setting up analog

[subtracktion]

I've been doing all my recording on the computer for a few years but lately I've had the urge just to try some analog gear. So I've been scouting around for a while and I found a pretty good deal on a Tascam 238 and an M-308. I was thinking of how I would set everything up and couldn't quite figure it out.

I work with a few different samplers and synths. I had everything running into a Mackie LM-3204 and would send audio to my audio interface with the ALT 3-4 button and record a track at a time. I had audio coming back into a stereo channel on the Mackie to monitor the ITB mixes. I figured I would keep pretty much the same setup but just send the audio to the 238 for recording and mix on the M-308. When I thought about it, though, I couldn't figure out how the monitoring would work.

I need to be able to hear the audio from my samplers and synths when I'm just making the music (i.e. not recording/mixing) and then also when I'm mixing from the 238. If I were using the Mackie and the M-308 I don't see how that could happen. I don't think the M-308 has enough inputs to accommodate everything on its own. I was also thinking it might not be good to have the M-308 on for extended periods of time just for the sake of being able to hear what I'm doing through the monitors when I'm messing around with ideas for the music.

What do you guys think? What would be a good solution to accomplish being able to record and monitor my instruments? I also have a 48 point patch bay that's not being used if that would help.

 

[jpmorris]

What I did is more-or-less what you're describing. I have a sub-mixer for the keyboards, and a main mixer for the recorder. One possibility is using an input switch on the monitor, so I can choose between the computer, the submixer and the main desk, but I only have one switcher, don't have the parts to build another one and the one I do have is being used backwards to select inputs on the recorder ;-)

What I ended up doing was having the main desk always on, and using one of the aux inputs to monitor the sub-mixer. (My monitor has two inputs, so one is the main desk and one is the computer). I have to be careful to switch off the sub-mixer monitoring when I record, though. Otherwise I get the track coming in louder than it really is which can be very confusing.

Incidentally, if you're sequencing the keyboards a track at a time rather than playing them live, you're going to want to look into getting a MIDI synchronizer.

 

[subtracktion]

I guess another way to make it work would be to monitor from the submixer and run a stereo output from the main mixer back into the submixer like I was doing with the computer. I'll have to see how that sounds but do you think it would have a negative effect on the sound for mixing purposes?