well pow420,im not exactly sure what youre askin how to do but heres a little of what little i know.first are you recording the entire band at once?or are you tracking?depending on your set up you can probably get a cleaner sound by recording each instrument seperately becuse youll have less instruments bleeding into less mic's.on the other hand you could lose some of the feel for the song that your doing,or gain in some places depending on how you look at it. more and dedicated microphones is what i would go after if i had your set up. i dont have a whole lot of experience recording the entire band at once ,so ill tell you what id do if i were tracking it coz thats probably what id do.actually ive had some really good drum sounds come out using two overheads(sure sm81) and and a kick drum mic (sure beta52).depending on how well the drummer plays,how his drums are tuned,mic placements, etc.. it really might be all you need. first i would get your input signal set on your peavy then set your fostex input attenuators to unity gain(should be marked with a U). set the faders of youre fostex to unity as well.then, if you have direct outs on your peavy you can use those to input your signal to the fostex using the channel fader to control the level.im not sure but i think a channel insert will work as a direct out.when you get your levels set press the record button and tell the drummer to get his ass rockin. when youre finished you can use the kick drum mic on the bass guitar because that mic is well suited to pick up the frequencies that the bass throws down.you can also put the bass amp in a closet or something and shut the door to create what might be called a bass trap. sounds like you need a mic for the guitar though. depending on the style of music it seems that the sure sm57 is pretty much the industry standard.i used a sennheiser 906e to record my guitar traxx and i thought they came out pretty shredding.mic placement is key coz i gotta tell ya you could turn that mic a fraction and have a totally different sound comin at ya.record two identical rhythm guitar trax and pan one hard L and the other hard R at mixdown.Finally the vox should be recorded in a fairly dead (no reverberation) room. sounds like the condenser mic you have should work pretty good for that. you might wanna have the lead vox stand pretty close to the mic and the back up vox stand a little further away to create a sense of intelligibility between the two or three singers.Im gonna leave it at that for now coz its late and as you can see im no typist. i hope i told you something you didnt know. good luck

Back about 10 years ago I was just starting to switch to Digital recording from my old tape machines. I was thinking about getting a All-in -one recording unit like the Fostex you have listed. Man I am glad I didn't.
A friend talked me out of it. I ended up getting a Delta1010 and a Mackie VLZPro board. Beefed up a old computer alittle and got Proaudio 9
From Cakewalk . Did alot of great recordings with that set-up.

Something for you to ponder on! Oh and, What ever ya buy,
Happy Recording!!!!!!!!

Peace................Scoobie

Paragraphs, indentations, capitalization and spaces.
You never realize how important things like that are until you read something that doesn't use any of them...GOOD LORD willjrockstar! :)

Anyway, in reply, the Fostex is a nice unit. I've used them and they work well. As is, it will only allow you to record 8 tracks at one time but it has the ability to record 16 at once. You could add something like the Alesis Ai-3 to do that. Hook it up to the Fostex via the ADAT connection and it'll add 8 additional inputs allowing you to record 16 channels at once.

With your curreing instrument/mic config, you don't really need to record 16 tracks at the same time. But if you ever want to expand the setup, maybe put each drum on it's own track you'll want the extra inputs.

You may want to get an SM57 or two and an SM58. Both are great all purpose mics. You'll need a mic for the snare and the 57 is great for that. The 57s are great on drums, guitar and anything else. The 58 can be especially good on vocals.

pro 4 you must have not even read what i wrote which i dont blame you. see i am a newb to the computer world and my typing skills suck i admit that ,but i did use spaces ya know. anyhow i'm good on equiptment . i got tons of 57's 58's and more and more. i was just tryin to help, and for a guy with no typing skills you cant imagine how long that must have taken. a simple thanks would have been nice. good luck.

pr0gr4m wrote: Paragraphs, indentations, capitalization and spaces.
You never realize how important things like that are until you read something that doesn't use any of them...GOOD LORD willjrockstar! :)

Anyway, in reply, the Fostex is a nice unit. I've used them and they work well. As is, it will only allow you to record 8 tracks at one time but it has the ability to record 16 at once. You could add something like the Alesis Ai-3 to do that. Hook it up to the Fostex via the ADAT connection and it'll add 8 additional inputs allowing you to record 16 channels at once.

With your curreing instrument/mic config, you don't really need to record 16 tracks at the same time. But if you ever want to expand the setup, maybe put each drum on it's own track you'll want the extra inputs.

You may want to get an SM57 or two and an SM58. Both are great all purpose mics. You'll need a mic for the snare and the 57 is great for that. The 57s are great on drums, guitar and anything else. The 58 can be especially good on vocals.

Well i want to record at the same time for when we all jam together and to listen back at it to see wat we are doing right and wrong ext.

For that cant i just use the peavy to get the 16 channels i want and just route all thoughs mics on that mixer to set to the fostex since it only comes with 2 xlr's?

(Dead Link Removed)

Get record 8 simultaneous tracks at 24bit 44.1KHZ
4XLR preamp for mic drums

you could eliminate the mixer and pickup a multi channel preamp to add more mic inputs if necessary.

The montiors are good pick.

Mics Im not sure of whats good for drums.

Hope it helps
[/url]

(Dead Link Removed)

Get record 8 simultaneous tracks at 24bit 44.1KHZ
4XLR preamp for mic drums

you could eliminate the mixer and pickup a multi channel preamp to add more mic inputs if necessary.

The montiors are good pick.

Mics Im not sure of whats good for drums.

