What should I put between my mixer and my computer?

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VincentD

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Thanks to anyone who is willing to take a little time to answer this question.

I have a fairly simple setup for my home studio. A yamaha keyboard, an acoustic guitar, a condenser microphone and yamaha miwer with phantom power for the microphone. I plug the mixer directly in the mic-line of my computer.¨
It works pretty well but I allways get a static noise on all of my recordings.

As far as I have read I guess I should buy a good audio interface and forget the mixer.. But I allready have the mixer, so I wonder what a good solution would be?

I've seen the behringer UCA222 which seems suitable, but there's a lot of mixed feelings about this.

Do you have any sugestions?

Thanks a lot anyway:)
 
The UCA 222/202* is a cheap, handy tool for non-critical recordng applications such as dubing vinyl or cassettes to computer but is not really up to snuff for anything better.

What you need Vincent is an Audio Interface. Now there are scores of these fekkers on the market but one that I have found top value and quality is the Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6. One of those would set you back about $200 US I would think.

If that is too much for you look at second hand. AI's tend be very reliable things and you can generally buy with confidence. If you have Win 7 look for an M-Audio Fast track pro or a Tascam US 144 (the US 122 is fine, just less well equipped). If you still run XP they will still be fine but also look for an Emu 0404usb 2.0.

Other makers are Focusrite, Presonus, Roland.

You have some modest but decent kit already, don't go ha'poth of tar on us!

*My 202 is fine on XP but I am having weird issues with it on W7/64 and Vista (well I would with that latter, wouldn't I!)

Dave.
 
Unless your mixer is the dog's balls....
VincentD said:
As far as I have read I guess I should buy a good audio interface and forget the mixer..
Click to expand...
this really is the best advice.

The thing to work out is how many simultaneous recording channels you will need.
 
Thanks!

I guess you're right about the audio interface. I have windows 7 on a 1 year old laptop. 4GB of Ram which I will soon upgrade to 8GB.

I thought I would buy the Blackjack interface from Mackie since I don't need that many inputs, but the one you recomend, the Komplete Audio 6 also has midi inputs I believe, and that could come in handy with my keyboard.

Anyway thanks for your answers, I won't go ha'poth of tar on you!

Today is my first day in the forum and I allready got great response. I think I will hang in there, maybe someday I can be the one helping others:)
 
VincentD said:
Thanks!

I guess you're right about the audio interface. I have windows 7 on a 1 year old laptop. 4GB of Ram which I will soon upgrade to 8GB.

I thought I would buy the Blackjack interface from Mackie since I don't need that many inputs, but the one you recomend, the Komplete Audio 6 also has midi inputs I believe, and that could come in handy with my keyboard.

Anyway thanks for your answers, I won't go ha'poth of tar on you!

Today is my first day in the forum and I allready got great response. I think I will hang in there, maybe someday I can be the one helping others:)
Click to expand...

Ah! The Blackjack, that IS an example of "ha'poth of tar! It is not a "cheap" interface and to leave off MIDI is pennypinching in the extreme IMHO! And don't sell the mixer! The KA6 has two extra line inputs which it can feed and thus the keys can go in there via the mixer and who knows, you might find a musical friend and you will have the capabilty of 4 tracks. Handy to be able to leave stuff all connected anyway, the mixer can shunt in stuff from CD, DVD, pod, etc....Yammy mixers have a good sonic rep'.

Don't say what the keyboard is exactly but most can be used as a sequencer so you could setup a drum pattern say?

Dave.
 
VincentD said:
Thanks!

I guess you're right about the audio interface. I have windows 7 on a 1 year old laptop. 4GB of Ram which I will soon upgrade to 8GB.

I thought I would buy the Blackjack interface from Mackie since I don't need that many inputs, but the one you recomend, the Komplete Audio 6 also has midi inputs I believe, and that could come in handy with my keyboard.

Anyway thanks for your answers, I won't go ha'poth of tar on you!

Today is my first day in the forum and I allready got great response. I think I will hang in there, maybe someday I can be the one helping others:)
Click to expand...

Dont bother upgrading your ram unless you intend to run a 64bit system as a 32bit only utilises 4gigs

And welcome aboard :)
 
I'm usually the one saying "don't bother with a mixer" but, as you already have one (a Yamaha--you don't mention the model but I've yet to see a bad one from them) this might be an exception.

Have a look at the THIS INTERFACE from Lexicon . It has two Line In sockets which you can feed from the main outs of the mixer and two Line Outs which, assuming spare capacity, you can feed back into the mixer. There's also a single mic input which you don't need right now but could give you an extra channel when you get elaborate.

Depending on which model of mixer you have, there's a pretty good chance you can use Aux sends for your monitoring needs--with true zero latency and a lot of flexibility. It should also allow you to have mic and keyboard plugged in permanently with no need to fiddle around with pluggery.

