Originally posted by robbie carrobie
right ok, yes i have adobe audition 1.5, its ok for single recordings but i do not think that it supports full ASIO, whereas the latest version does, so that its possible to record multiple tracks at once, also a EMU 1616M sound card which can sample up to 192 KH/Z a second like anyone can hear the difference, has High Z input for guitar (although i ...[text shortened]... hough if anyone knows anything about it, it would be helpful, its a Mynah 8-2-1, regards robbie.
I have two sets of recorders, one on the lap is the firewire 410, 2 decent mic preamps built in, so no mixer needed, and 4 inputs max, so if you need 4 mics, you are back to mixer time. The other is on the PC, an RME Hammerfall Multiface I/O box, it features 8 audio ins and outs and Midi in and out, but no preamps. If you have a box like that, you need to look for a mixer with direct outs, that is to say where each channel of say, an 8 channel mixer, has a direct out not routed to the stereo or four track bus. That way you have basically 8 independent preamps so you don't need to use a bunch of 8X2's (4 of those) or an 8X4X2 which is what my Mackie has, would need two of those to get all 8 inputs separate preamps. There is a Euro company, Soundcraft, that makes an 8 channel mixer with direct outs, maybe 400 bucks something like that.
And it is supposed to be more quiet than the Mackie. I though my Mack was pretty quiet but the engineer types seem to think its a bit on the noisy side. Sounded heads and shoulders quieter than my first mixer, an Alesis, which was a bitch to route, very unintuitive routing system AND it cost me 1100 bucks about 15 years ago before the mixer revolution. I also have that Rode NT1, I think it's a great mic, Aussies did a fine job with that one. You might take a look at the nearest rival, IMO, the Project Studio C3, very good also, about the same price, big sucker though! I did some studio work for a couple of guys doing a cartoon where they needed short sound bites, maybe 30 of them for voice overs and we used the C3, it was well-nigh perfect, used Sonar, put in some verb and lined them up and gave them a CD, they were happy as pigs in poop! I don't think the cartoon project went anywhere but they paid me so I did my part! One thing you might consider, is cop one of those huge overhead mike stands, the ones the big boys use? I got one at the local guitar center for about a bill and a half, it holds that big C3 or the Rode from halfway across the room and you put it up at standing vocal height or down low but the nice thing about that giant is it doesn't get in the way of the musician like those regular stands, you know where you have two mikes on a stick and its all tubes and cables and stuff in the musician's face. The big guy hangs out in midair away from all that. So back to your 8X2X1, you can only get two independent mikes out of that, sure you can mix the vocals down in other channels and such but you are stuck between a rock and a hard place if, after you have recorded stuff, you find, oh crap, the frigging drums are too loud. Oops, too late! its on the same bus as the vocal.
That's why you want an 8X4X2 with direct outs, then you get the best of both worlds, if you want to mix down three or four tracks, you can still use 4 directs so you can have six feeds that way, 4 tracks mixed to stereo, and 4 directs, and of course you know in advance the 4 you mix have to be right or you get to record it again! So having direct outs means you record once, if one is too loud, hit the software mixer, it's fixed. I don't have one of those Soundcrafts yet, got a couple of Euro's, they are ok for a cheap mixer and I can do 8 tracks if I have to, with three mixers. The best solution is to get one of those 8 track mic preamp boxes, they are automatically direct outs, they don't mix at all, you do that in Sonar or whatever. M-Audio makes one, Roland makes one, there are bunches of them on the market, they are a lot smaller than hauling around a mixer or two. Now with all the Fx in software, having stuff like reverb on the mixer like my little mackie, is passe' and, having had access to all the neat fx that comes with Sonar, I never even look at those reverb settings if I have to use the Mackie anyway. I have used Sonar for about 15 years now, starting with a freebie my daughter gave me when she was at Berklee, they got the first ones, and there were extra's so I got one and then went from the old Cakewalk series to the Sonar series and now the upgrades are under 200 bucks, I am up to Sonar 7, 8 has just come out but don't think its all that much better than 7 so usually stick with it and wait a couple of upgrades so I wait till Sonar 9 comes out before I jump. A lot of people like Protools and there is a Protools LE that comes bundled if you get some M-Audio products but it has that stupid dongle you have to stick in a usb port to use it. I do on the laptop, go between Protools LE and Sonar, there were features on each that I liked. Anyway I could ramble on for days, so I better shut up before it starts running into a second page!