Who uses external mixers and why or why not?

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Skycries57

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Hello, I am mainly a guitar player and was thinking of ridding of my VLZPro Mackie mixer and going totally computer based, but if I did that, how would I use my digital delay rack mount and Boss 770 drum machine? I love my Chandler digital delay too much to rid of and also the boss 770 drumachine.
Right now I have an Audiophile sound card, M Audio DMP3 micpre,Sure SM57,58 and using Sonar 2.2 XL and Wavelab 4.0. PLEASE HELP!!! Thankyou very much! Peter ><>
 
In your current setup you will have to record all parts one by one. For example, you record drums part on one track, and after that you record guitar part on another tracks while listening to the recorded drums part.
If you are thinking of recording drums and guitar simultaneously each on its own track you will need a soundcard with more inputs.
I am using Delta 1010 which has 8 audio ins. It allows me to record 4 instruments in stereo at the same time. I have three synths and occasionally I would record all three of them at the same time.
I am not familiar with Sonar, but this is a good program and I don't see how it would not allow recording several tracks at once. Waveleab on the other hand is not a multitracker. You can record and edit only one stereo track.
 
You can use the extra i/o on a soundcard as effects sends and returns. Computer mixing is okay but if you're used to a real mixer it will probably just start to piss you off.
 
webstop,

I'm curious. Why do you record four instruments in stereo?
 
I think the basic reason why people buy mixing boards is for cheap preamps. You get a great deal on 4, or 6, or 8, or however many preamps you get, and you get a free mixing board thrown in pretty much.

If you bought the same number of standalone preamps it would be a fair bit more money, althought a fair bit better.
 
AlChuck said:
webstop,

I'm curious. Why do you record four instruments in stereo?
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I didn't say I record four instruments in stereo. I said that my setup allows to do that.
For one thing I have only three synths. Some patches have nice stereo effects, and I do record those in stereo. Drums parts I almost always record in stereo because each drum and crash can be individually panned.
 
Some patches have nice stereo effects, and I do record those in stereo.
Click to expand...

OK, I can relate to that.

Drums parts I almost always record in stereo because each drum and crash can be individually panned.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about miking real drums? If so, wouldn't that be an argument for recording each part of the kit as a mono track, allowing you to easily pan it in the mix?
 
a hijackin we will go...

what is the better way to do it?...record the drum parts in mono, and pan them later, or record them in stereo with everything panned out?...or does it matter?...(I'm kinda thinkin do mono and pan later, because it leaves room to fix booboos)
 
I think it does matter -- unless you have a great room that you want to capture, and the right arsenal of mics, it seems that it would be far easier and give you way more flexibility and control to mic the kit to mono tracks and pan in the mix.
 
Well you know that just seems like the common sense kindof approach :).
 
AlChuck said:
Are you talking about miking real drums? If so, wouldn't that be an argument for recording each part of the kit as a mono track, allowing you to easily pan it in the mix? [/B]
Click to expand...

Thats the thing - I don't have real drums, its all synthesized. Each instrument can be set independently in terms of velocity, panning etc., but if later I decide that, say, kick is too loud, I need to re-record the whole part. Not really a big deal, but still a hastle.
I hear Drumagog can fix problems like that...
 
OK, if you are recording drum-machine drums, then you're at least being consistent with your approach to synths -- you're treating the drum sounds as being already mixed and recording a stereo submix to your multitrack software.

As you point out, "but if later I decide that, say, kick is too loud, I need to re-record the whole part. Not really a big deal, but still a hastle."
 
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