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I use the Roland 1680 hard disc recorder. I'm really considering moving to the Roland 2480..but I've been confused about the following:

I have been studying the art of recording for the past few years, I'm getting better at mixing/recording..and I read a lot about the subject.

How do people use ..say.. a Ghost Desk or a Yamaha desk in todays world. I understand those desks can go to any number of tape formats...but what about Digital? Adat's seem to be by-gone now, and so many people use Pro-Tools...where is the music being stored for mixing on these desks if it's not going to a tape machine?

I really like the DAW concept of recording and really have no intention of getting into the computer recording game..I just don't get along with computers well. (i know, i know...daw's are computers of sorts)

So how could someone like me take advatage of a nice mixing desk...get away from the "Roland" box..and not deal with pro-tools or computers?

Thanks much for any advice -

S

Comments

anonymous Thu, 05/27/2004 - 04:19

On thing you could do is get a HD24. It is a 24 track stand-alone digital recorder with 24 TRS analog I/O. For use with this and ghost, you would take the direct outs on the ghost and rout them to the Ins on the HD24. Then you would take the outs on the HD24 and rout them to the "B" (I think its called?, the extra input on the ghost) in order to mix.

With a set up like this, you would need a separate recorder to mix down to, such as a masterlink. I think Recorder Man has a set up like this, you should ask him how he has his set up.

KurtFoster Thu, 05/27/2004 - 12:38

It works just the same as a mixer and stand alone rmultitrack recorder works. The only difference is the recording format is digital instead of analog. With a mixer / recorder configuration, you lose a lot of the flexibility and automation / recall ability you would have with a DAW.

The thing is, small table top mixing desks like the Ghost, Mackie 8 Bus and others are not truly professional consoles. They are designed for the home studio market and you will almost never see them being utilized in a true pro recording environment. They all pretty much sound like sh*t.

Pro desks are large, expensive, and costly to keep maintained. Maintenance costs have run many a small studio into the ground. The saying is, "Buy a Neve, go out of business."

DAW offers us the chance to achieve pro results in the home and small studio environment, avoiding the pitfalls of maintenance expenses. Bypassing the small mixer and all the degradation it induces is a bonus. Using high quality pre amps insures that we get great sound into the DAW without the associated expense of keeping all the faders, switches, bus summing amps, eq and aux send pots of a large format console working properly while the automation and instant recall of DAW puts a home studio owner on an even playing field with the largest of recording studios.

You can continue to avoid getting into DAW by working with stand alone recorders like the KORG or Roland but the quality you achieve will be compromised by the data compression schemes employed and / or by the very cheap mic and line pres you are forced to use in these box's.

DAW is the wave of the future and the learning curve is really not all that hard. The aspect of taking on the challenge of learning a new format can be daunting but the sooner you get started, the sooner you will get past it. Come on, get on the bus ....

Kurt Foster

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