Recording Gear Help

[ELVIS]

With 16 mics dedicated just to drums, you'll have tons of hiss no matter what especially with household current.

Unless you're Genesis or Rush, it's unnecessary.
Unless you're recording for a CD release with a major label, it's unnecessary.

If you're in a garage with decent hight, I'd have two dynamic mics for cymbals: one close up on the ride, the other distanced above as high as possible at the biggest crash.

I'd have a 57 on the snare, and on the high hat, or only one between.

I'd have a D112 on the bass drum. And that's about it.

Five mics, or done in as little as 3. That should cut down the noise and focus your manual mic placement skills into play instead of relying on fade mix and EQ for tone.

I've heard some amazing orchestra recording done entirely with 2 or 3 mics, being totally serious here.

Less inputs, less noise. And unplug everything in the house while recording: coffee pot, alarm clock, micro, fridge.. it'll help with induced 60 cycle grounding buzz.

Thank you, Gar...

If your drummer thinks he requirers 16 mics, you require a new drummer...

[Panamark]

I see exactly what you mean....

I wonder if the mixdown is being done by the mixer itself
before inputting the signal into the PC, or by the DAW software ?
if its the latter, there may still be hope !

[Seshmeister]

I dunno I'll look into it again, I'm using Cubase LE4.

The guy says "It works great! I've recorded all 18 channels at once using cubase sx3 with no problems at all. " but this isn't my issue. I can record as many tracks as I want at once it's just that they're all mixed down and can't be manipulated individually(even for volume) post recording.

Posts like that were what caused the confusion in the first place when I bought it with people claiming the same thing about LE but I'll have a look into the SX thing just in case.

Cheers

[Panamark]

Read the user comments/reviews all report Cubase SX3 will allow all
channels at once....

Hope that helps !

[Panamark]

Sounds like you need Cubase Sx3 mate..

Buy Alesis MultiMix 16 USB 2.0 16-Channel Mixer | Unpowered Mixers | Musician's Friend

[Seshmeister]

Alesis Multimix 16 and Cubase(the worlds least friendly software).




I'm really pissed off about it. Before I bought it internet reviews seemed to say it would work ok but on further reading now it seems USB can't do that.

I've tried about 4 different software packages and can't get it to record the tracks separately.

Say I record 2 drum tracks(L+R) from the electronic kit, bass and lead guitar they all save fine onto 4 tracks but when you then try and do something with it you find that all 4 tracks are the same left and right mix of everything and you can't then break it down.

You can then add further instruments 1 track at a time no problem and do whatever you want with it but things recorded at the same time as each other live end up all on the 1 stereo track.

As you say I think the next generation of USB will solve it but I'm 99% sure now that USB 2 can't do it. Part of the reason I made this mistake is that I think very few people do what we are attempting these days, home recording multiple instruments live and USB is fine for the usual thing of adding one instrument at a time to a multitrack recording.

Cheers

[Panamark]

Sesh, what Input device and recording software ?
I've seen a 6 input USB 2.0 device that worked.

I have firewire, it is faster, but PC manufacturers
are starting to drop it... So Im thinking Audio
manufacturers will be going all USB...
The next gen USB 3,0 maybe a lot better with
simultaneous multi tracks...

[Panamark]

Hmmmm...

[Seshmeister]

we want something with preamps that is very quiet. We have 16 mics for the drums, 2 for guitar, direct in currently for bass ... how would we record that all into the PC? I like the dedicated hardware because I can chain them together and run a firewire or usb cable to my macbook pro.

16 mics for the drums is complete madness.

GAR is correct you only need 5 or so.

Firewire is the way to go, I wish I had. USB doesn't seem to allow you to record the tracks separately simultaneously so say you recorded the drums on 5 tracks you can't go back and adjust the individual levels/EQ etc they will all effectively be on 1 stereo track.

[Diamondjimi]

Some good points Gargoyle. I run 2 Presonus Firestudios linked via Firewire to PC running Nuendo V,2.0
Very happy with the Presonus. A really good preamp/interface...

[GAR]

we want something with preamps that is very quiet. We have 16 mics for the drums

With 16 mics dedicated just to drums, you'll have tons of hiss no matter what especially with household current.

Unless you're Genesis or Rush, it's unnecessary.
Unless you're recording for a CD release with a major label, it's unnecessary.

If you're in a garage with decent hight, I'd have two dynamic mics for cymbals: one close up on the ride, the other distanced above as high as possible at the biggest crash.

I'd have a 57 on the snare, and on the high hat, or only one between.

I'd have a D112 on the bass drum. And that's about it.

Five mics, or done in as little as 3. That should cut down the noise and focus your manual mic placement skills into play instead of relying on fade mix and EQ for tone.

I've heard some amazing orchestra recording done entirely with 2 or 3 mics, being totally serious here.

Less inputs, less noise. And unplug everything in the house while recording: coffee pot, alarm clock, micro, fridge.. it'll help with induced 60 cycle grounding buzz.

[Panamark]

Man I need my eyes checked !
Doc already mentioned Reaper !
Sounds like you are on the right path Mr Love !

[jhale667]

I don't have pro-tools. At least, not yet. I am using garageband on my mac and reaper on my PC. The presonus and the m-audio look virtually the same to me.

But you can probably get some deal that comes with Pro Tools LE at least with the M-Audio piece, I'd bet...

[Panamark]

Those interfaces are all buffered... No additional pre-amps required.
MAC and PC supported. Good thing about the PC approach is that
its always evolving. A physical multi-track recorder will always be
what it was when you bought it. Not to mention you will just end up
uploading its contents to a PC eventually anyway..
(I would think)

[Panamark]

Hey I just noticed you have the 26 M audio in your first post ?
Why not use that and Pro tools,

or for a good freebie DAW, try Reaper...