Skip to main content

I have a set of Roland TD-12 V-Drums, a Yamaha keyboard, a guitar stereo signal processor and a Shure SM57 mic for vocals and recording guitar amps. That's it, 7 signals. I used to run them into an old Tascam M-35 analog mixer(8-4-2), and record one instrument at a time into the stock soundcard of my computer, a one man band setup.

I finally found the courage to install a 1010lt interface card into my computer,

http://www.m-audio.com

and right now I have everything going directly into the 1010lt, sounds great! 8-) ...but my head is hurting from the connection possibilities using the M35...If I ran the signal into Channel 1 of the M35 first, and then ran a cord from the direct out of that channel into channel one of the 1010lt, would there be additional latency, or a degradation in signal quality? Why would I want to do that?..well, wouldn't the M35 "warm up" the tone?...excuse my ignorance... :oops:

Another reason I ask is, say I invited a drummer, keyboardist and bassist to jam using only my gear. I'd go through an amp, as would the bassist, but the keys and drums would have to go through the 1010lt, then into my PA...prior to the acquisition of the 1010lt, I'da ran the keys and drums through the M35 into the PA (a Peavey 60/60 stereo tube amp into several speakers).

I don't know if I've worded this right, but I think you know what I mean...
should I just leave the M35 out of the picture and put it on the shelf to collect dust, or could I leave everything hooked up using the M35?.

Thank you,

Arnie

Topic Tags

Comments

RemyRAD Fri, 01/04/2008 - 14:48

Well, Arnie, if you look at your new card as just another multitrack audio machine, you'd patch it into your M35 as you would an 8 track machineme. You're patching currently sounds rather convoluted. Have you never patched this console into an eight track machine before? The how-to is in the TASCAM manual. The latency has been and always will be the problem. Whatever M-Audio recommends for lowest latency is what you should do. Your console and your card is mostly unbalanced and so should be quite reasonably compatible together. In fact, I can't quite make out why you would want to patch things the way you are patching them? You're not doing PA simultaneously are you? That's counterproductive in recording. If you need some fold back, to headphones, that's what your auxiliary sends are for. The wiring cluster can be intimidating for many folks. So please try to refrain from 48 track work.

I stopped at 32
Ms. Remy Ann David

moonbaby Sat, 01/05/2008 - 11:19

I doubt that the Tascam is going to "warm up" anything. I've owned a number of Tascam boards over the years (I think the M-35 was one of them), none of them had any headroom, the EQ was whimpy, and the overall sound quality was...bllah. Did that keep me from buying their DM24 digital mixer....NAH!!! No more Tascam for me! (stated like the soup Nazi).
I can understand why you might want to run the instruments through the board, using it as a monitor mixer. The Aux mix can feed your Peavey amp. And there would be zero latency because you're not feeding the PC to the power amp, just the live instruments.
The downside here is that you'd have to record the instruments off of the mixer to the 1010lt. And the Tascam is going to be much less quality sound than you'll probably want to track with. When my stepson and I hold impromptu jam sessions we want to record, we use an M-Audio Delta 66 PCI rig and we feed it with an Allen&Heath GL2 14-channel rack mixer.
In your case, even a Mackie 1202VLZ would out-perform that old Tascam mixer and still provide you with the monitor capabilities you'd need to feed the amp. And 4 subgroups to feed the PCI during tracking, to boot.

anonymous Sun, 01/06/2008 - 07:58

Thanks to both of you for taking the time to respond, I appreciate it. 8)

Maybe I should backtrack a little. I'm 50, and a guitarist first, and a hobby recordist...4th...? :D When I was young, I bought a bee randy new TEAC A-3440 with matching RX9 DBX unit, man, I thought I was something! I enjoyed recording my ideas, but nothing ever was really great. I didn't record for quite a while, then a few years ago I bought Cakewalk's "Guitar Tracks" and started having some fun with computer recording, being AMAZED at the ease of it all, the editing, etc. Well, then the bug bit again. I've been doing computer recording, but a great deal on a TEAC 80-8 with matching DBX unit presented itself...ancient I know, but I bought it. To be able to use it, I bought the TASCAM M35 (8-4-2) mixer to use with the 80-8. I thought of using the M35 for computer recording, and used it into "line in" of the factory soundcard of my HP pc. I thought the results were decent. Then the bug for a good interface for my pc bit, and I bought the M Audio 1010lt. So then I got to thinking, wouldn't it be great to have a super versatile setup with just what I have? Well, since my first post in this thread, I did connect everything. It may not be the best quality audio to those truly in the know, that's for sure, but it suits me just fine. I don't have to re-cable things to record or just play, all I have to do is push some buttons. I leave the electronic drums, keyboard, guitar, bass and vocals all connected to the M35. I can send audio to either the 80-8, my pc, or the PA directly. Not great I know, but I'm really not that fussy about it, I look for ease of use first, and the manual sliders on the M35 are easier for me to use than aiming the cursor on a pc screen to open windows for the mixing board for the 1010lt when I have a guitar strapped on.

Thanks again for the responses. I feel like I should have just done what I had in head and not bothered anyone here...sorry... :oops: