2000xl general questions.. -> mixer, is it vital?

Hey all,

I have a 2kxl, and I have a presonus 2x2 that i'm currently using
as my interface.. it's done it's job, but, i'm hoping to connect my
digi002 rack that i can use it for more inputs, but i'm not sure about
its compatibility with using it on windows 10 yet while using cubase,
or on a mac with using logic. i'm going to be trying it out pretty soon,
so hopefully things work out and i don't get an issue with the drivers
or anything like that.

would anybody know off-hand that if that would work with any
other daw than pt?


I have also been planning on getting a mixer for a couple of months
now, along with a turntable but I really haven't made that move yet.

I was told by a representative at guitar center, along with my professor
at school that that getting a mixer really isn't that necessary unless I was
going to use it for a live recording situation.

The rep told me that the fx aren't really that great either, compared to
the stock plugins on any daw, although i know that some people would
strongly disagree..

I've seen a lot of people on videos and such who work with a mp
and have a mixer tied in..

of course it serves as a central hub, but you can connect the your
turntable directly into the line in of your a/i if it has a phono pre
correct?

what do you guys think? is it important for you personally
to have a mixer in your workflow?

a little bit tired when writing this sorry.. the phono pre had nothing to do with connecting line to line..
& i had a couple of spelling mistakes, my fault.

Lamp, thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me. I've seen you help out many others, and I just want to tell you that I'm truly grateful that you dropped in. I've never posted until now because I really wanted to do some research so that I could converse with others intellectually about all of this. I'm not there yet, but I'm taking small steps.

I believe that I mentioned the mixer because I somewhat wanted to have that physical unit in front of me so that I could better understand aux's and sends, and applying the fx correctly in that manner. I remember some of it from what i've learned from last semester.. but I need to keep going over it..

I'm not sure though.. I might really consider the larger a/i as you recommended.

I wish that I had known more people around me that operated on mp's, but it really hasn't been that way unfortunately. I'm going to try to read the manual some more tonight.. and stay consistent on it.. I made about half way through last time. I just need to interact with the mp while reading so i can better under - stand everything.


sorry man, i suppose i'm somewhat just getting my thoughts out..

your a/i is really amazing. it has so much to offer within it. i'm watching a video about it right now. have you preferred a great interface rather than a mixer throughout your whole career? or have you worked with a mixer when you were making your way through the start of your production?

worth asking - we talking about line mixers or dj mixers? i love running a dj mixer before the mpc as a sample source, it allows you to cut / eq the samples coming in and also has the preamp.
but i also love having a hardware mixer for my 8-outs so i can just track to stereo, but that's just my preference.

neither is necessary.

@Lamp, that's awesome! everybody does have their own workflow.
you made a great investment with your audio interface, yet it has so
much functionality to where you're trying to go with it, it's really an
amazing piece of gear. thank you so much for opening my eyes that
I could go that route with the hardware mixer/interface. it may be
something that really catches my interest to begin my quest of sampling.




have you guys heard any great things said about allen & heath gear?
my initial decision was to go for the zed 10-fx before I spoke with you
guys because i've read a lot of great reviews about it. it's noise factor
is at a minimum when connected, where in contrast, a lot of people
complained about behringer mixers for that very reason.



zed 10-fx --->


http://www.allen-heath.com/ahproducts/zed-10fx/



@tapedeck
thank you for dropping by to help me out over here. much love!

my first response was inquiring about a hardware mixer, because, this is still just the
beginning for me, on to which route to go about. I thought that a mixer would better
help me to understand aux's, sends, and routing the fx, in general, along with serving
as the source to patch my other gear into. also that at the same time, it would assist
me in retaining the knowledge of what i'm learning in my recording class that i'm
taking for the second time.

I've read that a lot of people like to use dj mixers within their setup as well.

when using the dj mixer before the mpc as a sample source, do you cut the
samples by directly using the faders on the dj mixer while in record mode?
or do you work around it another way?

I was also wondering, since your hardware mixer has the 8 outs
to track, does that coincide with you having the 8 output expansion
on your mp?

Looks like this will do just fine, mixer and usb interface.

http://www.allen-heath.com/media/AP7763 ... ide_A5.pdf
pg. 26

USB Audio Interface
The ZED is equipped with a stereo bi-directional USB 1.1 compliant audio CODEC. It is fully
compliant with USB 2 ports and uses standard Windows and MAC Core Audio Drivers. In
other words, plug it in and your computer will find it and be able to transfer audio to and
from the ZED USB device.

