Which of these ideas sucks less

  • Thread starter Thread starter pdadda
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pdadda

pdadda

Captain Sea Boots
I have been mixing with a mouse ever since I began recording. I have never really liked it, so I am looking for a way out. I currently have a MOTU828mkii, a Mackie 1202 VLZ board, and a crappy old SR24-4 board. I got $200 doing sound this weekend, so I was looking at the following options:

1. Buy a Behringer ADA8000 so I can send a total of 16 channels to my sr24-4 board and mix there.

2. Buy a used ADAT machine (lx-20) and do the same

3. Buy a Behringer bcf2000 and keep it all in the digital realm

Is running the sound through the D/A's and back through the A/D's gonna do harm to my sound with these converters? Also, the board is a bit scratchy, but I am hoping I can clean it up a bit and bring it back to sounding good (it was the old board at a smoky club for years).

I'm not even sure if I need to worry about the conversion quality considering I use crap on the front end of things: lots of 57's, a Behringer B1, a SP VTB-1, a bunch of Mackie VLZ preamps.

I find that when I mix with the mouse, it takes me forever to finish a song. That is why I want to get away from it. I am used to running sound, so I know how to mix live sound quickly with a board.

Any suggestions/advice?
 
What software are you using to record your music? Option 3 is what I suggest. A DAW controller will allow you to mix using actual faders keeping your signals in the box. If speed is your biggest issue at this point, this would seem the better way to go. I would only go back to analog if you had a really good sounding board or if you had some great outboard gear you wanted to use.

I have a friend who uses Adobe Audition and he uses a Tascam DAW controller, and it allows him to do his mixes quicker than using his mouse.
 
2nd on the controller

again, unless you have a bunch of outboard stuff to patch into, you won't get much of a sonic benefit mixing analog...maybe if you had a fantastic console, but the eq's and summing on the stuff you have isn't going to blow anyone away

plus, the control surface can also be used to control plug-in parameters and automation, making it an even more useful tool than an analog mixer alone
 
I agree on the Control surface answer. You're going to want to consider carefully which one to get, as getting the wrong one may slow you down more than the mouse. I highly recommend you set two things as gotta haves; motorized faders and track names display (like a scribble strip, but reads and displays the track names from your DAW).
I've been very happy with the Mackie Control, but do your homework.
 
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