re first question

for your first question, with out knowing what kind of mixer it is going to be hard to tell you but, if I were to guess I would say that your mixer probably has a 2 track input, it will probably be 1/4in. or RCA type conection. Then you will probably have a section near your headphone volume that will allow you to select what to listen to, be it for PFL, the main mix, or the 2 track in, or what ever else the mixer might have. I would just play around with mixer or post what kind it is and someone will probably have one.

there ya go

bobbo

some tracks
http://www.songramp.com/view.ez?sampleid=25144

CombatWombat wrote: 2. It seems, from what I've read everywhere, is that laying down the drum tracks first is the way to go. I can't find any discussion directly on this topic, so I'm wondering why that is? I'm working on a number of songs that I was planning on giving to my buddy to record some drums for after I was finished with all my tracks. Is this going to cause some sort of problem that I, being a total amateur, can't forsee?

IMO the best results I have gotten so far is when everybody is tracked together, or at least drums, bass, and a guitar. There is just something to be said when you capture a moment in time that you can't sometimes get when you track all the instruments seperately at different times.

But, thats not to say you can't capture something special anyway.

As long as your drummer is capable to play with a click, or a basic drum machine track as a guide, or without a click at all and is able to lock to the track (whichever way you get the best results), then why not? I have done many sessions this way and have gotten great results where the producer used a drum machine just to get the basic structure of a song with a bass, guitar, and a ruff vocal track. Sometimes there is just no getting around it.

Thanks for the replies.

bobbo, the mixer is just a little eurorack ub1204-fx. There isn't even a volume knob as far as I can tell. There is just a 1/4" input that is labelled "phones"

Alright, did some intensive button pushing and I figured it out. Thank you very much for the help. I'd still like to hear what other people have to say about recording drums though. Thanks guys.

Hehe...new question. :oops:

Alright, so I got the headphones to play through the mixer, but now it's recording the other tracks onto the new track when i try to record. This wasn't happening when I was plugging straight into the mobile pre. Any ideas? I am pushing buttons all over the place, but nothing is fixing it.

I could be outta line (been a couple years since I've sat in front of an actual mixing board ), but I think having a separate little headphone mixer would solve your problems easily. Just plug the output of your mobile pre into it, as well as an output from your other mixer so you can monitor your inputs without latency. My RME card can do all this internally, but I'm not to sure your mobile pre has any kind of zero latency option.
When you were plugging the mobile pre outs back into your mixer, I believe that was going to play through on your main XLR outputs back to the mobile pre.
UNLESS....your mixer channels have a direct out, in which case you could get a Y cable to hook the direct out of your L and R mobilepre channels into your headphones; and then take these two channels out of the LR mix on your mixer. If all else fails, through out the manuals and push every button at the same time. I'm going to stop before I confuse you or myself any further. :?

On drums, I like to do them first thing with a click and a rough guide track. I do 4 string rakes on the guitar to signal for the song to start, so the drummer doesnt have to click da sticks. I have found my mixes to end up being tighter doing the instrument tracks later to the actual drum part that will be on the track. Little timing imperfections are more easily covered up. Recording everyone at once is cool too if you have the space/isolation/preamps/ etc.
Whew, done!

re

what outputs are you using (on the mixer) to run to the mobile pre?
I looked at the manual for your mixer and you should, for recording purposes, be using the "tape out" output and then run the output of the mobile pre into the tape in and then select that to monitor.

Thats just what I got from looking at the manual.

bob

Thanks bob. I must have missed that part when I went over the manual. I am simply running 2 XLR cables frmo the main outs on the mixer to the 2 XLR ins on the mobile pre. I'm curious as to what the difference would be?