Consoles for recording

anonymous 16 April 2004

I've been told that instead of buying a sound card for recording with good audio quality, I should get a console (no matter how many tracks) since they've got noise filters and things like that. is that so? could I still rely on an onboard simple card?

Fer

Comments

You should have some type of a preamp to input to your soundcard

vinniesrs Sun, 04/18/2004 - 09:27

You should have some type of a preamp to input to your soundcard. personally I like the feel of a console, as I am used to that type of layout. I can navigate them faster, but during a mixdown nothing saves time like automation. (automatic control changes like what you can do with your computer.)
Cheap consoles can be noisy, so if your budget is limited you may want to invest the money into a single or multi chnnel pre amp. You can plug your mic directly into it and then into your soundcard.
If you want to record multiple tracks at one time a sound board might be needed. If you buy a board focus on one with a low noise level. Allen & heath have some economical boards that are pretty clean. If you buy a board you may want to get some separate preamp units to sweeten the sound of acoustic instruments and vocals. Either way, you should be able to make some decent recordings if you take your time.

thanks a lot. there´s this guy who´s set up a sort of a mini-low

anonymous Sun, 04/18/2004 - 13:03

thanks a lot. there´s this guy who´s set up a sort of a mini-low-budget-amateur studio with his computer and he reccommended a console and not a better soundcard. he said he had an onboard one (those with no brand!) and he got quite clean recording sound since he owned a 6-ch console, which he didn´t touch at all except for using it as a "bridge" between an midi piano and the computer´s board.
I´m currently recording from a KORG synthesiser to the soundboard and would like to improve the sound quality in order to get a near-pro fidelity in the recording stage.
any kind of pre-amp would do you think?

You won't get 'near-pro' quality with an onboard sound card. A

Guest Tue, 04/27/2004 - 07:03

You won't get 'near-pro' quality with an onboard sound card. A good compromise for you might be an M-Audio Delta with the Omnistudio add-on. It has reasonable pres and very good converters for the money.

If it were me, however, I'd get an Audiophile or Delta 44 and either a Yamaha MG mixer or a DMP3, depending on whether you're going to need more channels in the near future - DMP3 is two very decent channels for the money, the MG mixers do a lot more 'stuff' but you may not need that.