Using a Mixer instead of a Patchbay (long post)

O

OldGrover

New member
Ok, here's what I have :

* n-track recording software
* 2 x Yorkville YSM-1 studio nearfield monitors
* Yorkville CR-5 "utility" amp - nice match to the YSM-1s in my opinion
* Yamaha PSR-740 - L/R output, used for piano sounds, plus some auto-accomp (more for jamming then recording, but some recording as well). It has some vocoder stuff on it, but I am NOT a big fan.
* 2 x SM58 - used for trumpet/trombone/tuba/voice
* Yorkville Apex 420 - used for ambient/trumpet/voice
* Accoustic guitar
* cheapass Yamaha drum machine which I misremember the name of - not used much at the moment, but want to be able to plug it in
* SB PCI128 for Midi, plus aux audio
* Delta 66 soundcard for main audio (4 in/out - no digital in use yet)
* Mackie original 1604 mixer
* hifi tape deck (I get a number of requests to take demos from stereo tape and put 'em on cd)
* (there will be a few more mics and sound sources added from time to time, as well)

After perusing the Mackie manual, here's what I think I want to do. The idea is to give me the ability to mix any 4 sound sources at once without replugging. Opinions would be helpful....

*Connect Apex (main mic) to channel 5 of the Mixer. *Connect SM58 (2nd mic) to channel 6 of mixer.
*Leave 7/8 open for now
*Connect all other sound sources to other channels. On all those sources, hit the mute/alt button so output on all those channels going out the Alt stereo bus, rather then the main bus
*Connect Alt Stereo outputs to channels 7/8
*connect input of Delta 66 breakout box to the channel 5-8 channels aux output (which will disconnect channels 5-8 from the main bus as well)
* at this point, nothing is going to main bus. channels 5 and 6 go directly to the Delta 66, everything else gets redirected to 7/8 before hitting the delta 66
* using the mixer aux stereo input 1, bring back the 1/2 output from the delta 66 to the mixer main bus.
* connect main output to the amp, amp to monitors
* connect headphones to headphone jack on mixer
* connect tape deck input to delta 66 output 3/4 (I get requests for stuff on tape, as well. sigh - old technology)
* at this point, I can switch between monitoring the stuff going into the delta 66 to monitoring the actual output result of my N-track work on the PC. I can use headphones when recording stuff in (no control room - sigh) just by hitting main output mute. And I can add and remove components just by moving faders and/or removing recording streams in n-track

Am I on crack? Is this reasonable? It seems to me that this should work.... is there a sound quality problem anywhere? Obviously, there is going to be SOME degradation since I bounce some channels through the mixer twice, but is it going to be noticeable?
 
Sounds reasonable...

...and should work.

Compromises with it that you need to keep in mind are:
- using busses (or auxes) adds another gain stage to you signal, so if you subscribe to the "shortest distance between two points" ideal, this is not what you want to do...
- crosstalk between channels/busses... on the Mackie, it's pretty low, but still exists.....
- there WILL be some degradation, but it's going to be up to you whether it's noticeable or not.......

The advantage of the patchbay, of course, is that there are no additional gain stages introduced in the signal chain, and there's no crosstalk........

Bruce
 
OK, great. I think I'll give that a shot and see if I can hear the difference - if I can't hear the difference (or if I can live with the differnce) between channels 5/6 and 7/8 then I am fine for now.

I'm not keen on getting into the normalled and half-normally setup stuff with the patch bay... and I have other stuff to spend money on. Like a Bluetube stereo preamp and another Apex 420. Oh, and a DAT recorder. And a clipon trumpet mic.
 
I have long avoided patchbays but am now considering one since I am about the get a mixer (i previously recorded straight to an Echo Layla via blue tube preamps). How much cross talk do you think we talking about if I use something like OldGrover's set up Bruce???? (Im going Mackie for the board, havn't decided which model yet though) Do you think it would be distinctly noticable???

And Old Grover, if you get this rig set up I would really like to hear how well you think it works.
 
I find the Mackie 8-buss has what I consider too much leakage in its monitoring chain... (thankfully, it never appears at the main or buss outs.....) (ie, you mute all channels, but some signal still leaks thru to the control room monitor route)

I'm picky, but I find the leakage is still pretty minor, especially since it's monitoring only.... I've heard other boards (some start with B!) that are MUCH worse.........

I mentioned crosstalk to OldGrover as a point of information only, not to indicate that it is actually a major concern.........

Bruce
 
Thanks Bruce, im probablly going to end up a patch bay sometime but might rig this up for temporary use. Patch bays arn't that expensive but its all the extra cords that are putting it out of my budget right now.
 
Blue Bear Sound said:


I'm picky, but I find the leakage is still pretty minor, especially since it's monitoring only.... I've heard other boards (some start with B!) that are MUCH worse.........


Bruce
Click to expand...

You'll love this....I did a gig with a Behringer board this weekend, I usually start by 'normalling' the board, ie muting all channels, flattening EQ's etc, when everything was muted i turned on the mains and there was this awful hiss, it turns out that when the 'Solo level' knob was turned up it was causing a hiss on the main outs (not control room or monitor, main LR) !!
 
Will do, Carter. I'm working on getting the Delta 66 up and after that I'll get everything wired. I'll let you know how it works...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top