FYI, I don't have the Lexicon myself but have a good friend in Eastern England who does and uses it exactly as above with an external mixer--he does professional shooting and editing to TV broadcast and swears by the Lexicon as quiet and reliable.
 
jaynm26 said:
You should look at the focusrite as far as interface goes
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Mmmm

I wouldnt recommend the Scarlett series for certain applications

I have an elektron machinedrum thatll blue screen macs (almost never heard off) and PCs if i connect its midi and outputs to an 18i6 at the same time, also my virus TI drifts because of its awkward buffer settings...its been pretty unstable with Ableton too,though thats improved under mixcontrol 1.2
 
Hmmm...that's interesting about the Focusrite.

I've long been a fan of their products but, lately, have been hearing more and more about stability issues on their drivers. I had a peek at the Focusrite user forums and they're alive with complaints and suggestions.

Maybe something to consider until they get back on track (which I'm sure they will--they have a good reputation from previously.
 
Bobbsy said:
Hmmm...that's interesting about the Focusrite.

I've long been a fan of their products but, lately, have been hearing more and more about stability issues on their drivers. I had a peek at the Focusrite user forums and they're alive with complaints and suggestions.

Maybe something to consider until they get back on track (which I'm sure they will--they have a good reputation from previously.[/QUO

http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=918351&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=7&vc=1
The above is an interesting "wade through" of a cold weekend!

Dave.
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The Focusrite 2i2 sounds like the perfect fit here. and it's not only award winning, but priced right at Amazon right now at only $123.00 US! I know because I just bought one for HTLA and it is everything they say it is!
 
I do like focusrite but I dont own one. I have an Apogee ONE & a Duet. i feel Apogee makes better products
 
jaynm26 said:
I do like focusrite but I dont own one. I have an Apogee ONE & a Duet. i feel Apogee makes better products
Click to expand...

In what way is the Apogee better?

I'm not saying it's not (never tried them) but this sort of post is always more useful with a bit of detail.

Are they better built/more reliable? If so, what's the difference?

Do they have better features like more effective direct monitoring?

Do they sound better? If so, what's the difference? Better headroom? More clarity? Less noise?

Are the drivers in some way more stable since Focusrite seem to be having problems in that area jut now?

As I say, I'm not disputing anything since I have no comparison to make. However, some background detail rather than just a flat statement would make your opinion far more useful to the rest of us.
 
Bobbsy said:
In what way is the Apogee better?

I'm not saying it's not (never tried them) but this sort of post is always more useful with a bit of detail.

Are they better built/more reliable? If so, what's the difference?

Do they have better features like more effective direct monitoring?

Do they sound better? If so, what's the difference? Better headroom? More clarity? Less noise?

Are the drivers in some way more stable since Focusrite seem to be having problems in that area jut now?

As I say, I'm not disputing anything since I have no comparison to make. However, some background detail rather than just a flat statement would make your opinion far more useful to the rest of us.
Click to expand...

+1!
In October 2012 some tests were done with 3 different mic setups into 8 mic preamps differing in price by about an order of magnitude or more. The results were published as a "blind keyed" set of .wavs, i.e. mic X into pre amps A, B, C... and so on. Many, many readers posted their opinions but not one could tell the expensive from the basic pre amp. This I think moot for interfaces?

One (only AFAICT) reviewer, Martin Walker of SoS, used to publish a very careful A/B test (levels set to better than 0.1dB) of AIs in for test against his own "reference" rig and, where relavent and practical, against another similar product. For instance: The M-A AP 192 was A/B'ed against the reference and its predecessor, the Delta 2496. In almost every case, differences COULD be found but had to be listened for very hard and often a percieved difference would turn out to be a level mismatch. Also a switch of music genre would often make differences no longer detectable or even, in some cases switch the preference!

Like Bobbsy,I have the greatest regard for Apogee products and I am sure they sound great, but who is telling us this? Why, every bugger that has bought one!

Dave.
 
Now of course the needs of the OP having the best suited interface for the job I/O, recording playback is 1st and foremost.

I have heard/recored and used alot of low end gear in various studio's project & professional. I heard a focusrite scarlet, saffire and also the 40. I used a Duet since the 1 but never bought one cause I had no use at the time. I owned an Ensemble and because of a lot of recent travel as an athlete I bought the ONE later. The ONE does has less noise than other USB interface I have ever used mini and the RME included Im serious. I tracked a vocal female singer thru all the Scarlet & Safire (no pre amp) and played them back thru Focals 6be's and heard significant difference as far as clarity and sound quality. Having owned a ensemble and a fellow eng owned the Pro 40 we had multiple test mainly converting outboard gear and the ensemble again just sounded better.

Scarlet & Saffier & ONE -> ST55 ($200) Mic (Live Wire XLR cable) ->Straight to Tools no Pre Amp No effects RAW. Low End Mic, Low End cables.
 
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Hmmm...re-reading the original post, I guess one of the things we don't know about the OP is whether he has a Mac or a Windows machine. Unless things have changed since I last looked, Apogee is Mac only.
 
Bobbsy said:
Hmmm...re-reading the original post, I guess one of the things we don't know about the OP is whether he has a Mac or a Windows machine. Unless things have changed since I last looked, Apogee is Mac only.
Click to expand...

You sure are right Bobbsy didn't think of that good eye, good eye!
They dumped Windows in 09' cause the said Mac's were better (cough!!, cough!! Jimmy!) :p
 
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