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Building A DAW (Digital
Audio Workstation)
Now how do you get your sound
from your mixer into the computer?...
Well if you want it to sound good then you need a good sound
card.
And if you use Cubase then you should get one that has ASIO drivers. ASIO
drivers are specific to Cubase, they enable Cubase to communicate
directly to the sound card rather that going through Windows which would cause a
big latency (delay of sound going in an then back out - ie: echo)
plus a lot of cards are only 16bit and you would want one that is at least
24bit. The wider the data buss the better the sound.
Cubase SX can also record in 32bit float which makes it virtually impossible to get a
distorted signal. And also it has an Input effect called Magneto.
Which simulates the compression an analog tape machine naturally gives which
sounds great for vocals and other driving parts. Basically these card or devices a
called multi-track recording interfaces and are available from various venders.
Audio
Cards
Delta
Series Digital audio interface cards by Maudio a division of MidiMan www.midiman.com
Delta 44 - 4 mono 1/4" inputs 4 mono 1/4" outputs . No
midi or SPDIF
Delta 66 - The same as the Delta 44 but with Spdif in and out
connectors.
Delta
1010 - 8 TRS inputs 8 TRS outputs, Standard midi in and out connectors, Word
clock in and out S/PDIF Connectors.
Analog
4 Bus Mixers - 4 channel sub outputs for 4 mono sends and 2 channel for left and
right sends
Behringer Eurorack MX3242X Mixer (32 Inputs, 16 Channels with Effects)
Analog
8 Bus Mixers - 8 channel sub outputs for 8 mono sends and 2 channel for left and
right sends
Behringer Eurodesk
MX9000 24 Channel 8 Bus Recording Console
But wouldn't it be great
if I
could control Cubase from the mixer so I could mix down just like the pros
instead of use mouse clicks?
This was my next upgrade a digital mixer with a controlling interface for
Cubase. Well I couldn't afford a Yamaha O1V my first choice, so I opted for
an interim digital mixer. I purchased a Roland Studio pack and with it came an
R-Bus PCI card with 8 inputs and 8 outputs and midi.
So now I had a complete digital setup from the mixer right into the software and
back.
Digital
Audio Recording Consoles and Controllers
Behringer DDX3216 32 Chan 16 Bus Digital Mixer
$1299.95 At AMS
Complete with motorized faders. Need to purchase interface for computer as
well as
Audio PCI Card
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Behringer TDF1616 16 Ch TDIF
Interface
for DDX3216 $149.99 At AMS
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M Audio Delta TDIF 24 Bit 48kHz PCI
8 Channel I/O Interface $259.98 At AMS
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Monitors And Headphones
To be able to hear what I
recorded so to mix down properly I bought a pair of Alesis M1 Active Mk2 Studio
Monitors. And with the digital mixer, which has speaker modeling, I can listen and mix so that the sound will playback relatively
equally on different speakers.
Good headphones are also a must have, Radio Shack puts out some pretty decent
studio type enclosed headphones which are actually made by KOSS. But you might
want to look at the Audio Technica ATHM40FS Phones.
Studio Reference Monitors
Alesis Monitor 1 MK2 Active Studio Monitors
$399.99 At AMS
Studio Head Phones
Audio-Technica ATHM40FS Precision Monitor
Headphones $99.95 At AMS
Next Microphones Part 3: |
