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anonymous 21 September 2008

Hey

I am a bit new to recording and ive been busy building a home studio since the last 3 months lets say..

this is what ive got

Pentium4 Dual Core 1.22, 4 GB RAM, 750 GB harddrive
+external harddrive 1 TB
Audiotrak Inca88 Soundcard. (seems like a decent card)
BlueBird Mic
ART Pro Channel mic preamp / compressor combi.
Cubase Studio 4
Reason 3

Thinking of buying Lexicon mx400 effects and some midi stuff but thats not priority right now.

What is a good mixer to start with? I was thinking that some of the Soundcraft mixers are pretty nice, but what are your peoples opinion? any good mixer around here?

Comments

Cucco Sun, 09/21/2008 - 12:11

The question is *why* do you need a mixer?

What you'll probably need is a good computer interface. No offense, but soundcards don't cut it. You'll need something that's at least decent - perhaps the TC Konnekt or any number of PreSonus boxes. This would be a far better use of money than a Mixer.

Just a thought.

J.

RemyRAD Mon, 09/22/2008 - 14:05

Cucco has a brain and I have had a mind (due to brain surgery). He is right. You don't need a mixer if you're recording into your computer. What he recommends is all you need for quality recording. But a mixer with an integrated FireWire interface would be your next logical options in lieu of any other computer interface. I've never heard of your sound card and no, computer sound cards by unknown manufacturers are all the same Taiwanese sound cards. However, your marginal sound card could also be used for inconsequential convenient playbacks when the mixer happens to not be plugged in. Quality of any audio equipment that is under $500per item, has very little differences from anything else in a similar price range. In that respect, you purchase the features you believe you need in the color, you like it. I like blue the best so API & Neve works best for me.

I only use blue colored equipment
Ms. Remy Ann David

anonymous Mon, 09/22/2008 - 14:54

Thanks in advance,

I have been reading a few reviews of my soundcard, and 9 out of 10 are all negative, and i will have issues when i buy more gear of these days. (connecting the stuff) i believe the card is more then 7 years old, they dont release any more drivers, its not in production for a while now.

Im having my eye on a EMU 1212M. Anyone been there?

I will have to think about buying an interface or mixer, i want to try some stuff out. any information is welcome!

thanks again,

Arthur

anonymous Tue, 09/23/2008 - 14:27

I thought i would need a mixer, so i can record both guitar / vocals and bass. I dont not know really much about how to connect the stuff. But after reading some forums here and there, a interface would work just perfect. I do need another soundcard because my curret card has only jack inputs. some of them are screwed too.

imagen, IF i would have these things, so a good interface, soundcard, my preamp etc. The next thing i would buy is probably an compressor/effect processor.., you know. How do we connect these things? i assume these devices can be connected directly into youre soundcard so it will appear as a plugin? (if available)

EDIT: Not to forget, i dont have any firewire ports for a good audio interface. Do i have to buy a specific type of firewire card? i use windows.

hueseph Tue, 09/23/2008 - 15:14

Firewire card should be Texas Instruments chipset.

If you plan on using outboard effects, you will need an interface with a reasonable number of outputs.

If you plan on using a compressor inline with your vox, you will either need a seperate preamp or an interface with an insert section.

At this stage of the game though I would suggest sticking to software plugins for now. If you have to ask, you probably won't be able to tell the difference anyway. There are some great software compressors out there.

As far as essential plugins are concerned I would say get Fish Fillets. The guy who developed these is involved with commercial products such as Magix/Samplitude's Variverb which sounds awesome IMHO. The Fish Fillets has a great sounding compressor a gate and desser. These will get you buy for a while. Also on his page are Endorphine(dual band compressor) and THD(saturation emulator) both great plugins but you need to play with them to get to know how to apply them without trashing your sound.

Never the less you can save money in the future by buying an interface that you can grow into. The Presonus FP10 and Firestudio are decent for the money and expandable via daisy-chaining. ( I don't buy into the Firestudio "tube" thing.)

anonymous Tue, 09/23/2008 - 15:23

Hang on, I think you are missing an important point:

If you get an interface, you don't need a soundcard. In other words, the interface does all the stuff that the soundcard would do in terms of transferring electrical signals into 1's and 0's and vice-versa. And it does those things much better than any soundcard.

An interface [[url=http://[/URL]="http://pro-audio.mu…"]like this one[/]="http://pro-audio.mu…"]like this one[/] would probably be great for you. Check out the manual pdf file, skip ahead to the diagram on page 19 - that should give you a pretty good idea of how the "stuff" gets connected.

The next thing you buy should *not* be a compressor or processor. For one thing, you probably will want to buy monitors (speakers) first. But also, the software that usually comes bundled with interfaces these days (Cubase LE in the above example) probably has some software plug-ins included. I'd bet there is a compressor (probably called "dynamics" or something) included. Finally, you shouldn't worry about processing until you have a good handle on the basics. And no offense, but you are clearly just getting started here. A compressor is a really easy way to screw up an otherwise good sound, not a way to make a bad sound into a good one.

anonymous Thu, 09/25/2008 - 11:10

Ive looked into that interface last week, and it would be the perfect solution indeed. Its not too expensive too, i think i made a choice.
I will also not keep myself busy with effect processors, for now. Saves alot of money too heh.

Another thing is,
I am not realy a fan of Line6, but a Line6 Toneport UX2 seems like a cool interface. ive tested it last night, and for my goals it would fit just fine to record guitar. I use my own distortion, and the rest is up to the interface.
It costs only 188 Euro here, for the price it seems a fine piece of equipment.

anonymous Sun, 09/28/2008 - 16:15

If you are going with a presonus interface I can say from experience that you need to look at their forums. They don't advertise enough their incompatibility issues they have. I'm not sure what interface you are buying but have a look here http://forums.presonus.com/showthread.php?t=2852 that shows some of the incompatibility issues they have also poke around their forum in the device area that you will be purchasing.

RemyRAD Wed, 10/01/2008 - 13:55

I like both types of monitor systems.

I like to have high-powered amplifiers, by certain manufacturers, plugged into smaller near field speakers, by certain manufacturers. I like the headroom. I like the tonality. I know what I'm getting. I know I'm not going to clip the amplifier out before I destroy the speakers. I like that.

On the other hand, having powered monitors negates the need for experimentation. You already have a known compact monitor system that is truly plug & play. I like that. So, I have both many times over.

Both plus more equals better than good. Simple math.
Ms. Remy Ann David

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