Studio Help

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:25 pm

Hi...I'm new to the forums and mostly new to recording. I have some questions that you guys can hopefully help me out on.

What I have is a Mackie 32x8 mixing console I bought about 5 years ago from one of my brother's guitar teachers...it came with the old Alesis Blackface ADAT's, but they don't really work, and I want to upgrade them to something newer. I also have a few lexicon effects processors, and some dbx compressors, as well as 3 patchbays.

Basically, I wan't to know different options I have as far as what I can record onto. I know about the Alesis HD24XR, but that's about it...I would like to be able to hook the board to a computer and use some kind of recording program like cubase, pro tools, DP, or Logic to record onto and use for mixing, but I'm not sure what the best option is for hooking this board to an Apple G5 computer, which I plan on buying shortly. You're help is greatly appreciated guys...please let me know of some different options...I really appreciate any help I get!

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 3:01 pm

How many people are you planning on recording at a given time? What instrumentations?

If you want to be able to record large groups, I would use some of the sends for head phone mixes, use several of the inserts to an audio device such as a M-Audio Delta 1010LT (They work great on my PC, I would suspect the same on a Mac) On the sound card connect the inputs to outputs when tracking, and then you can switch them in software to sub buses when you are mixing.

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:18 pm

GeckoMusic wrote:

Quote:

On the sound card connect the inputs to outputs when tracking, and then you can switch them in software to sub buses when you are mixing.

Could you please elaborate?

Thanks.

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:58 pm

AwedOne wrote:

Could you please elaborate?

I guess that is vague. It probably only makes sense to me because that is what I have been doing for a number of years now. It works for me, so I thought I would put it out there. Now onto the explanation:

The signal flow for tracking is:
Microphone -> Mackie input 3
Mackie insert 3 out -> Delta 1010 input 3
Software on Delta 1010LT routes input 3 to output 3
Delta 1010 output 3 -> Mackie insert 3 in
Mackie chanel 3 Aux send 1 to headphone mix 1
Mackie channel 3 Aux send 2 to headphone mix 2
LR bus to control room monitors.

Channel 3 is just an example.

Then when you are mixing, say you need another output from your sound card to go to some outboard gear, or you are using two different pieces of software. You can untie output channel 3 from input 3, and use it for whatever you need. No patching!

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 6:05 pm

It really depends on what or who you will be recording.....but for me I use Digital Performer and a MOTU 828 with an 02R as my console. In the two years I've been using MOTU I have never had a single problem! (Knocking hard on wood!)

Good luck!

Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:29 pm

Besides being free, Linux has JACK.
JACK lets you wire anything, to anything in a virtual patchbay, in realtime, with master transport controls too.
You could patch your delta #3 input to #3 output, and your effects rack (then from the effects rack to #4 output AND some input on your DAW), double it to #6 output and even to an output on another interface (say you have a creative soundblaster and want to output via that...
Tell me you can do that with Windows?

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