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Alright, so I'm sort of in a band, we get together once in a while and jam out, and try to record a lot of stuff we put down. Most of what we do is jam-band type stuff, all freestyle. We have guitar, bass, drums and organ, singer, and sometimes he just freestyles over a beat or dub from the computer.

As it stands now, we have a lot of crappy equipment. An old school 4 channel mixer and a laptop running CoolEdit. Through some shifty wiring, we have about 7 or 8 inputs going into the mixer, then out into the mic input on the laptop. In general, nothing really works right and its a PITA.

So, we're trying to move up a little bit. We just picked up a G4 Powerbook, and one guy just bought something, a Digidesign 882-20. I'm not real sure if this is anything thats going to help us or not. We were looking for something to change 8 simultaneous analog signals into a digital signal and send it into Pro Tools or something via firewire or USB. I'm working on setting up a dedicated space to play so we can get everything set up and leave it, but any help to make the most of what we have would be great. What exactly does that Digi machine do anyway? Looks like its meant to be synced up with a mixer or something...TIA.

Comments

anonymous Thu, 03/30/2006 - 11:26

"The 882/20 I/O can be used in two ways:
As a 20-bit Audio Interface for a Pro Tools 24,
or
Pro Tools III-PCI system As a stand-alone 2-channel, 20-bit audio converter"

Looks like you'll need to buy some more protools hardware. you'll have to decide if that's worth it to you. From the 5 minutes of research I did on that item, a lot of forums were bashing it for: being an older piece of hardware with no more digidesign support, driver problems, compatibility issues with windows, or newes mac os for that matter.

what you need is your 8 mics, some sort of preamplification for those mics, and an 8-channel a/d converter (digital interface, on firewire or usb2.0)

anonymous Thu, 03/30/2006 - 11:31

oh yeah, and you need to post a budget so someone can recommend something for you. one option is a mackie onyx 1220 mixer, and add the firewire option. this will run you probably 700-800 used on ebay, more new. that's just some food for thought.

try here to get some ideas

http://instruments.listings.ebay.com/Computer-Recording_Interfaces-Hardware_W0QQfromZR4QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQsacatZ41784QQsocmdZListingItemList

anonymous Mon, 04/03/2006 - 08:13

(Dead Link Removed)

Thats some kickass equipment. 3 way Input (1/4, XLR, TRS) Straight to computer in separate tracks for better editing (software is included or use ur own). Great preamps. Saves a lot of space

This is my setup. (We got 3 people singing so vocals are recorded in a second take)
Whole Band no vocals LIVE Recording (PreSounus Interface)
INPUT 1: Bass Guitar
INPUT 2: Guitar 1 (Mic-ed)
INPUT 3: Guitar 2 (Mic-ed)
INPUT 4: Snare
INPUT 5: Head 1/(Splash-Ride)
INPUT 6: Head 2/(Crash)
INPUT 7: Hi-hat
INPUT 8: Bass Kick

Yours could look something like:
INPUT 1: Lead Vocal
INPUT 2: Bass
INPUT 3: Guitar (Mic-ed)
INPUT 4: Snare
INPUT 5: Head 1/Splash-Ride
INPUT 6: Head 2/Crash
INPUT 7: Hi-hat
INPUT 8: Bass Kick
Synth Input 9 (on back): Organ
Midi Input 10 (on back) : Free

Since u say u only JAM...this set up should be more than enough. If u want to get a lil more proffessional haha record drums in a second take and vocals in a third take. You can have ENDLESS 9
simultaneous takes and all of them can be edited on computer in separately tracks.