Hi there. I've got a few questions about home studio-type stuff (sorry if I ramble).

1) I've been looking to replace my mixing board. Basically, I'm just a high school kid who from time to time needs to record his band's stuff/other bands' stuff. And so for the past three years, my little eight input Behringer board (which I got for free) sufficed for these little projects, but it recently shit the bed and I'm now looking for something new. I think something with eight to 12 inputs would work for me.

Now, I guess the issue I'm having is that whenever I recorded anything with that setup, everything just got squished down into one track (I just ran the mixer into the in on my sound card, using Adobe Audition to record), with, y'know, the drums and guitars and bass all mixed in together, leaving me unable to edit them later. This has mostly been a problem for drums and such, where I'd like to, say, have the kick drum on one track, the snare on the second, etc. so that I can compress and EQ them seperately.

Today I went to the music store, and I ran across this Yamaha USB mixer, and it got me interested. So I guess the question I want to ask is: would a USB or FireWire mixer be able to let me seperate each input into its own track, without using multiple sound cards or anything? What sort of software would I need?

1) Much shorter question: I'm looking to expand past my current collection of microphones, which is basically limited to a couple SM58-style dynamic mics. Are there any other sorts of good, inexpensive microphones you could recommend ("inexpensive" meaning maximum of about $100, ideally around $40-$60)?

Thanks in advance, guys.

Mason wrote:Today I went to the music store, and I ran across this Yamaha USB mixer, and it got me interested. So I guess the question I want to ask is: would a USB or FireWire mixer be able to let me seperate each input into its own track, without using multiple sound cards or anything? What sort of software would I need?

I'd say this is what you want; a Firewire or USB interface. As far as I understand it, Firewire is better than USB, but I don't know enough about computers to tell you why. Use the search function up top of the page to look for the multiple threads knocking about dealing with Firewire interfaces (I've read good things about the Presonus Firestudio).

As far as mics, there are a bunch of companies making real chea, chinese made condensers around these days but people here will tell you its worth spending as much as you can on mics. I personally tend to go for what seem to be the 'higher' end of these companies like SE Electronics and Studio Projects (I may be wrong here...). Again, there are a whole pile of thread around here talking about affordable, all round mics that you should be able to find with the search function.

HTH

Mason wrote:
Today I went to the music store, and I ran across this Yamaha USB mixer, and it got me interested. So I guess the question I want to ask is: would a USB or FireWire mixer be able to let me seperate each input into its own track, without using multiple sound cards or anything?

as far as I understand it you'll be only able to record a stereo signal (or two mono signals) on your computer. so you won't be able to make a multi track recording to several audio tracks.

fire wire is the faster connection than usb.

if you want to record multi tracks you'll have to get something like a m-audio delta 1010.

Check the specs. for that Yamaha mixer/soundcard. If it's not much use, you could try one of the Alesis Multimix Firewire desks. Even the 16 channel model is cheap and it records 16 separate channels. They sound reasonable. You'll need to some multitrack recording software. You choose.

You may as well pick up some cheap condenser mics with the price they are going for these days. At the bottom of the price range, have a look at the Oktavas. Some people don't like them, but they can be very good in my opinion. For Chinese condensers (which are generally speaking brighter) check out the Studio Projects range as they are known to use better capsules than most Chinese manufacturers.

I would second the Alesis Multimix Firewire. I bought a Multimix 16 for recording live in small clubs and it's sound is much better than I expected. It only has 8 mic inputs but I have used the stereo line level inputs by using another micpre in order to get more. It comes with Cubase LE which works fine. If you have a late model Mac then it would already have Garage Band on it.
The USB mixers are usually just 2 track outs so check on that. If you plan on recording 1 or 2 tracks at a time it would work fine I guess.
I like the chineese mics also. I have been happy with Samson CO2s and some of the MXL stuff.
Once you decide if you want to step up to better stuff then you will need much more expensive gear to make the difference. In the meantime this stuff is great for a beginner.

I agree with the MXL mics, the 2001 does a passable job, but beware of cold solder joints which will add a LOT of noise to your signal. -- If you get one like this, have it repaired, or do it yourself provided you know how to find problems in a circuit and you are proficient with a soldering iron.

Chinese mics can also be modified with high end parts like Jensen line transformers, etc, at a later point if you want better performance from them.

The AKG C-1000 is a decent condenser mic for instruments that you can power with batteries, however the price of one will run you about $150-$200.

Also a mic that I consider absolutely indispensible for recording drums is an AKG D-112 kick drum mic. Expect to pay @ $200-$250 for one, tough you may luck out and get one cheaper.

Audacity is free multitrack recording software, however the performance, and usefulness of it is highly debatable. --Personally I think it's shit, however if it works for you, then good deal.

I think Alesis' new USB 2.0 boards record tracks separately too now, though I can't remember if they're more or less expensive than the firewire ones (the 16-channel version is $599.99). I'm actually stuck in your situation (excepting that I'm a 20 yr. old college student with an old eight-channel Kustom mixer with no trim pots, direct outputs or phantom power and like, eight cheapo dynamic mics, five which I'm waiting for from ebay) right now.

Also, if you still have Adobe Audition, that should should do (though I have it, I never use it because it's way too intensive on my laptop). Audacity is fine for bare-bones stuff, but it also craps out on you from time to time and there's currently no recovery function. I currently use Kristal Audio Engine to track, but I find it annoying since you can't see the waveforms when they're recording, and transport is controlled directly from the transport panel (can't click on the window itself to where you want the track to play from), so better get a drink of water while you fast-forward to the middle of that seven-minute long track. (If anyone who uses this program knows how to get around this, please help a brother out.)

Edit: I guess you have to click on the time ruler to go to a specific playback point. I now endorse Kristal Audio Engine a whole lot more.

Hey, thanks guys. Wow, I never figured I'd get so much help so quickly.

I'll have to look into those Alesis MultiMix boards (now that I've seen a picture of one, I swear they had one of these at the music store as well). And I guess I've got a question for any FireWire geniuses: all the computers I own are PCs without FireWire ports or whatever. If I get a FireWire board, would I have to buy a FireWire card and have that installed in my computer, or is there a way to cheat somehow (like maybe a Firewire-to-USB cord or something...even though that'd probably defeat the purpose of using Firewire instead of USB...)?

Mic-wise, I think I'll look for some cheap Chinese mics. I actually just ran across a set of CAD drum mics for cheap, so I might get that, just because it'll have everything I need to start off, really. Later on, of course, I'll get myself some sweet Telefunkens and a Neumann dummy head mic...or maybe not...

you can get a firewire card for a desktop for like $10.00 so I would do that. A laptop would need a PCMCIA card or a PCMCIA Express card which is more.
I hate audacity for mixing because you can drop plug ins on the track but you cant hear them until you render the track. Cubase LE comes with almost every interface free so you can use that.
I got my MMIX16 for $399.99 on sale at Musicians friend but last I checked it was $499.

Alright, so I've been doing a little more searching around in my shitty little city.
I've found two new boards that interest me: an Alesis MultiMix USB (note: this is an older model, it's a bluish-silver as opposed to dark grey) and a Behringer Xenyx. Both are listed as having USB connectivity, but I haven't been able to figure out if they're able to record their 16 channels seperately, or if the USB connectivity is just for people to lazy to run their board through their sound card (in which case they're useless). I'm sure the new MultiMix USBs have that capability, just like the MultiMix FireWires, but I'm sort of wondering about the older models. And, of course, if the Behringer board has that capability, then I'll go with that one.