Mixers are primarily used for live sound, so some don't have any built in converts.

analog mixers - the traditional. Used mostly for live sound, but also for getting an idea of the mix in a recording session.
Powered mixers - Can be connected directly to passive speakers (without a power amp)
digital mixer - the budget version typically has an A to D converter on the master bus. Most USB and Fire wire mixers fit here
Some digital mixers have more converters such as the Alesis Multi Mix.
The high end digital mixers are designed for live sound and function more as a control surface with converters on all inputs.

For recording you want to look at "audio interfaces."

Thank you for the info! But why do all these big fancy recording studios have mixers? Why don't they use audio interfaces?

Chris

An analog mixing desk with preamps built in and effects strips and stuff is a huge time saver.
You can analog sum tracks and you can bus tracks in and out for outboard processing.

Digital mixers a joke.

They use very large expensive ones that don't compromise quality and that provide feature (headphone mixes, busing, tracking control).

Greener wrote: An analog mixing desk with preamps built in and effects strips and stuff is a huge time saver.
You can analog sum tracks and you can bus tracks in and out for outboard processing.

Digital mixers a joke.

Sorry but I have to disagree once again. SSL among others, has been making digital consoles for at least fifteen years now. They are about as far away from sucking as the sun is small. In a large studio the console usually functions as a control surface as well as I/O. Often in a large studio where they can afford it, they will mix to an external media. Whether it be a hard driive recorder or half inch two track.

Okay, i think I've decided just to get an audio interface but does anyone know if there are any with more than 8 XLR inputs?

Chris

Not in your price range. If you want to add multiple devices together you will likely need to make sure the interfaces have ADAT and Word Clock capabilities. I would skip anything that wasn't firewire or pci based.

I'm sorry im a bit of a noob with these things, could you please explain what ADAT and world clock means?

Chris

OK. First, I thought I was posting onto your other thread where you gave your price range at £400.

At this price level your best bet will be to get an 8 channel firewire pre-amp. As you can afford another then chain them together digitally. Or a multichannel preamp into an interface (eg. Onyx 800R into RME FF800). You do this via the ADAT IN/OUT which is an optical connection.

The Word Clock is the thing that makes all the devices play nicely together. It is the master synchronization. Some low end stuff doesn't really allow this feature and that means when things don't synchronize you get pops and clicks. At any rate you can start with 8 and add 8 more if/when funds develop.

At just over double/triple your budget you start to get into another range of gear. Then some things like the Allen Heath ZED R16 appear which might fit your ticket. Also, TC Connect and RME would begin to pop up.

Those SSL boards etc aren't affordable for individuals unless they own their own company.

A cheaper interface than the ZED R16 would be the Onyx 1640 with firewire. The ZED will send/return 16 tracks to and from the computer while the Onyx 1640 sends 16+2 and only returns a stereo mix.

TheJackAttack wrote: Not in your price range. If you want to add multiple devices together you will likely need to make sure the interfaces have ADAT and Word Clock capabilities. I would skip anything that wasn't firewire or pci based.

uhhh...M-audio Fast Track Ultra USB 2.0 (faster than firewire 400)! -6 simultaneous analog ins with spdif ins, midi in/out, 24bit/96khz and yes ADAT.
all for 350 smackers. cant beat it.

USB 2 is theoretically faster but not generally in practice. In the other thread the OP was looking for more than two tracks. Of course, I'm not quite sure the OP knows what he needs yet.

At any rate, usually its best to keep the audio recording drive on USB and the audio interface on PCI/PCIe or firewire. IMHO. YMMV and dealer dock fees may apply.

TheJackAttack wrote:

Those SSL boards etc aren't affordable for individuals unless they own their own company.

Right. I was just trying to make a point about blanket statements. Not all things are true to all situations.

hueseph wrote: Right. I was just trying to make a point about blanket statements. Not all things are true to all situations.

8-) I knew what you meant.

The OP needs to get a book on recording ad learn about these fairly COMMON terms concerning the spending ofmoney on things you havent a clue about using effectively.

GEE, I'd like to buy a helicopter. I hope I can fly it.

Well I'm sorry i have dyslexia and learning disabilities. Don't you think I've already tried to remember what those terms mean. It's pretty difficult for me so you could at least just suggest that i could read those books and learn these things instead of just making me feel stupid.

I cured my dyslexia by writing things down.

I know i can do that but do you have to say things like "GEE, I'd like to buy a helicopter. I hope I can fly it"

Do you have to incessantly post your same question in several different places? You only need one post to answer a question.....several people have suggested this. Did you not see that? Now as a moderator at this site I have to go through and edit all this because you seem to think that spewing your question several times is going to make people more interested in your problems rather than just the opposite.

If my comment bothered you then you're in the wrong place. It was rather mild compared to how it can get.

Now we are off topic because you want to bitch about how someone isnt holding your hand instead of gleaning the information you are asking about.

And now I have to shut this off topic crap down because its using up space on the site and not doing anyone any good.

If you're here to learn then spend time doing that and not being offended by statements meant to direct you in the correct direction.

To be honest I really do want a helicopter. It would sure beat the traffic and as far as pulling the chicks I'm sure if you landed in the middle of some strip you'd get all the attention in the world. Possibly some attention from aviation authorities too...
Seriously though, I know I could fly it. My issues would probably landing it. Yeah I know what you're thinking, "what goes up must come down" but when I say landing I mean gently. Not just hitting the ground.

Also, flying is something you can't just muscle your way into, you can't intimidate the ground by saying "If I get in trouble I'm going to HIT you" that would be like punching a lake.

Lakes are good too, ever been water skiing?

Sorry about those last comments, they were left by my friend being an idiot. I dont have learning disabilities, and i will get those basic terms in my head. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Anyway, I'm pretty interested in the Phonic Helix Board 24 FireWire MKII as it says it streams 18 of the channels into the computer. Can anyone else just confirm that this will happen or does this mean something else.

Bearing in mind it's firewire and will require a decent 2nd hard drive for writing to.

Codemonkey wrote: Bearing in mind it's firewire and will require a decent 2nd hard drive for writing to.

Why do i need to write to a second hard drive? I have a 250Gb hard drive, is it the write speed or something?

Chris

A single internal drive is busy running your operating system and audio program. For your recorded audio you need either a second internal drive or a USB drive. USB because your firewire connection will be full of the audio coming from your interface. This will give you the best results.

That and don't use plugins when recording.

Your OS gives priority to itself, then the crap running on your PC. If you run 18 channels of audio onto the same drive it wants to read from, something's gotta give.
Normally it's the entire song.

Okay, what size do you recommend i think I've got a 120Gb lying around which i could turn into and external.

Doesn't matter what size (so long as its not silly like 20GB), just don't use the system drive.
And if they're IDE don't put them on the same bus.

Ok my mixer is a peavy PV20, so could i hook it up to something like the Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU) 828mk3 Firewire Audio Interface and have all the channels on the mixer that are hooked up to the interface in my DAW?

Chris