I've completed the purchasing of the necessary parts for my little recording 'studio', and I'm excited about getting stuff done. But what's exciting is the amount of signal-routing I can actually do - so if this sounds a little technical, don't worry about it. It'll be easier to understand as you see how its applied.
I managed to pick up a new B-stock Mackie 1604VLZ4 mixing console for a pretty good price, and although I had wanted to get a digital console, the analog routing was much more important. This console can take up to 16 inputs, and with it's built-in 8 direct outs, or it's 4 output busses (where I can sum a number of channels to one separate output), or it's 6 auxiliary sends (well, in reality, 4 extra outputs), I can actually mic up an entire band of up to four members and make a pretty decent 8-track recording.
For example, if I have four members (two guitars, bass, and drums), all singing, I can mike every stringed instrument, and every vocalist, assign each one those to a Direct Out, taking up the first 7 tracks. And the drums can be mixed with up to 9 other microphones, and all those tracks get assigned to one of the output busses, and that takes up the last track in the 8-track studio.
But what's even cooler, is that I got a decent headphone amp, that can drive up to 4 headphones, and each headphone amp in the device can get a separate mix. So the way I would do this is by utilizing four of the auxiliary outputs, each one going to its own headphone amp, and then each listener can hear what s/he wants to hear at a comfortable level. So if I had guitarists who could plug straight into the mixer, the only live instrument making noise would be the drums. The vocals would be heard, but you could always do those later.
From there all 8 mixed signals go to my 8-channel Focusrite USB interface, which is connected to my MacBookAir and voila! Small 8-track recording studio!
So there it is in theory. When I complete wiring everything up and configuring how it will live in my practice room, I can start doing stuff. Or, it's ready to travel to do a live recording somewhere too. That's another cool aspect.
Of course, for those times when a simpler system will do, I could go straight into the interface and bypass the mixer altogether. I even have a smaller Focusrite interface which can take one mic and a instrument only for even simpler set-ups. And of course, there's always my little stereo Tascam flash recorder, and my ZoomQ3HD video recorder. I'm ready to make recordings in different ways depending on what's needed.
Here's a short list of everything:
Mackie 1604 VLZ4 mixer
Focusrite 18i20 8-channel USB interface
Focusrite Scarlett Solo USB interface
Samson S-Phone headphone amp
Apple MacBookAir (or the bigger iMac 27 if I need that)
A solid collection of pro microphones
I'll try not to lose sight of the forest for the trees and hopefully not produce crappy recordings - I had a friend once who had all the coolest photography gear but cranked out the worst photographs I had ever seen. I'll try not to be that guy ;)
New recording rig discussion
I managed to pick up a new B-stock Mackie 1604VLZ4 mixing console for a pretty good price, and although I had wanted to get a digital console, the analog routing was much more important. This console can take up to 16 inputs, and with it's built-in 8 direct outs, or it's 4 output busses (where I can sum a number of channels to one separate output), or it's 6 auxiliary sends (well, in reality, 4 extra outputs), I can actually mic up an entire band of up to four members and make a pretty decent 8-track recording.
For example, if I have four members (two guitars, bass, and drums), all singing, I can mike every stringed instrument, and every vocalist, assign each one those to a Direct Out, taking up the first 7 tracks. And the drums can be mixed with up to 9 other microphones, and all those tracks get assigned to one of the output busses, and that takes up the last track in the 8-track studio.
But what's even cooler, is that I got a decent headphone amp, that can drive up to 4 headphones, and each headphone amp in the device can get a separate mix. So the way I would do this is by utilizing four of the auxiliary outputs, each one going to its own headphone amp, and then each listener can hear what s/he wants to hear at a comfortable level. So if I had guitarists who could plug straight into the mixer, the only live instrument making noise would be the drums. The vocals would be heard, but you could always do those later.
From there all 8 mixed signals go to my 8-channel Focusrite USB interface, which is connected to my MacBookAir and voila! Small 8-track recording studio!
So there it is in theory. When I complete wiring everything up and configuring how it will live in my practice room, I can start doing stuff. Or, it's ready to travel to do a live recording somewhere too. That's another cool aspect.
Of course, for those times when a simpler system will do, I could go straight into the interface and bypass the mixer altogether. I even have a smaller Focusrite interface which can take one mic and a instrument only for even simpler set-ups. And of course, there's always my little stereo Tascam flash recorder, and my ZoomQ3HD video recorder. I'm ready to make recordings in different ways depending on what's needed.
Here's a short list of everything:
Mackie 1604 VLZ4 mixer
Focusrite 18i20 8-channel USB interface
Focusrite Scarlett Solo USB interface
Samson S-Phone headphone amp
Apple MacBookAir (or the bigger iMac 27 if I need that)
A solid collection of pro microphones
I'll try not to lose sight of the forest for the trees and hopefully not produce crappy recordings - I had a friend once who had all the coolest photography gear but cranked out the worst photographs I had ever seen. I'll try not to be that guy ;)
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