Recording setup help!

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CanopuS

Amateur music since 1847
Right, I've spent months trying to figure out a good setup. I've looked through a lot of the possibilities, and as I'm going to need to work with a laptop, I thought using a mixer would be a good option, especially with preamps etc.

I had a look at the Mackie 1402VLZ Pro, and it looks pretty solid. Can I just ask, are mixers the thing to go for? Are Mackies the best? etc. Thanks :)
 
What type of recording are you going to be doing? Live sound to a stereo mix or are you going to do multi-track?
 
Either. I'm gonna need to use atleast 4-6 inputs for recording drums, so I'm also gonna need enough preamps (which is why I looked at mixers). However it will mostly be multitracking.
 
Ok. I am by no means an authority on mixers, but in my experience I have had good results with Mackie equipment. What were you looking to spend? One of your better options for doing thos would actually be a MOTU 828mkII. It's a firewire card that has 8 analog line ins and 2 analog Mic ins with phantom power, and 8 outs, and even more ins if you have an ADAT to throw in the rack to borrow it's A/Ds. This would enable you to run up to 10 channels of preamp'd recording in conjunction with a mixer, and the mixer will give you much more flexible options for headphone monitor mixes. The 828 is going for about $800 though, I don't know if that was as much as you wanted to spend or not.
 
Well, first thing is, I'm working in pounds ;) But I'll say we're looking at approximately $500. I know, its not a lot, but its all we have :)

The thing is, will a mixer on its own do the job in terms of preamps and sound quality. Will I need to get a soundcard ASWELL? :x
 
Well, $500 British Pounds is about $800 USD. The mixer will provide all the pre-amps you would need. Most people use a mixer for the headphone mix and use each channel's aux sends to route the signal to the sound card. Unfortunately, to do multi-track you really will need to get a sound card. If you don't have one and you use your laptop's card, you will only be able to track 2 channels at once.
 
Surely its possible to mix down the tracks and then record them into the computer?

Also, I meant $500 american dollars, not pounds :(
 
Oh! I thought you meant pounds... :D Yes, you can mix it through the mixer to a stereo. If that's the case, then all you will need is your mixer and a cable to plug 2 mono 1/4" cables into a stereo 1/8" cable. Doing it this way though, you must have your mix the way you like it when you record because once it's recorded, you can't change it except for EQ'ing. If you try to compress it, you'll find that your entire drum mix gets quieter and louder, but yes. That is perfectly feasible.
 
The laptop on its own will only accomodate two tracks max AT ONE TIME going in as the stock laptop soundcard (which will be a pooch) only has a left and a right input. You could still multitrack but only two tracks at a time. To do eight ins at a time, you'll need a soundcard with at least eight inputs. A mixer or stand alone mic preamps would patch to those. The Mackie mixer will do an pretty decent job as far as preamps and even as a headphone amp goes.
 
Whats wrong with recording a guitar part in stereo, mixing that down and putting it onto the computer. Then recording the vocals, and putting that onto the computer. Surely that way I can have them all seperately?
 
Well maybe I could always find a soundcard to go alongside, but really I'm mostly worried about the sound quality on a normal soundcard using a mixer?
 
The mixer won't be the limiting factor here. The stock soundcards on laptops especially are notoriously bad.
 
There is nothing wrong with that, I do that myself. My only concern was with the drums. The quality of the sound coming out of a Mackie mixer will be very good. Mackie makes a good product. The quality concers would be coming from your sound card. The only way to test this would be to actually record something and see how your card does. I have heard expensive laptops sound like crap and cheap ones sounding great. It's really hit or mis.
 
Will the sound quality lose out because its been mixed down to the soundcard? In that case, what sort of soundcard should I look at. Any CHEAP suggestions?

Would the mixer be able to keep data on it whilst its being taken to a different location (my desktop) ?
 
Witha laptop, there isn't a lot of cheap alternatives on soundcards. Firewire devices would be about your only multitrack options. And the mixer won't store anything unfortunately.
 
Probably what your best bet would be an MAudio USB 2496, they sell at MusiciansFriend.com for about $200.
 
That card there is a PCI card which will not work in your laptop. This is where the extra money comes in, because it will have to be either a firewire card or a USB card. The limitation with Laptops is that as a rule of thumb, all laptop sound cards are junk. Very few laptops deviate from this rule. Laptops do not have a normal PCI bus in them, so you are locked with having to use a firewire card or a USB card, and that generally is a little more cost.
 
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