mixers, desks, consoles, control surfaces??

[womoma]

Hi guys.



Ive decided to stop spending all my money on booze and invest in my setup over the next few months.

My current setup is basically my mac, firewire audiophile, monitors and midi controller.
Ive been messin with tunes about 18 months.
I dont know much about studio hardware so I have a few questions.



Any help would be greatly appreciated.



Firstly- Desks, mixers, controllers etc. Im a bit confuzed by it all.

I often see analog/digital mixers for sale, aswell as hardware controllers which look like mixing desks.

Can anyone explain the diffrence/pros/cons between these to me and perhaps reccommend what would be most suitable for my needs.

Im primarily interested in electronic music, with a vew to recording vocals at some stage.

Right now, Im thinking a decent control surface would be anough for most projects, something like a BCF200 or Project Mix.



Secondly, regarding rack stuff and hardware in general, is there anything that is infinatly better as a hardware version as opposed to a software version. I intend on buying a decent synth at some stage but what about rack stuff? I guess if I was considering rack stuff, I would need a desk as opposed to a control surface, or at least a soundcard interface with more I/O options than the audiophile.



Finally, I primarily use Ableton Live as my main DAW but am considering Cubase SL, Pro Tools M-Powered or Logic Express for mixing duties. If anyone happens to know any worthwhile benefits I would get from the aforementioned software, for mixing/mastering, Id be interested to hear them.

I believe Adam Jay mixes and masters in Live, but I often wonder if there might be more suitable software for this [mid range level/price- not Logic Pro or Cubase SX]



Cheers for any tips.

[Andrew Kinsey]

Controllers are in many respects a way of controlling levels and other variables on your DAW without using your mouse however they do not improve the quality of your signal and dont pass any audio or have the capability of interfacing with analog equipment such as synths or outboard. I personally am not a fan of controllers.

Digital mixers do pass audio and have onboard eq and effects aswell as inputs for your analog equipment, some even have firewire for streaming the audio from your computer. Also many digital mixers also double up as multitrack recorders with built in hard drives and CDRW's making them quite flexible and suitable for location recordings also. The draw backs to digital mixers is that the quality of the converters is not usually very good and digital recording in general means that you have much less headroom compared to what is available in the analog domain however they do have the usefull bonus of total recall.

Analog mixers are the way to go for mixing and recording music because you have much more headroom to work, full hands on control of EQ, Sends, Pan, Fader etc.. without going through sub-menu's. Also analog equipment can be pushed harder and especially for dance music the distortion from an analogue desk can be very usefull on drums, bass and other sounds that need to be thick.
Ive seen it so many times, a client mixing ITB upgrading their studio with an analogue desk and multi-output interface then noticing an imediate improvement to how their songs sound, its the way everythings sounds more real and upfront.

Another option that you didnt mention is summing mixers, this units provide another way of getting the benefits that analog equipment offers but does not have built in EQ, Preamps and faders which helps keep the costs down.

There are many different options available, i guess you budget has alot to do with what product you'll want to get, some options available to you: Mackie 8 Bus, Trident Audio 8T, Soundcraft Ghost, Neve 8816, Roll Music RMS216 Folcrom, Audient Sumo.

If i were to recommend a decent solution for someone on a low budget, it would be the Hercules FW16/12 interface and a Trident 8T 16 Channel, for you this will give you multiple outs to the mixer and a mixer with decent mic pre's and EQ.

If you would like more info please dont hesitate to get in touch.

[womoma]

Wow! Thanks for such an informative reply. Ill keep saving and researching, might even end up spending some money with SoundTools. Thanks again.

[Snatchman]

So...You thought you were drinking heavily before....Wait 'till you start reading these hardware, mic pres, converter, compressor threads..!... .. Just kidding... ... Good luck with your gear search..

[Fisherman]

Originally Posted by Andrew Kinsey

Controllers are in many respects a way of controlling levels and other variables on your DAW without using your mouse however they do not improve the quality of your signal and dont pass any audio or have the capability of interfacing with analog equipment such as synths or outboard. I personally am not a fan of controllers.

Digital mixers do pass audio and have onboard eq and effects aswell as inputs for your analog equipment, some even have firewire for streaming the audio from your computer. Also many digital mixers also double up as multitrack recorders with built in hard drives and CDRW's making them quite flexible and suitable for location recordings also. The draw backs to digital mixers is that the quality of the converters is not usually very good and digital recording in general means that you have much less headroom compared to what is available in the analog domain however they do have the usefull bonus of total recall.

Analog mixers are the way to go for mixing and recording music because you have much more headroom to work, full hands on control of EQ, Sends, Pan, Fader etc.. without going through sub-menu's. Also analog equipment can be pushed harder and especially for dance music the distortion from an analogue desk can be very usefull on drums, bass and other sounds that need to be thick.
Ive seen it so many times, a client mixing ITB upgrading their studio with an analogue desk and multi-output interface then noticing an imediate improvement to how their songs sound, its the way everythings sounds more real and upfront.

Another option that you didnt mention is summing mixers, this units provide another way of getting the benefits that analog equipment offers but does not have built in EQ, Preamps and faders which helps keep the costs down.

There are many different options available, i guess you budget has alot to do with what product you'll want to get, some options available to you: Mackie 8 Bus, Trident Audio 8T, Soundcraft Ghost, Neve 8816, Roll Music RMS216 Folcrom, Audient Sumo.

If i were to recommend a decent solution for someone on a low budget, it would be the Hercules FW16/12 interface and a Trident 8T 16 Channel, for you this will give you multiple outs to the mixer and a mixer with decent mic pre's and EQ.

If you would like more info please dont hesitate to get in touch.

I just bought Prism Sound Orpheus through Sound Tools in UK 3 weeks ago and still waiting for the rest 250£ and receipt.

How pro is that?

Avoid dealing with this guy Andrew Kinsey.