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Hi all, I was hoping for some advice on Interfaces and/or Mixers.

First, here is my general setup/equipment:
Instuments:
Gibson J-200
Gibson Les Paul Standard
Fender Classic Bass
Roland TD-8 Electronic Drumkit
Mixer:
Peavey PV8 (non USB)
(through M-Audio 1010LT soundcard)
Mics:
SE1A Condenser (x2)
Monitors:
Yamaha HS50m
DAW:
Cubase

I'm not too clued up on the technical aspects of recording equipment, having spent most of my time purely as a musician/songwriter, but I am getting to the point now where I want to create some hi-quality recordings (or as hi quality as possible) and am up for spending up to around £500-£600/$800-$900

There are 2 prerequisites for any interface/mixer:

1. Sound quality-wise, I'm looking for something to do my guitars as much justice as possible (Yea, I'm statin the bleedin obvious )
2. I also need to be able to record multiple tracks simultaneously (4 would be enough - 1 mic for vocals, 2 mics for my acoustic and 1 for its pickup ... I suppose I could make do with just 2 XLR inputs if the sound quality got a considerable bump or the price was nicer on my wallet. 3 XLR's would be perfect but I haven't seen any)

I know that I will need to buy a better mic at some point but I'm much more confident about them than I am about interfaces.

I hope I haven't waffled too much. smoke

Thanks

Comments

Boswell Mon, 06/11/2012 - 04:27

I would not go for a mixer for this recording task.

One alternative would be to consider a stand-alone recorder, and the [="http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/h4n"]Zoom H4N[/]="http://www.zoom.co…"]Zoom H4N[/] would work for you. It has 4 tracks with 2 built-in mics and 2 XLR inputs for external mic or line inputs. It records to flash memory cards, and can plug into a computer USB port for transfer of the recorded tracks for editing.

The other alternative is if you have a computer to use for recording (assuming that your mentioning an interface means that you do have), you could get a USB interface box such as the [[url=http://="http://www.dv247.co…"]Lexicon I·ONIX U42S[/]="http://www.dv247.co…"]Lexicon I·ONIX U42S[/] or the [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.dv247.co…"]Presonus AudioBox 44VSL[/]="http://www.dv247.co…"]Presonus AudioBox 44VSL[/]. Both of these units have 4 mic input channels, are reasonable quality and come well within your budget.

matthewfreedaudio Tue, 06/12/2012 - 08:15

The ZOOM H4N is not a good option for you. You mentioned having Cubase so obviously you have a computer to work with. Get a Firewire or USB interface for your computer and you'll be good to go. There are numerous computer interfaces on the market to choose from at many different price points. You get what you pay for.

The easiest thing for you is something that has 2 or more XLR mic preamps and line inputs plus some line outputs and a headphone amp built in.

Production Sound Mixing for TV, Film, and Commercials.
http://www.matthewfreed.com

RemyRAD Fri, 06/15/2012 - 09:56

I know Matthew hates me but I'm with Matthew on this. PreSonus Fire Studio, $500 US. You even get a second bundled multitrack software package that's quite impressive. All within your budget. Sure, I like the ZOOM product also got all the OP needs is a FireWire interface on the desktop computer along with the FireWire device from PreSonus. Of course you're not going to drag this around anywhere are you? You don't need it to be portable do you? Not that you can't do that. It's just a bigger box of stuff to schlep.

Now I like Matthew
Mx. Remy Ann David

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