recording 1 band with 2 audio interfaces

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math

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Hi,

As the title mentions, I'd like to record my band (live) to have a little demo that we can send to venues. At this moment, we play with 1 electrical drum, 1 bass, 1 guitar and 1 singer. We have 2 audio interfaces, both with 2 audio inputs.

I've already done some research on several forums and placing the 2 interfaces on 1 pc probably wouldn't work so my idea would be to use 2 pc's.

We would then plug the jacks from the bass and electrical drum into 1 interface and the guitar jack and the singers XLR into the other interface.
Do you think this is a good approach? Because I'm afraid of bleeding of the mics that would cause phasing problems (which occur regularly when using 2 interfaces apparently). Otherwise we also have 1 extra dynamic mic (sm57 copy), 1 condenser mic rode nt1a and 1 Roland edirol R-09hr recorder that we could also use.

What do you think would be the best setup with this gear? I'm open to all suggestions.

Thanks in advance! =)
 
1. try 2 interfaces at once regardless of what people say, if it works yay, if not, nobody died...(i like breaking "rules")
2. two pcs will def work, nothing wrong with it, just import the files into a single comp for post work.
3. if you have a 4 channel mixer available, sum guitar bass and drums to the left channel and vocals to right channel, and have those go to corresponding inputs on the interface. (or any summing possibility you are comfy with...)
 
Thanks for the advice! So I guess I stick to my plan A and don't use the extra mics then.
And unfortunately, I don't have a mixer so I'll see how it works out ;)
 
Reet Monkey! Done this, works.

You want to use two USB interfaces on the same PC? First off you need the right DAW software and the only one I have tried that works is Samplitude but do not despair!

You want to record 2 x 2 inputs? Samplitude Silver cloud will record up to 4 stereo tracks or 8 mono if you so set it up and it is totally free (or you could download the demo of Sam ProX and use that for a month) .

You cannot use ASIO drivers but latency is no matter when tracking (set it to a LOT of samples) so use MME drivers. The downside of this method is that the two sets of tracks will not (afaik) be perfectly locked in sync but I found the "slip" to be unnoticeable over a 5 minute take. The tracks may also not start together but Samplitude allows you to slide a whole set of tracks ref another...Bottom line it works! Well enough for rock and roll!

But, are the AIs perchance equipped with S/PDIF? If so you can run one into the other. The "feed" AI must be the master and you can now use ASIO drivers and all will be locked.

Dave.
 
Ok, thanks! No, there is no S/PDIF on the AI's, but if you say the 'slip' isn't noticeable it's okay I guess, that was my main concern =)
 
If you want to make your life easier and have the funds, not sure why you wouldn't get a nice little Tascam 1800 for less than $300 in the US. Might make your life a bit easier.
 
DM60 said:
If you want to make your life easier and have the funds, not sure why you wouldn't get a nice little Tascam 1800 for less than $300 in the US. Might make your life a bit easier.
Click to expand...

Indeed, but atm the funds is the problem ;-)
 
ecc83 said:
Reet Monkey! Done this, works.

You want to use two USB interfaces on the same PC? First off you need the right DAW software and the only one I have tried that works is Samplitude but do not despair!

You want to record 2 x 2 inputs? Samplitude Silver cloud will record up to 4 stereo tracks or 8 mono if you so set it up and it is totally free (or you could download the demo of Sam ProX and use that for a month) .

You cannot use ASIO drivers but latency is no matter when tracking (set it to a LOT of samples) so use MME drivers. The downside of this method is that the two sets of tracks will not (afaik) be perfectly locked in sync but I found the "slip" to be unnoticeable over a 5 minute take. The tracks may also not start together but Samplitude allows you to slide a whole set of tracks ref another...Bottom line it works! Well enough for rock and roll!

But, are the AIs perchance equipped with S/PDIF? If so you can run one into the other. The "feed" AI must be the master and you can now use ASIO drivers and all will be locked.

Dave.
Click to expand...

