Super new, but trying to learn

[enjaku]

I posted this over on SOS, but it may be more appropriate here...
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My name is Eric and I'm a drummer in Chicago. I'm in the midst of building a drum room and a home studio, but am brand-spanking new at audio recording. I'm reading and watching practically everything that I can get my hands on, and at the same time designing what I want my home recording studio to look and function like. My goal is to have friends and family come over and play a bit in the studio, and then mix that into somethings that they can listen to. Also, I want to use the studio as a practice space for my drums... mixing the drums with other inputs and sending to my teacher for review and comment.

I've decided to purchase a Yamaha O1V96i, and run that into a MacBook Pro. While I'm building out the drum room, I'm holding off on purchasing a lot of gear such as mics, studio monitors, etc... I've found a really good deal on a O1V96i, and I was wondering if it's worth purchasing that now so that I can start climbing up the learning curve? My thought is that I can input my MacBook into the mixer play with the board and the mix, and output either to a headset or back into the MacBook. Is that feasible to do as a way of starting to learn the board as well as Cubase AI, which comes bundled with the O1V96i? I want to start learning now and don't want to wait to input instruments via mics into the board, which is probably a month or so away.

Thanks for your thoughts.

-eric

 

[mjbphotos]

Not sure what kind of deal you can get on that Yammie mixer - it sells for about $2400 new. Are you ever going to be doinglive shows you want to record as well as mix? That's what it is for. If this is strictly oging to be a studio project, you don't need a mixer, you need an audio interface.
read all the sticky posts at the top of this section of the forum - mixers and homereocrding, intro to multitrack, etc.

 

[Bobbsy]

Yeah.

How are you planning to use the mixer and, in particular, how are you getting its output into your DAW?

Yamaha digital mixers can work well but they take some thought about interfacing--I use a DM1000 in my studio, into my DAW via two MY16AT ADAT cards and a Profire Lightbridge--but I wouldn't recommend getting involved with firewire at this stage. I've been considering an Audinate Dante card for the mixer to go into my DAW via a standard network connection--but it ain't cheap.

On the plus side though, a digital mixer makes setting up monitor feeds and so on a dream--and they're incredibly useful if you do any live work.

Anyhow, if you've worked out the details of how you wish to use the mixer then I'd say yes, buy it early and start practising. The learning curve can be steep but the rewards are there when you know your way around. If, on the other hand, you just want a mixer then take a deep breath and think about whether a standard interface might be your best bet.

 

[Dogbreath]

yeah, you might consider bypassing the mixer and look into an interface. I don't know how many mics you plan on using for your drums but I'm getting an 8 input/8 output. That'll give me kick, sub kick, snare, 2 OH's and the 3 for my toms.
It's the Presonus 1818VSL if you want some comparison.

hope it helps...

 

[mjbphotos]

Yeah.

How are you planning to use the mixer and, in particular, how are you getting its output into your DAW?

The specs say that mixer does 16 channels over USB. (It's a 24 channel mixer)

 

[Bobbsy]

The specs say that mixer does 16 channels over USB. (It's a 24 channel mixer)

Big oops! It was late and I missed that important little "i" at the end. The last mixer I used in that series was the 01V96(V2) which didn't have inbuilt USB capabilities. Sorry for any confusion I caused.

The only other thing I'd say is that the OP needs a careful read of what the various inputs and outputs can/will do. The 24 channel bit is only accurate with various expansion cards and the use of layers etc.

Having said all that, if he's thought through WHY he wants a mixer instead of an interfacer, the answer to his original question is "Yes" buy it in advance and teach yourself how to use it. the Yammy interface can be a bit intimidating at first--but once you get used to it, it's very flexible. We had the 01V96(V2) in a project studio at work before I retired and, after a few weeks cursing it, I became a big fan.

However, there are far cheaper ways to achieve a similar number of inputs and outputs, albeit with out things like the inbuilt effects and the auxes to create monitor mixes.

 

[enjaku]

Thanks for the replies. I've looked at this from every direction. I'm becoming pretty married to the O1V96i. The reasons for the mixer:
1. I'm old... I like knobs and sliders.
2. I'm miking the drums in a music room, but plan to track all other sorts of instruments in there as well. We have a lot of musicians over to the house for dinner parties and it makes for a fun evening if we can drink wine and track a couple of songs.
3. I have various output needs, in-ears, studio monitors, MacBook Pro....all with different mixes.

I know this is a serious piece of kit, but I hate buying something, and then having to keep upgrading. I'm happy to put in the work to learn the interface, again I'd like to learn it only once. Thanks guys. I really value your input.

 

[Bobbsy]

It sounds like you've thought it through and your reasons are good.

In that case, I'll confirm my previous advice that it's a decent idea to get it early and teach yourself how to use it so you're ready when you get going on the rest of the system.

A few hints:

-Load up and get familiar with the Studio Manager software. It makes setting up things like signal routings much quicker and easier.

-Think through and set up a few scene pre sets for you to use when recording--say one where you feed the top layer as 16 direct outs to your DAW and use layer 2 for 16 returns.

-Don't forget that, of the 16 inputs, you only have 12 mic pre amps. However, unlike my DM1000, you do have built in TOSLINK for ADAT. A Behringer ADA8000 is a cheap was to add extra ins and outs--the pre amps aren't in the same league as the Yamaha ones but are fine for all except the "money channels".

-Have a think about headphone monitoring. You have 8 auxes, all switchable between pre and post fade. This gives you a ton of options and is one of the biggest advantages of the route you're taking. The monitor options can be stored on scene presets as well.

-Since they're there, I use a limiter on each record channel. I set my gain structure to almost never hit the limiter but, once or twice a year, it can save a take.

Have fun and let us know how you get on.