Setting up recording for a band

C

Chippy569

New member
Alright well i'm the drummer/light/sound guy in my 5-piece band and we're seriously contemplating doing some self-recording before we hit the studios. We have a lot of the equipment ready and we've done some sample work before but i'm looking to up the anti and make something that sounds better. Well this is the equipment i have:

Behringer UB-2222FX-Pro mixer board

all the mics and guitar amps are hooked up to the board. From there, i have the vocals going out subgroup1 output to a keyboard amp so they can be heard. I then have the main outs going to our PA. I have the "Tape Out" going to my sony home stereo amp. from there, the signal goes thru the amp's "tape out" to my tape deck where it records on cassette. (quite creative, if i do say so myself.) Well this is the part that i don't like. To get the data to my PC i have to pull the tape deck out, run the deck over here to my PC and cook it up (with the RCA aux in on the front of my pc) and then record in stereo in Audacity.
This means i don't have the ability to edit individual instruments' levels and basically can't do any mixdown stuff. what comes out of the mixer is pretty well final.

Is there anything i can do that will make the audio quality better? i mean, i know there isn't software that will split the tracks and whatever but how do i get 9 channels into my PC simultaneously?
 
if you wanted pics of the space we play in...

Room.jpg

that's the room. pardon my drumset not being together. the mixer and such is on the right, the stereo is behind it. the pa speakers/amps and stuff aren't there either.

http://inkinc.kirkwarez.com/ant/pics/Room/MixerTable1.jpg
that's my board, got it at GC for 200. if you want me to explain better where everything is going, i can.

http://inkinc.kirkwarez.com/ant/pics/Room/Stereo1.jpg
that's a rather poor pic of the stereo system sitting in there. Our band does a few shows outta my basement when people request or it's winter and we can't play outside (like now!) so we also use this stereo to play music from the CD player on bottom or the Rio Reciever mp3 networking interface box thingy on top of the cabinet (not shown, tho it's a handy bugger).
 
You'll get far better sound quality going straight from the desk to a computer, bypassing the tape. For that you're going to need a decent multi-input soundcard, the cheapest solution I know would be to get a couple of delta 44s or 66s, that will give you the ability to record eight channels simultaneously into your computer. I'm sure other people would be able to recommend different soundcards that do the same or a better job for a similar price.
 
Chippy569 said:
Is there anything i can do that will make the audio quality better? i mean, i know there isn't software that will split the tracks and whatever but how do i get 9 channels into my PC simultaneously?
Click to expand...

You could pick up a decent 10-input sound card ... like a Delta 1010 (or 1010 LT if you're cheap :D ).

Maybe pick up a decent multitrack recording software ... Adobe Audition, N-Tracks, Cakewalk are all good. And basically just get in to the whole PC / DAW recording arena.

That would be the long and difficult method. Might take you several months before you figure out what the heck you're doing and the best way to route everything, bla bla bla bla. Seriously.

You could also go the multi-track recorder route ... get something with at least 10 inputs. Yamaha, Roland, and a few others make some decent multi-track recorders. This might be the pricier route, but you probably won't have to spend as much time getting up and running, and there will be some limitations on your mixing ability -- fewer options available to you since you won't have all those nifty plugins that all us DAW dorks use and abuse.
 
chessrock said:
You could also go the multi-track recorder route ... get something with at least 10 inputs. Yamaha, Roland, and a few others make some decent multi-track recorders. This might be the pricier route, but you probably won't have to spend as much time getting up and running, and there will be some limitations on your mixing ability -- fewer options available to you since you won't have all those nifty plugins that all us DAW dorks use and abuse.
Click to expand...

To be quite honest, his is what I hightly suggest doing.

I have a Roland VS1680 and it can't be beat for demos. I might not have to most up to date stuff now, but I tried recording on the computer and there is so much BS to go through just to laydown a couple tracks, it ruins the creative spirtit of the whole thing. Leave that shit up to recording engineers and after you figure out what you are doing.

For demos, a PC just gets in the way.
 
i've got a copy of Audition on the way, maybe i'll figure out how to use it.

Pardon my noobess but how exactly does one hook up the inputs of one of these Delta 1010's and the like? (i know how to hook it up in the pc but the chan inputs or whatever? how do i get ten outta them?)

i'm not a fan of those studio-in-a-box thingies... but i guess if i have no choice.
 
You'll probably have to take the signal from each mixer channel from an insert... it'll probably be rigged up for a TRS send/return deal, but it can be used to get just the send out of each channel, and run each into an input on the multi input sound card/interface. Then you'll have access to each channel independently in your software.
 
Before buying a soundcard/interface, read the fine print about how many actual analog inputs/outputs there are, "most" devices include a stereo spdif I/O in their total I/O count, and if you don't have any way to input a spdif signal, then you'll lose 2 I/O right off the bat, using the Delta 1010 as an example, it will only give you 8 analog inputs if you don't use spdif.

:)
 
what am i looking for then? i'm pretty sure there's no 12-chan pci cards (unless i get two... hey can i do that?) and all these firewire/USB interface thingies with mixers only have 8 channels so i'm not sure what to do now!
 
The MOTU 828mkII will do 8 analog line inouts, plus 2 front mounted mic/instrument inputs at once, that's 10, then if you add an external ADAT lightpipe device such as the Behringer ADA-8000, ($230.00), you can add another 8 analog inputs for a total of 18 analog inputs, total cost is about a grand.
 
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