I have and love a Zoom LiveTrak L-12. Prior to that, i struggled with the limitations of my computer and a few different interfaces. Now i track to the Zoom and dump it to my computer for plugins and mixing. i used a Korg 12 track somethingorother back in the day, but exporting files was a pain in the ass. these days, standalones are much better and cheaper, though i wouldn't use the onboard effects for anything but live mixing.

Apologies in advance if this has been discussed, however, I couldn't find anything in the search for this specifically.Anyone here finally say, "Fuck it," and give up recording on their DAW? I have been using ProTools forever now and with all the updates and everything else, it's a real pain. I haven't updated my OS or PT or anything because I might lose some plug ins that are in the older format (not AAC I think?). Not to mention having to pay $300 to upgrade PT and then so much money a year to stay consistent when I already bought and paid for everything. I am currently using an RME Fireface UFX for my interface and then into PT 10.3 on a MacPro. I have been heavily considering getting the Tascam Model 24 as it is a standalone machine. I could use PT if I wanted, but I don't have to. And apparently you can do the mix down and everything on that machine. But only 1 aux... seems limiting.Anyone using standalone mixers or have a set up that they use that is DAW free?Thanks in advance!

kerble wrote:it was super nice to just use FM MF Nightmen's Zoom to capture and export all the tracks. I forgot about that thing, and was otherwise thinking I hadn't touched a digital portastudio thing in at least 12 years.(not fun fact: I found out about 9/11 at a big box store while buying Iomega discs for my Boss recorder)It's been a few years.. might have even been their first album.. but I think Dead Rider makes their albums on one of these.. maybe the Fostex one.

I do electronic and electroacoustic stuff.Over the past years I switched from recording multitracks in Logic to recording everything direct to stereo in 24/96 on my Olympus field recorder. I have a crazy kit for midi gating analog material that goes through a 24 channel Soundtracs board and another live tape kit that goes through a smaller Soundtracs mixer, those are the two main set-ups. I archive those stereo tracks and pull them into Logic if I want to compose something using different materials using multiple tracks instead of just using edited individual takes as pieces, both produce nice results. I am in love with this workflow, it has improved my productivity immensely. I get it right in the mix and can carry my tracks around with me right away and think about how I'm going to edit and use them before archiving. Recording is entirely separate from the stupid laptop that I spend too much time on as it is. I would highly recommend that people making a similar kind of music try to do this and there is really nothing keeping you from doing this with other sorts of bands/configurations.Edit: to be clear, I'm talking about using the line-in in this case, which sounds perfectly fine for my purposes.

We used a zoom R16 to record all the live basics for Faiz Zeppelin's "Zeppelganger":but then also augmented it with a couple shure mv88 phone mics in the room, and the mics on the cameras.I ended up mixing it all in reaper, and FM 154 did the mastering on his cpu, but it was super nice to just use FM MF Nightmen's Zoom to capture and export all the tracks. He's used the zoom for forever, so it was easy-peasy for him to dial things up, and then I had some well-captured hot tracks to mix at home. I really like the hybrid nature of doing this for a five-piece band, and I also kinda miss the tactile nature of a hands-on mixer. Then again, work audio stuff is always on the cpu, and all of my home recordings are pretty much the same, so I've kinda left the stand-alones behind. It was really fun and easy! Single, live take did help the process, though.

Max, Matt, and I wound up having to mix this tune from old songwriting challenge on a board because we wound up into the level range where the mix sounded crunchy in Cubase. Being the boneheads that we were back then, a Carvin board and some sort of mixdown setup(I don't even recall what...) was how we salvaged it. Doesn't sound terrible. Just ran the outputs of the HD24 into the line ins on the Carvin, and crossed fingers.https://prfsongwritingchallenge.bandcamp.com/album/45-ac-dcIf I was going to completely abandon the laptop? Seems like a standalone(one that was minus the "Board" component)/Board/Mixdown Setup would be the move.Don't even have any idea what mixdown setups would look like now. The other concern would be headphone mixes if you aren't planning on recording alone. While that's a gimme in a DAW, you'd have to factor it into the board aspect of any setup like what we are talking about.

More and more digital mixers will do a multitrack capture right to a USB drive. Really only useful for recording bands as a group playing together, but very flexible for monitor mixes and such.I recorded my blues band's gig last weekend and am reasonably happy with the results I got. Tracked right to a thumb drive with a Soundcraft Ui24R, mixed in Harrison Mixbus.Warning, bar band content at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeqIESSTdkQ

My main recording practices are usually solo where I am tracking one thing at a time, overdubbing and then mixing as I go or at the end. Occasionally I will track/record/mix an entire band. I still think a standalone could pull this off easily, but the mix down stuff is what would hamper me *I think*.I hadn't thought about multiple headphone mixes. That's a good catch. Though, in the past, I have only really ever put cans on the singer in another room and, if the band was rehearsed enough, they could track without actually hearing the vocal, but knowing cues and counts. I'd like to keep the availability and versatility of being able to drop the tracks into a DAW (if I had to) but also have them on a USB drive or SD card. On a tangent - master files used to be kept on tape, now things are kept in digital files on a computer or hard drive; maybe a SD card or USB drive depending on what you're using (aren't there stand alone units that burn to CD?). Im eager to see 10, 20 years down the line with tech. Hard drives can go bad or get wiped, SD cards too; tape can get erased or otherwise messed up.... I get curious about it.Thanks all for the wisdom and input shared here. Love the suggestions, just have tons of looking around to do.

bishopdante wrote:The counteproductive and reliability-killing bloat, and the useful but labyrinthine complexity of software mix/remix/re-re-remix tools is why a lot of people are using devices like the joeco blackbox: https://joeco.co.uk/multi-track-audio-r ... cts-joeco/ they're designed for extreme reliability and no-nonsense speed of operation.I keep hearing a lot about these, but in my ignorance, I know not what console to use with it. Research...Boombats wrote:I have and love a Zoom LiveTrak L-12. Prior to that, i struggled with the limitations of my computer and a few different interfaces. Now i track to the Zoom and dump it to my computer for plugins and mixing. i used a Korg 12 track somethingorother back in the day, but exporting files was a pain in the ass. these days, standalones are much better and cheaper, though i wouldn't use the onboard effects for anything but live mixing.The Tascam is pretty much their version of the Zoom. I keep reading good things about the Zoom, but am hesitant to pull the trigger.I want to be able to to do overdubs and things like that, but would prefer to find a way to mix outside the box. That's a bummer with the Tascam because it only has 1 aux. Just seems like to me if you can record, overdub and mix out a solid stereo file, why wouldn't you? I also know a few people using these units how Boombats said: they are tracking onto the stand alone and then dumping files in their DAW later to mix. I'm looking to potentially escape the DAW altogether. If I can.

Alternatively, you could try switching to a PC/Window$ machine, because PT/Macs, especially older ones, seem like more and more of a closed ecosystem. Come to the dark side.Plus they're cheaper, and if you use Reaper, that's cheaper too.