Hope it helps
[/url]

thanks for the suggestion but that recorder seems to have bad reviews... also does it really make a difference if i use a pre-amp or mixer for more inputs because it seems to expensive for a good quality 8 channel preamp?

Gotta love marketing folks....this in the Fostex features...

8 mic inputs

and then...

2 - XLR channel ins

Huh? The first feature claim would have had me assuming there were 8 XLRs, until further examination.

Anyway. Want to record a guitar, bass, vocal, and drums? There are a bunch of ways you could do that. You'd probably be better off with a unit that had 8 XLR mic inputs, but it may not be necessary. With 8 XLRs, you could have one to mic a guitar, one for the vocal, one for the bass, and that would leave 5 for the drums if you want....say kick, snare/hi-hat, one between toms, and a couple overheads. (There's any number of ways for that). You may even be able to do that anyway with the Fostex, with the proper cabling, adapters, etc...but it's probably better to just plug a mic into an XLR.

Or, you could possibly use a mixer to submix drums to stereo to use only two tracks. Of course, once the drums are submixed, that's all there is. You'd have to get them mixed well from the beginning. This would give you drums at 2 tracks, guitar, vocal and bass...for a total of 5. That would leave you 3 tracks to overdub, or possibly an extra vocal or two, and/or perhaps a direct/mic'ed bass.

If you just want to record everything through a mixer to two tracks, as you seem to have stated, and don't plan on needing any more, you could even entertain the notion of buying a less-expensive unit with fewer tracks recording capability, and use the extra money for other things. Of course, once you do that, you may wish you had bought something with more track capability. And, once you record it to only two tracks, your mixing options are severely limited. Anybody adjusts their volume knob on an instrument or amp, kicks a stompbox on, etc., the pre-mixed mix may go out the window. At least with everyone on their own track, you'll still have SOME ability to balance things out a bit, even if there's bleed from other instruments...which presents problems all on it's own.

If you spent a bit extra on a unit that offered 8 XLR-1/4" input, then you may not need to spend so much on a mixer...a smaller mixer may do for the occasional submixing, monitoring and such.

It's up to you to decide which may provide the best options for what you want to do with it, and perhaps adjust your shopping list one way or the other to get the most for your money and purposes.

These are just some ideas that I'm tossing out. Just something to think about. As always, everyone's free take it or leave it, and to correct any misconceptions that may have slipped in. :wink:

Good luck,

Kapt.Krunch

Kapt.Krunch wrote: Gotta love marketing folks....this in the Fostex features...

8 mic inputs

and then...

2 - XLR channel ins

Huh? The first feature claim would have had me assuming there were 8 XLRs, until further examination.

Anyway. Want to record a guitar, bass, vocal, and drums? There are a bunch of ways you could do that. You'd probably be better off with a unit that had 8 XLR mic inputs, but it may not be necessary. With 8 XLRs, you could have one to mic a guitar, one for the vocal, one for the bass, and that would leave 5 for the drums if you want....say kick, snare/hi-hat, one between toms, and a couple overheads. (There's any number of ways for that). You may even be able to do that anyway with the Fostex, with the proper cabling, adapters, etc...but it's probably better to just plug a mic into an XLR.

Or, you could possibly use a mixer to submix drums to stereo to use only two tracks. Of course, once the drums are submixed, that's all there is. You'd have to get them mixed well from the beginning. This would give you drums at 2 tracks, guitar, vocal and bass...for a total of 5. That would leave you 3 tracks to overdub, or possibly an extra vocal or two, and/or perhaps a direct/mic'ed bass.

If you just want to record everything through a mixer to two tracks, as you seem to have stated, and don't plan on needing any more, you could even entertain the notion of buying a less-expensive unit with fewer tracks recording capability, and use the extra money for other things. Of course, once you do that, you may wish you had bought something with more track capability. And, once you record it to only two tracks, your mixing options are severely limited. Anybody adjusts their volume knob on an instrument or amp, kicks a stompbox on, etc., the pre-mixed mix may go out the window. At least with everyone on their own track, you'll still have SOME ability to balance things out a bit, even if there's bleed from other instruments...which presents problems all on it's own.

If you spent a bit extra on a unit that offered 8 XLR-1/4" input, then you may not need to spend so much on a mixer...a smaller mixer may do for the occasional submixing, monitoring and such.

It's up to you to decide which may provide the best options for what you want to do with it, and perhaps adjust your shopping list one way or the other to get the most for your money and purposes.

These are just some ideas that I'm tossing out. Just something to think about. As always, everyone's free take it or leave it, and to correct any misconceptions that may have slipped in. :wink:

Good luck,

Kapt.Krunch

Well i would like to have the option to do both, when were working on a new song to record and listen back with no mixing or anything and then when were ready to accually record have everything on its own track and record one by one. Could this be possible with the setup i posted? Have all my drum mics and vocal mics on the submixer and the guitar and bass on the fostex. Or is there a better way?

For the mixer i would go with the mackie VLZ series.

I just got a 1604-VLZ and i freakin love it

:)

great for live too.

bump

Pow420 you asked if there is a better way............

I think if you would get a MackieOnyx with the firewire option you would be alot happier in the long run, JMHO. It comes with Traction and it's not bad software for starters. Plus the Mackie is a great live board for Bang for the Buc .

With the Onyx and Traction, You could record your band prctice just like you have said you want to do.

Peace............Scoobie

id love to buy a mackie but there just to damn expensive, not only that but i dont have a control room and my computer is very loud and recording with it on wont be an option.