The quality of mono tracking out ?

Hi again friends. I intend to use the 8 outs of my MPC5000 for tracking out. I have a mixer with 4 mono ins and i'm buying a second mixer with another 4 ins. Does the tracking out through these mono ins affect to the sound quality. I read some guys suggest using the stereo lines of the mixer but is this possible at all. There is no a mixer with so many stereo lines. Bearing in mind that all the sounds in our MPC's are stereo (MPC's don't read mono files) does that mean that the mono tracking will convert them to mono files in my DAW ? If they do then the sound will be different indeed ... Any advice will be appreciated.

GENOVEZE wrote: (MPC's don't read mono files).

You are seriously mistaken. A stereo signal is 2 mono signals. Your main outs are mono left and mono right summed up to be a stereo pair coming out. Also, two 4 channel mixers is not the solution. One mixer with more than 8 inputs is what you are looking for.

Thanks for the help. It's strange that i can't use two mixer because I think I should be able to connect the ins of the one to the outs of the other and this way it's like two mixers in one. Of course I'm not sure if this will work, I guess you're right. So as far as i understand from your answer the tracking out through the outs of the MPC does not affect to the final sound right ?

You CAN use two mixers if you needed to but it's not something i would personally do. As far as tracking out, I rather just do multiple passes using the man outs

Thanks for this advise but it's still not very clear why should I avoid tracking out through the mono outputs .. This will be the easiest and way for me to export 8 tracks at once. Would you please specify what do you mean by using "multiple passes using the man outs". Do you mean panning each track and exporting only two tracks at once. Thanks

well, I use a 1K. I notice that when I track out of the assignable outs there is just less life to the audio. I personally haven't really found a reason but there have been theories floating across the forum (sorry I cant remember exactly). I dont know exactly how this will be on a 5000 however. In my case when I need to track out I just use the main outs and track out 2 tracks at a time. It works better for me anyway because I run out of the MPC into a nice pre before it goes to pro tools and Im not willing to spend $$ on more pres just to track out hope that helps.

hm, I would suggest to sell your mixer and buy one with enough inputs (8 input mixer is not really a big mixer you know)

bear in mind that, when you use the outputs other then the stereo's, you loose the Master Effects on these outputs (I mean that's probably the reason why most people just track everything from the stereo out's in multiple passes)

BUT I think you are going the wrong route...if you want to track 8 MONO channels in your DAW at once, you need a soundcard that can handle this ! just mixing 8 tracks together in a mixer does not mean you can record them (or do you have a digital USB mixer with 4 or 8 channel soundcard ?)
you might look up what ADAT is...ADAT soundcards are not that expensive anymore and then you don't even need a mixer to get 8 tracks of MPC5000 in your DAW in one go... (through only one cable

Thanks for the intelligent answers guys ! Well if the tracked out files are really lifeless then i'm not going to use this method. Also if i loose the effects of the tracks ... this would be unacceptable too. I'm really pedantic when it comes to sound quality because i'm living of making beats.

poundaproblem, i intended to buy some mixer with 8 in's but seiko says if I don't have a sound card with 8 in's I'll not be able to track out ... Damn it's getting complicated ... For audio interface I use M-Audio 192 and it does not have 8 In's ... My mixer is Tapco 120 . It has 4 MONO In's. Maybe I'll have to look for some ADAT .The other option might be like you suggested.Would you please name some good ADAT model ? The other option might be a Digi 002 or 003 ... I'm confused ...

MPC5000 out into the Digi002 is a logical option. As far as effects you would want them off when you are tracking out. Keeping them on while tracking defeats the purpose of tracking out if you think about it. The options are endless and it does get confusing. Thats why for the most part I say F it and just 2 track.

Yeah two tracks at a time but ... I usually have 10-15 tracks for tracking out and it would take a century to track out all the tracks if they are looped at 40-50 bars ... At the moment I'm tracking only one bar at a time but don't use more than 4 bars per sequencer and usually make no more than 3 sequencers ...just because the limits of the tracking out. I need to make a lot bigger and complicated sequencers direct in the MPC because the flow is much more creative than looping the bars in my DAW and and working from there ... Are you guys sure that right now I can't use the 4 In's of my mixer to track out 4 tracks at a time with my M-Audio 192 sound card ?

The 192 has 4 inputs (sorry I dont remember)? If so, and the mixer has 4 outs as well then yea you could make that work. But I dont know of many compact mixers that are 4 bus. So what outputs of the mixer would you be using? You may be better off going directly to the 192 from the 5000 and bypassing the mixer.

Yeah M-Audio has 4 ins and 4 outs. The sound card is connected to the Main Outs of the mixer and my MPC is connected to the stereo line IN and line OUT of the mixer ... So do you think it's OK for tracking out. And one last qustion - when you say ADAT do you mean the multirecorder machine or a sound card with ADAT ?

I don't think that in your setup (depends on the mixer) you can record more then 1 stereo out at the moment (this really depends on the amount of busses or alternatives on your mixer to get incoming channels out...most likely you can only record the stereo out in your DAW)

again I would advise you to take the ADAT route, then you can monitor your stereo out's via your mixer, and record 8 channels in one go in your DAW if you have an ADAT soundcard.
(I happen to have one of these soundcards for sale from RME, 75 euro, I mean if you go that way it does not have to be expensive. If interested and in europe, PM me)

Seiko,thanks man. OK I'm willing to buy an RME sound card with ADAT at this price but is it possible to use both cards simultaneously ? Because I will need my M-Audio in order to use my synths and MPC,as far as I know an RME for $75 would not have more than 1-2 in's and out's and no any MIDI's. Can you give me any link to see what's the model ? Thanks.