Sound Card

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Anomaly

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Hi everybody I'm new here.. but will be checking back daily.
My band and I built a new computer for use in our practice space and we want to know whats the best sound card for the price and secifications we need it for.. we want 16 inputs from an external rack mounted (prefferably) I/O bay that extends from the sound card.. for recording our demo.. (we want to do our best at mixing it down after recording all our tracks,, so when we come to the studio we can give our engineer a very detailed presentation of what we want done professionally.

Any suggestions?
I can be reached at msartore@rcn.com
Thanks
Michael
 
Rack mounted 16 in/out? 2xDelta1010, 2xLayla24.
Not rack mounted 16 in/out? 2xTerratec EWS88MT, 2xSiena.

But.... If you are going to the studio aren't you paying to the engineer for his experience/knowledge/ears?
What makes you think that you need to give him very detailed pointers?
If the engineer doesn't do the job you want I would suggest finding another studio instead of you trying to mix through the engineer.

Just a bit puzzled,
Keijo
 
i would go with a standalone recorder.......as cheap as possible.....if you are going into the studio to do the real thing, amazing quality isnt an issue....really, all that isnt necessary anyway...if you guys are really tight and have your parts down and can get the right sounds coming out of your instruments, the engineer can surely get it to tape...if not, you are in the wrong studio.....
 
Both warlock & gidge have provided excellent advice. Why spend
large $$$'s for a 16 in's/out's (The MOTU 828 is $800 alone for just 8-24bit in's/out's so you can imagine the cost for 16!) get yourself a solid stanalone DAW for your demo's and then proceed to a reputable studio.
Good Luck!
 
Last edited:
Riku said:
I would like to hear what kind of band needs 16 inputs?
Click to expand...
That's Easy:
1 BD
2 SD
3 Rack Tom 1
4 Rack Tom 2
5 Flr Tom
6 Hat
7 OH L
8 OH R
9 Bass DI
10 Bass Mic
11 Guit 1
12 Guit 2
13 Vox 1
14 Vox 2
15 Synth L
16 Synth R

:D Keijo
 
hmm.. thanks but.. no thanks

I am actually looking to you guys for advice on what to buy for our recording computer. All the time I have at studios .. good studios.. is free. My friends are engineers. I want to do some good quality recording in our space.. mind if i ask you guys again?
.. Ok.. 16 inputs... for individual drums.. 8 might do it if its good price. I would like to hear from you guys on what experience you've had with these boards.. and pros and cons.. thank you
 
for 8 tracks....Aardvark Q10.....
for 16 tracks.....2 - Aardvark Q10's

they run about $750 a piece.....

also, depending on the specs of your computer, you may need to do some serious upgrading as it will take a little horsepower to record 16 simultaneous tracks......
 
I don't think most computers will handle recording 16 tracks at a time.

Your better off just recording drums and maybe bass first. Then gtr's, synth, and vocals. It will save you alot of money.

Also don't forget you need mic's and preamps or a mixer for all the channels.

If I were you I would just spend the extra time in the studio rather than buy all that gear. One or more of the bandmembers should be in the control room with the engineer telling him what they want to hear. Also provide a few reference CDs from bands that have a similar sound to what you want to have.

I have a delta 44(4 analog in) and a peice of shit Behringer mixer for preamps. I usually record drums and bass first for punk/hardcore/metal music where the timing is werid. On one channel I put kick and snare, than I mix the rest of the drum kit between two channels in stereo. And my last channel is bass. This only works well if you have a soundproofed control room because its hard to mix drums on headphones when in the same room.

I would go with a delta 1010(8 analog inputs) and a mackie mixer with direct outs on each channel. That would be good if you are running win98 on your computer. What OS are you running?
 
If you have free time at good studios, then I still don't get it. Most of us would love to have free time at good studios, since their gear is almost always superior.

If you're on a Mac and you have the cash (8-10k), you can't beat a Pro Tools MixPlus system with a 1622 interface (that's 16 balanced inputs, rack mounted). But you still need preamps for all your mics.
 
Warlock's got this one buttoned down. And I'll agree. I have been savin my pennies. Atho u can dew the same thing without the sound card with fancy software. I've hear people saying these sound cards are producing quality. These also open the doors for alot of would be musicians, affordably. Its your music and it should sound the way you want. But studio help is always a nice thing to have around. Phil Spector would agree. LOL
 
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