You will need some form of audio software running on your computer to be able to store
and play back what you record, but on a basic level, you can use your computers media player
to play straight to the ZED device.

Important Note:
If there seems to be no audio transfer between the computer and your ZED, or the level is
very low, please check the volume level setting of the Audio Device in your computers’ operating
system. This may need to be set to the Max position.

8outs question.
For example mpc's 8 outs will route like this on Zed.
MPC 1/8 -> Zed M1
MPC 2/8 -> Zed M2
MPC 3/8 -> Zed M3
MPC 4/8 -> Zed M4
MPC 5/6 -> Zed ST1
MPC 7/8 -> Zed ST2

..and when you USB Zed to computer sotftware daw, you can record everything in 2ch (L/R) stereo.

It really seems better in my opinion to get a sound card that can handle 8 ins and just dump to your workstation.

@Lamp

thank you man. i appreciate the time that you took to bring clarification
about the mixer. i'm going to make a move pretty soon on what i'm going
to get. i just invested in a keyboard recently, so this might fit my need for
now until i can go for a better interface.


are you working with the 8 out expansion on your mp?
i haven't upgraded mine yet, i may do so sometime in
the future though for tracking purposes.

i read that some people say that it's not worth it though?


i have also looked through many of many pages on this
forum in search for a compatible compact flash reader.
i spent a lot of time looking through the sticky that was
dedicated toward it, and at that time i somewhat hit a
brick wall because that company didn't manufacture
them anymore, which was to be expected, and they
cost quite a bit. that also to be expected.

are you currently using one in your machine?

& if i remember, scsi connection allows the capability
to hotswap right? and ide doesn't?

thanks again man. i apologize if i'm asking too much.
i'm really grateful once again. this definitely inspired
me to keep going.


@richie,
much love! thank you for chiming in over here.
I appreciate your feedback. i may do that at some point
with one of my systems over here. i think i might go with
the mixer, primarily because i'm working between a pc &
a mac at the moment, but i will be spending most of my
time on the mac, using logic. i'm going to have to try to
set up a desktop pretty soon and look into the steps of
partitioning a windows/osx dual boot..

i wonder, do you get better latency that way?

xvw wrote:@tapedeck
thank you for dropping by to help me out over here. much love!

no problem thanks for being cool.

xvw wrote:my first response was inquiring about a hardware mixer, because, this is still just the
beginning for me, on to which route to go about

just to clarify - a dj mixer is a hardware mixer too. the term mixer applies to both types but a dj mixer is a special type - usually less number of channels in, works mostly in stereo, and has a crossfader. a line mixer like yer talking about is usually more set up as mono channels, with more complex routing, auxs, etc. however, there are some pretty complex dj mixers and some pretty simple line mixers, so the line isn't so clear cut. one thing a dj mixer will almost always have that a line mixer wont is the phono input made specifically for a turntable. a turntable won't usually plug directly into a regular mixer.

xvw wrote:when using the dj mixer before the mpc as a sample source, do you cut the
samples by directly using the faders on the dj mixer while in record mode?

yes that is what i was referring to.

xvw wrote:I was also wondering, since your hardware mixer has the 8 outs
to track, does that coincide with you having the 8 output expansion
on your mp?

my line mixer has 8 INPUT channels, but honestly i usually just 4 off the mpc. yes i have the 8-out. personally, it changed my world when i got it...i think besides a card reader, that is probably the best upgrade you can do to your mpc.

xvw wrote:what do you guys think? is it important for you personally
to have a mixer in your workflow?

I used a simple Roland digital mixer for 15 years or so but ditched it when I bought a new Focusrite interface for my Mac. I couldn't gel with the onscreen mixer workflow of it though. I just found it clunky and unintuitive, even though you could launch a nuke with it. I switched to a Mackie Onyx 1220i and haven't missed using a regular interface at all. Mixing is all about tactile feel for me, so on the DAW side of things I've got a CC121 for Cubase and Softube Console 1 as a hands-on channel strip. I wouldn't go back to doing all that stuff with a mouse.

What the GC rep or your Prof at school failed to tell you is that the mixer is another instrument in the studio if used and abused.