Audio Set up help

[oggie316]

Hey Guys,

I am hoping someone can explain this to me in leymans terms to a music noob.

I currently have the following. Technic 1210's, Native Instruments Machine, Roland MC808, Roland SH-201, Korg Kaossilater and a MicroKorg XL. I am looking to have these all hooked up so I can record various sounds/beats into something like Abelton. All this hardwire requires seperate sound source so I am needing advise on what will i need to hook all this up. Will I need both a mixer and speakers for all the sound output as well as an audio interface to route all these through the computer for recording??.

I have Abelton at the moment but is there anything else anyone can recommend. With Abelton if you have a few midi channels plugged in can you record into seperate channels if say you were playing a synth and a drum machine??.

If anyone help me out here id be forever grateful :-)



Kind Regards

Craig

[ecc83]

Morning Oggie and welcome.

WHAT a lot of kit! You have some serious manual swotting to do! I have however Googled my fingertips off and some sort of picture has emerged.. Let us leave the 1210decks for the moment?
Everthing else but the Korg Koss' has usb but AFAIKS only the SH-201 is likely to transfer audio that way and in any case only Samplitude AFAIK allows you to mix input devices.

So you have there in practice 5stereo sound sources to get into your PC(mac?) and 10 input AIs are thin on the ground and very expensive. But you could run mono and there are quite a few 8 input devices, the Tascam 1800 comes to mind. But, how many sources would you realistically run at any one time? If as few as two you are golden since there are shedloads of 2input AIs to chose from. More ambitious would be 4 inputs and that brings us to my favourite AI the NI Ka6. It also has MIDI and you COULD daisy chain all of your gear but I think problems occur past about 3 instances? Still, some kit can be "MIDI'ed" via usb or you could talk to those nice Kenton people about a MIDI "merge" box*?

To sort all that audio you need a mixer but for so many inputs, pricey. An off the wall solution? Buy two small cheapies! Cpc.com were punting the little Soundcraft Notebooks at 40 and 50 quid last time I looked and they have a good rep but kit from Behringer, Yamaha, Mackie is all good.

*I THINK that is what is needed, I am NO MIDI expert! The great thing about MIDI (and the audio come to that) is that you can plug about with impunity. Try things. It might sit and do Jack or go ape***t and scream (ALWAYS fire up with levels down!!!) but it won't smoke.

And so we come to the turntables. I presume you have preamps for/in them and thus the signals are at some sort of "line level" and corrected? If so they just become two more signals you have to find a home for and decide when and how they fit into your particular way of working. Actually you might be able to run them thru' the SH-201? I also assume the decks have PFL/CUE facilities on them?

Jusfort: You are going to need a LOT of cables! Talk to Rob, Kabl.

Dave.

[oggie316]

Honestly thanks for that.

I bid the other day for a Laney PA system which had a CD630M amp that had 10 inputs which i was hoping would sort out all the audio in one ( i really have no idea if that would suffice)

Ideally what I am looking to be able to do is have MC808, Maschine, synths all hooked up into my computer, only one or 2 would be played at a time but would be lookin to not have to swap wires when i am selecting diff sounds. The decks are mainly just for recording in samples and scratching some loops into comp.

Yeah wires are the bain of my life !!

Is Abelton the best (well easiest) for writing beats and recording into or can anyone recommend anything better. I am old school and used to write on an Amiga 500 or Modplug Traker which laying down pages and patterns was easy. I am sure Abelton is easy once you get into it but am not very patient!

Thanks again !!

[ecc83]

Hi again Oggie,

Hardware suggestion: If you bought two Soundcraft 122 Notepad (sorry i got that wrong before) mixers that would give you 2 mono and 2 stereo inputs (+ TAPE/CD in on one mixer) giving you 6+6+2 inputs. If these fed a 2input AI you could of course have any mix of those sources but be limited to just a mix. Better would be the 4 input Ka6 when you would have 4 tracks recordable (two from each mixer). After that you might as well forget mixers and look at multi input AIs but the costs start to climb!

If you were of a "DIY soldering" bent you could bashup some switching/breakout/patching boxes, but I suspect you are not!

Software? I have only had the fleetingest fling with Ableton, did not like it. Traktion is similar and did you not get/can get that from NI ?
For serious MIDI work I think Cubase is hard to beat?

Dave.

[tehLORD]

Just buy something like a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40

It'll give you 8 inputs as standard, which you can expand with something like the ADA8000 if you want to go up to 16.

It also gives you a built in MIDI interface as well. You will have 16 separate MIDI channels to work with to operate all your hardware independently of each other.

You could hook up a pair of basic monitor speakers to that and you'd be ready to go.

If you're just recording into the computer there's really no need for mixing desks as all the mixing is done internally. You're just adding cost and noise.

[ecc83]

Just buy something like a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40

It'll give you 8 inputs as standard, which you can expand with something like the ADA8000 if you want to go up to 16.

It also gives you a built in MIDI interface as well. You will have 16 separate MIDI channels to work with to operate all your hardware independently of each other.

You could hook up a pair of basic monitor speakers to that and you'd be ready to go.

If you're just recording into the computer there's really no need for mixing desks as all the mixing is done internally. You're just adding cost and noise.

Whilst I agree that the above is a solution it is also a £400 "multitrack" interface the OP does not need (can't play all that kit at once!). As I see it all he really needs is a Fbig selector switch!

Yes the AI has MIDI but I am not sure how many devices he could chain up reliably.

And! I run a mixer based system and I get a noise floor quieter than I can get the room! Electrically about neg 85. (most mixers have better mic amps than most interfaces)

Dave.

[tehLORD]

Whilst I agree that the above is a solution it is also a £400 "multitrack" interface the OP does not need (can't play all that kit at once!).

He can sequence and track it all at once though.

I've seen them go for about £250 on ebay, and it's a steal at that price.

[ecc83]

He can sequence and track it all at once though.

I've seen them go for about £250 on ebay, and it's a steal at that price.

Yes well cats can be cased in many way but we do not as yet know the OP's computer?

If it has Firewire (unlikely) it will probably not be a TI chipset so PCI/PCIe card to buy. If he has a laptop he is almost certainly buggered since very few had FW, even fewer TI chips and these days card slots are like hen's teeth.

If perchance it is a mac...Fire away!

Dave.

[tehLORD]

I bought a PCI FW card from Ebuyer for £5.69 that works flawlessly for audio. FW really isn't the demon it's made out to be on desktop machines.

If it's USB for an option on a laptop then a MOTU 828mk3 would be the way to go as it's FW and USB, still has the MIDI interface and can also take more inputs via ADAT like the Saffire.

It's just personal preference. I like a box that'll sit there doing all the input and midi work while I don't spend money on faders I don't need.

Mixers look cooler though.

[oggie316]

Cheers lads appreciate the help.

I have an laptop which is an alienware mx18.