Mix Master

so i was talkin to sum bum that new his shit on production and recording(dood was actually tellin me he had a storage unit full of equipment he's been selling and living off) i asked him if he had a 16ish channel mixer and he was like **** mixers they just cause noise if ur using them for production(talkin about computer production, not analog).

He told me just use a good pre-amp(sumthin with tubes) and tube compressors after the signal has been mixed in the daw. (analog-->digital-->back to analog)

i kinda agree with the fact that mixers can cause more noise if your usin a daw, you might as well mix in the daw, maybe get a 16 mixer controller if u dont wanna click.

What you guys think?

Hes tottally right, basically he's just telling you don't put unnessecary steps in your signal chain. With a computer you don't really need to mix down in your mixer and then mix down down in your computer. I would just tell peeps to either go all analog and go from MPC to mixer then track the mixers main outs, or all digital with the MPC running into a multiple ins interface on the computer - mix in the computer - use a midi controller to emulate the faders and knobs from a real mixer.

I actually had to mess with a lot of this bs yesterday making the simu1200 sample set, finding the cleanest and most sensible signal path to reduce noise and machine noises. Thank god for noise gates...

Streamlining/organzing your shit has a lot more benefits to it than just simply making thing less cluttered.

That's dope though dude, if some guy started dropping knowledge on me like that randomly my jaw would hit the floor. Sounds like he's knows wtf hes talking about. Make that dude your enigeer

yea how do u hook up ur monitors to ur computer?

is ther soundcards with quarter inch outs, couldn't find any.

TreCipher617 wrote:is ther soundcards with quarter inch outs, couldn't find any.

Dont know, but you could just grab an adapter couldn't you?

yea i saw a couple cards with rca outs, rca to quarter inch cables would work im guessing

Yeah, or you could grab a 1/8th to 1/4th cable/adapter.
P
Details, minor details. Boom boom

quarter inch outputs are probably the most common ins / outs found on audio cards today. where are you looking?

edirol fa 101 has 8
many motu interfaces have them
apogee interfaces
rme interfaces
m-audio

the list goes on and on.

maybe search for interface instead of card - but i guarantee if you go to ANY equipment retailer website and click on audio interfaces, the majority of ones on the first page will have 1/4" ins / outs.

if you are trying to use an interface that only has 1/8" or rca - then a noisy mixer is going to make almost zero difference.

sure, a mixer does add an extra in your signal chain, and with it the possibility of more noise. but it can add a hell of a lot of functionality. if you have outboard gear and effects, the routing options that come with busses and return channels is very useful.

but if you don't need one, no need to get one.

tapedeck wrote::hmmm:
quarter inch outputs are probably the most common ins / outs found on audio cards today. where are you looking?

edirol fa 101 has 8
many motu interfaces have them
apogee interfaces
rme interfaces
m-audio

the list goes on and on.

maybe search for interface instead of card - but i guarantee if you go to ANY equipment retailer website and click on audio interfaces, the majority of ones on the first page will have 1/4" ins / outs.


if you are trying to use an interface that only has 1/8" or rca - then a noisy mixer is going to make almost zero difference.

i said audio card, not interfacce

that guy could be right, if you were using a shit noisy mixer, in your home studio; but you have to be kidding yourself if you think that all the major records arent cut using protools in conjunction with an expensive (think ssl) mixer and an array of outboard processors.

if you know what your doing and have a nice room/nice gain staging, then the noise you get going to and from the mixer will be negligible.

TreCipher617 wrote:

tapedeck wrote::hmmm:
quarter inch outputs are probably the most common ins / outs found on audio cards today. where are you looking?

edirol fa 101 has 8
many motu interfaces have them
apogee interfaces
rme interfaces
m-audio

the list goes on and on.

maybe search for interface instead of card - but i guarantee if you go to ANY equipment retailer website and click on audio interfaces, the majority of ones on the first page will have 1/4" ins / outs.


if you are trying to use an interface that only has 1/8" or rca - then a noisy mixer is going to make almost zero difference.

i said audio card, not interfacce

Lmfao!!!!


Audio card=audio interface.

Interface is a term used to describe a device that allows multiple devices to be connected together. Like the interface (aka audio card) that allows your audio gear and your computer to communicate...get it?

A pci card that accepts audio in is still called an interface

i was talking about audio cards not interface, wtf u talkin bout foo?

He said correctly they are the same thing. When they started making more Firewire and USB external units the term audio interface ended up getting used a bit more because it became rarer for an actually PCI card to be installed in the computer. But it's still reasonable to use the terms interchangeable generally.