How do I connect my Mixer and Recording Interface?

[TacoLady]

Hello much smarter people out there ! I'm a newbie at recording so i wanted to know how i can connect my Mackie CFK16 mkII Mixer to my Tascam US-1800 audio interface? I know it has something to do with inputs and outputs but im not too sure. Can anyone help?

[bouldersound]

What do you need it for? Unless there's some overwhelming reason to use it I would keep that mixer out of my signal path.

[Troubadour]

What do you need it for? Unless there's some overwhelming reason to use it I would keep that mixer out of my signal path.

I'm a relative newb at this proposition as well, and I've just initiated a new thread posing a few related questions to the membership, but can I ask . . . why is it preferable for this gentleman to remove the mixer from his signal path?

I don't personally own an "audio interface" of any kind other than a Mackie Onyx-1620 mixer with firewire connection to a Mac with VSTs, but should I too look at disposing of my mixer and purchasing something else? I'd sure appreciate your views on this.

[moonbaby]

NO. The Onyx has a very good set of preamps with that FW interface. The reason that BS said that was because the Tascam interface has some mic preamps in it (not as good as the Smackie, but certainly useable), so you have a redundant situation.
And to the OP, assuming that you need more simultaneous XLR mic inputs than the Tascam offers, you take the left and right LINE outputs from the Mackie mixer into the LINE inputs on the Tascam...in a nutshell. Consult your owners' manual before attempting this with young children in the room...

[Troubadour]

NO. The Onyx has a very good set of preamps with that FW interface. The reason that BS said that was because the Tascam interface has some mic preamps in it (not as good as the Smackie, but certainly useable), so you have a redundant situation.

Ah! Thanks for the clarification, Moon!

[bouldersound]

What moonbaby said. Plus the CFX and DFX stuff from Mackie is pretty junky. Odds are the Tascam preamps are quite a bit better if not quite as nice as the Onyx ones.

[Troubadour]

Huh?

[bouldersound]

Huh?

I'd be happy to clarify...if I knew what needed clarification.

[Troubadour]

I'd be happy to clarify...if I knew what needed clarification.

Moonbaby said to pitch the Tascam mixer and keep the Mackie because (in his view) the Mackie's pre's were considered superior . . . you then said "what Moonbaby said" (indicating that you agreed with Moonbaby), but you went on to say that the Tascam's pre-amps were as good or better than Mackie's? Unless I've misread or misinterpreted something somewhere, I'm afraid those two statements don't reconcile, at least not for me.

[bouldersound]

Moonbaby said to pitch the Tascam mixer and keep the Mackie because (in his view) the Mackie's pre's were considered superior . . . you then said "what Moonbaby said" (indicating that you agreed with Moonbaby), but you went on to say that the Tascam's pre-amps were as good or better than Mackie's? Unless I've misread or misinterpreted something somewhere, I'm afraid those two statements don't reconcile, at least not for me.

We are talking about two totally different Mackie mixers and two different interface arrangements, the OP's and yours. He said your Mackie Onyx has nice preamps and is its own interface so you are set, but that the OP's Mackie CFX is redundant and her Tascam probably has better preamp so she should skip the mixer and just use her interface.