Curious on how Samplitude will let you use 2 interfaces at one time? Only expereience is really with Reaper, and you're only allowed one audio input device. I've heard there is a way with Macs to get 2 interfaces to work simultaneously, but like you mention the sample clocks can start to drift over time.
 
mjbphotos said:
Curious on how Samplitude will let you use 2 interfaces at one time? Only expereience is really with Reaper, and you're only allowed one audio input device. I've heard there is a way with Macs to get 2 interfaces to work simultaneously, but like you mention the sample clocks can start to drift over time.
Click to expand...


I know M-Audio's driver allows for multiple devices (all M-audio and it is PCI), I do think ASIO drivers run exclusive to be able to control latency, therefore, I suspect multiple inputs would have to use another non-ASIO driver.

I will you on this MJ, I'm not 100% sure this is really possible.

OP, if you are able to do this, please let us know how it was done. Curious factor going on here.
 
Just lashed in the KA6, set Radio3 a'playin' and set Sam Silver to MME drivers.

As you can see I have two sets of waveforms.

Top is stereo radio (mon mix, M-A 2496)
And bottom is AKG 150 into KA6. This played back but the mic cracked up a bit but then this was internet, soundcard, DAW, USB2.0 interface and probably a bit much for this old P4! I dare say, had I set the buffers way higher the recording would have been pristine.

In the past I have done this with 2496, Behringer BCA2000 and an M-A Fast track pro.
Dave.
 

Attachments

Where in your "Record Parameter" window is the selection of the M-A?
 
Well, I don't know how to do it on PC but I seem to have read that it can be done before.

I use a mac, and you can go to audio midi settings and create a new audio device and check both of them, and the computer then turns both of them into one unit. If PC doesn't do that by it's self, which it probably doesn't, I'm sure there is freeware software that will do it.

With the mac, like the other person said, the samples can get off. But they won't get off if the interfaces are similar, they don't have to be the same, just similar. And you can't select both of them to include output or what happens is an extreme amount of latency comes out of the one device created. It'd be the same if done on a PC. If there is software for the PC to do this, when combining them to be one interface in the software, only use one of the devices for outputs and make sure outputs for the other one is unchecked. That usually solves the whole problem with mac.

I have used an maudio fast track pro USB 2.0 with saffire pro 40 firewire without latency issues. But again, the mac sees it as one interface. So the daw sees it as one interface. I know there has to be a way to do that on PC at this point.
 
mjbphotos said:
Where in your "Record Parameter" window is the selection of the M-A?
Click to expand...
It would be in the drop down menu box presently showing the KA6.

BTW you get that Recording Parameters box up by right clicking on the record button on the Transport display.

Heh! I KNOW I seem to slide in a reference to Sam Silver Cloud at every opportunity but it really is a very useful, totally free DAW. I still have Samplitude SE8 that came free with Computer Music Magazine ('bout the only useful thing they ever did!) . I would LOVE the top bllx Prox but can't afford/justify it. There is a lesser version "Producer 11" but even that is £150. I have emailed MAGIX more than once and told them that, IMHO if they produced a more modern version of SE8 and flogged it at ~ a nifty, hot cakes would not be in it! I would buy TWO instances right of the bat!

But nay, they do not seem bothered to compete with the well under 100quid versions of Cubase, Sonar etc?

Dave.
 
math said:
I've already done some research on several forums and placing the 2 interfaces on 1 pc probably wouldn't work so my idea would be to use 2 pc's.
Click to expand...
Probably wouldn't? I don't have a second pc available to do this, and I really can't afford one. Is there any way that I could use both a Tascam US-1200 and an AudioBox USB 22VSL at the same time from one pc? (Windows 7)

Both interfaces use USB connection, and I am currently using Studio One 2 Artist as my DAW. I would be willing to switch to a new DAW, provided it was free and can use both interfaces at once.

The reason for running both is so I could use the 4 XLR inputs on the US-1200 and the 2 XLR's on the Audiobox at once to record drums with a six-piece mic set. Is it possible to connect my Audiobox to the US-1200 using 1, or 2, of the 2 available balanced line inputs? (Via instrument cable(s)) This would mean having them both plugged in to the pc's USB ports.
 
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