Where to Start?

[ptmurphy]

I have "inheritted" a bunch of equipment and would like to start mixing and recording a bit. However, I am having a terrible time finding out where to start. I have some experience doing live mixing for a church a few years back, but it was pretty basic - no external processing, etc. on a very simple board.

The manuals for this stuff seem to be fairly high level and assume you know quite a bit - which makes sense - why buy the stuff if you don't have some idea what you are doing, right? I need to get back to the basics though.

Here is what I have (I am not going to list brands, as it doesn't really matter as I have what I have and can't really change anything at this point)...

24 Channel mixing board
External Amplifier/Speakers
Rack Mounted DSD Processor for voice (Delay, Reverb, Chorus, etc.)
Rack Mounted Compressor/Limiter
Rack Mounted Stereo EQ
Accoustic Guitar Pre-amp (1/4" and XLR connections)
Sevaral Mics (Some OK quality, others not so much)
Lots of cables.

Any suggestions for a total newbie on where to learn the basics and start having some fun?

Thanks for any input!

 

[daav]

What do you want to record to? Sounds like you ahve a great head start Answer these questions now:
PC or dedicated recording device.
How many tracks at a time?
with a 24 track mixer and all that gear, home recording is the least you could do, do you need to build a studio to professionally record whole bands live or are we talking about a small working system where you will be recording a few tracks at a time and then going back and adding tracks with other instumentation afterward?

what is your budget?


Ok that should get you started with setting the stage for some good answers.

Really simply, whether you are recording to PC or a dedicated stand alone unit, For tracking :
you may want (many other ways, but this is pretty standard) to run your mics-> mixer preamps-> out on the each channel of the mixer-> recording interface or unit.
For mixing:
A) Mix "in the box" in recording software ignoring your hardware units and using software plug in efects. or..
Take outs from your interface or recording unit and send them to the various channels of your mixer, use send and return loops and inserts (a whole tutorial on that is needed, but learn that in a new thread or something) to add effects and EQ and set levels and panning, "mix" these effected signals down to left and right stereo and record these. Repeat until you are happy and test the result on various systems to see how your mix "translates".

THat is so simplistici it isn't even funnny, but i decent overview I think.

Dave.