I was thinking of buying a delta1010lt. I want to record drums using 4-6 separate tracks, so I thought this would be a good choice. In less than a year, I am probably going to buy a Mackie ONYX mixer (I don't have a mixer now), so I don't want to spend too much on a soundcard now (the ONYX can send the tracks separately via firewire). I heard that recording drums directly into the soundcard is a bad idea (without a mixer first). I use Mackie Tracktion as my recording/mixing software, so I am not fully sure of the problem. I understand that the mixer would allow me to add compression before the sound hits the soundcard. How big a deal is this?
I need to get a soundcard now though. My soundblaster blows, and I can't use the ASIO4all or kX drivers on my computer. I am hoping to keep my cost under $300. I don't trust Creative (E-MU), so it seems that its either M-audio or ECHO in this price range. Any suggestions/help would be awesome.
As long as you aren't clipping any during the recording you'll be fine going straight into the soundcard.
I do it all the time, I just keep my peaks at -6db.
We are in the digital world here. We can bring levels up during mix-down and mastering. Specially when we've got 24/96 and better gear.
Of course you can't just plug a mic into the soundcard and expect decent levels unless you are using an outboard pre-amp, or the soundcard you use has the pre-amps built in.
Good attention to input levels will allow you to dry track and process during mix-down and mastering. Just pay close attention to your gain structure and avoid clipping.
You'll do just fine.
Check out gain structure here ......
If you're recording drums you're still gonna need some way to mic pre the line inputs you are using... So you either have to get some mic pres or a mixer. As far as I know the 1010lt only has 2 mic pres. Personally, I'd skip doing the 1010 lt and an analog mixer since you might as well get a stand alone unit with mic pres built in by the time you buy a mixer and a bunch of cables to hook it all together. The cheapest mixer I think would make a realistic companion to the 101lt would be the Behringer Eurorack UB2442FX-PRO. Has direct outs on 8 channels. I thought that sounded interesting, but by the time you get the mixer, 101lt card andall the cables, you're probably gonna be over $700 which is getting too close to something like an Aardvark Q-10. On top of that you might have noise/ground loops issues with all those cables, which make an all in one solution even more attractive...
