

Here is an update:

I called him up again, and he said GC could match B&H's price for the US800. The issue is since they discontinued it, I would have to settle for the demo version of the US800 instead. Which means the software might not be included.

Or I could go for the FireWire Alesis MultiMix, but I thought they had some issues?

I think jimmy69 wins on this one probably :)
 
Washburn100 said:
Hey, I'm sorry to hear about your grief. You sound like a good kid, and it really gets me when anyone gets ripped off but especially rookie drummers!

This may sound crazy, but you might want to check e-bay or your local Kijiji. I have bought tons of stuff especially on e-bay and knock on wood, I have not had a bad experience yet. Check the sellers rep and customer comments. Make sure they are not a new seller. People that sell a lot on e-bay want good feedback, so they usually are honest about what they are selling. Be wary of new sellers and overseas mega sellers. Ask questions and if they don't have good answers, move on. I have bought gear, tried it, resold it for pretty much what I paid. I've also found some great deals for stuff that is now my goto equipment.

Just do your homework. Research what you want. Look at new prices from Sweetwater, ZZounds, GC etc, then see what it is going for on e-bay. You can get great deals on slightly older equipment because people are always upgrading. I bought my Alesis Mastercontrol on e-bay about 3 years ago for $500. At the time they were about $1000 new. I love this thing and it was in immaculate shape. I won't be parting with it anytime soon.

Good luck and wish you the best. Keep us posted!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kinds words :)

I consider myself pretty smart when shopping for stuff like this.
I've gotten almost everything used in the ways of drums, cymbals, interfaces, hardware, and computers.
And I've learned through trial and error what you've told me :P
I always check eBay, but they don't really have as good of deals as GC used sometimes. Depending on what your looking for of course.

I've gotten burned before on stuff, so this isn't the first time. I knew I should have been a bit more cautious on this one (I usually am, but this time I had a gut feeling something wasn't what it was cracked up to be).

Thanks for the support :D
 
Doesn't acadeko use a multimix 2.0?
i remember him saying that they were full duplex :confused:
 
DrumRookie said:
he told me that with the MultiMix 8 USB 2.0 I could NOT select each individual track on the DAW I was going to use, it was just going to be compressed into 1 track.
I think he is right on that, which I was unaware of.
Click to expand...

Negative - the multi-mix 8 USB 2.0 does have 8 discreet tracks, not just a stereo mix
- each track is unique in the DAW (eg it's full duplex) - I used to have one, I upgraded to the Multimix 16

you don't need firewire for multi-tracking
 
Go for the tascam!!!!!! Doesn't guitar center usually discount their floor models? Tell him you want it half off or your going next door to best buy!
 
Yeah I think you can get the Tascam 800 or even the 1800 for the same price as the Multimix 8.0 - I would get the 1800
 
Well, since the price of a US800 is only $99 over at B&H, I guess I'm going with that. And then jimmy69 can add another recruit to his list :D
UNLESS I call up the guy tomorrow and tell him I'm taking my business over to B&H if he can't get me the floor model for what I originally spent on the MultiMix 8 1.1 USB sham. I doubt he'll honor the price though...

And thanks for the info arcadeko, very helpful, even though contrary to the 2 people who worked at GC that I asked! I'm 100% sure your right though. Obviously because you own one! :)

What do ya think? 0_o
 
Well, looks like Jimmy has hit his quota for the month :D
Oh-
Generally speaking of course, most people that work at guitar center don't know anything :eek:
 
I wasn't high! I just thought that Alesis looked cool painted yellow.
 
moresound said:
I wasn't high! I just thought that Alesis looked cool painted yellow.
Click to expand...

:laughings:

Thats one of the first things that came to my mind when I saw it :P
I mean, I don't know what came to this persons mind (besides the smoke from the weed he lit up) to actually do that, it looks terrible! A 5 year old has better accuracy with finger paints!
 
The software with the US-800 - I think it comes with Cubase LE - do you need it? The drivers are all downloadable from Tascam.com

On the Alesis - if it truly provides 10 discreet recording channels, it's a good deal. Note that it only has 4 mic preamps, the other 6 'channels' are actually 3 pairs of stereo inputs.
 
mjbphotos said:
The software with the US-800 - I think it comes with Cubase LE - do you need it? The drivers are all downloadable from Tascam.com

On the Alesis - if it truly provides 10 discreet recording channels, it's a good deal. Note that it only has 4 mic preamps, the other 6 'channels' are actually 3 pairs of stereo inputs.
Click to expand...

Really? Hmm.. So that means I could plug another 3 pairs of mics into the other inputs (through XLR to TRS)?
Very interesting.
Only thing is that it doesn't have MIDI. And the Cubase LE would probably be a little step up from the GarageBand I have (until I get Logic in a few months).

Well let me know if this will work :D
 
DrumRookie said:
Really? Hmm.. So that means I could plug another 3 pairs of mics into the other inputs (through XLR to TRS)?
Very interesting.
Only thing is that it doesn't have MIDI. And the Cubase LE would probably be a little step up from the GarageBand I have (until I get Logic in a few months).

Well let me know if this will work :D
Click to expand...

No, that means you would have 6 additional 'LINE' input channels. You would need 6 preamps to run mics through them. A microphone needs a preamp to bring it to line level.

Cubase is a very big step up from GarageBand. As is Logic. LE will just give you the opportunity to see if the software works with your particular brain patterns. It is however limited. And free. All of the full DAW's do basically the same thing. Each one fits different people. Trying each is the only real way to know what works for you. Reaper is free to try, pay $60 if you like it. Many here do, and have great results. It just didn't work well for my crazy brain. You decide. :D
 
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