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Stubby03
New member
I have a surround sound stereo, I love the way the speakers sound. I paid over 800 dollars for it. Can I use this to mix my recordings without going out and buying a set of monitors?
dainbramage
Well-known member
Not really. Well, of course you can, but the sound will not translate well to other systems. The surround aspect of it makes it even worse than if it were only a pair of hi-fi speakers. If you are only recording for yourself to listen to it in that specific room with that specific system, then I don't see why not.
But I bet you're not
But I bet you're not
dainbramage
Well-known member
It's not so much about a certain quality. The sound system is probably tuned differently frequency-wise to make for a pleasing sound. A monitor system would have a flat frequency response. So with the sound system the OP has, his mixing would be heavily influenced by this frequency response which would sound very different on other systems. That's mainly what monitors are for.
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Stubby03
New member
Thanks for the help. I am one of three in a rockband. we are 3 city firemen that have been playing together for ten years. We have several originals that we want to put down on cd. We have a HP windows 8, AMD A4-5000 processor. 6GB. 64 bit system. With Mixcraft 6 vocal studio installed. Very happy with it so far. We are coming out of our ZED 14 mixer, via USB into the HP. We cannot afford a good interface yet. Bothers me that we wont be able to have separate drums tracks, kick, snare, etc. But we will in the future. I have been reading tons of material online about EQ, compression, etc. Any info anybody might have about our adventure starting would be helpful. Thanks again for your comments. Learning as we go.
dainbramage
Well-known member
Well, I hope there are a lot of fires in your town in the near future, because you're going to need quite a lot of funds. I suggest getting a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 audio interface first. It is very decent for the price, and it has 8 relatively good preamps on it. You're going to need quite a few microphones. At least 2 small diaphragm condenser microphones for overheads over the drum set and preferably a Shure SM57 microphone to close-mic the snare and maybe a Shure Beta 52A microphone for the kick drum. You'll need microphone stands for each too, and of course XLR cables. As for the other microphones that depends on the kind of music you play. Is it firemen acoustic or firemen electric?
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bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
"Surround sound stereo" is a wide open category. It might be awesome (in 2.0 or 2.1 mode) or it might be useless. Also, the room matters.
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Stubby03
New member
That is the interface Ive been looking at. We have the mics, cords, stands etc. Its electric. We grew up in the 80's, we lived for the hairbands. Guitar player and I (bass guitar) have been playing together for 30 years. As for the fires, we get paid the same, whether we have 10 fires a shift, or none. lol
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Stubby03
New member
Also, what is the advantage/disadvantage of using a interface vs. coming out of a mixer
bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
If the mixer has USB or Firewire to the computer it is an interface. It's all a matter of how you want/like to work, your required I/O etc.