Digital mixer

[Guest squril magnet slapper]

It has come to my attention that to get a quality sound out of a computer it may be wise to send the out put of my computer through a mixer and then record digitaly.

 

this way the computer generated sound gets amped and shaped through the mixer.

 

I have an analog mixer so, I would loose some quality going from...

 

computer

to

mixer

to

Digital recording

 

My question is how much quality will be lost in this set up and if a digital mixer is worth the clairity

 

what is a good (inexpnsive) digital mixer?

prefrebly one with some fx

 

I will have to save up for a while to get anything so please don't recomend a huge mixer which I will salivate over and not be able to aquire.

 

thanx

[Guest X-tul]

If a digital desk is worth it, really depends on your soundcard, mixer, and recorder quality, let us know what you have.

 

You loose quality each time you convert your sound from analog to digital and from digital to analog. How much, depends on the quality of the converters of the soundcard, digital mixer, and recorder.

 

If your analog mixer is of good quality, it will not necessarily degrade your audio signal. It may add some "warmth" to your sound, and the EQs can sound better than on many expensive digital desks.

 

If you use a digital desk, you can connect your computer using a digital connection (SPDIF, AES/EBU, Adat, TDIF). You will loose no audio quality as long as you use the same sampling frequency and bit-depth/resolution (44.1kHz, 16bit, for example).

 

For EQing and adding FX on the digital desk, the internal resolution should be as high as possible (32bit for example), as for computer plugins. Cheap digital mixing desks don't have high internal resolutions, and EQs may sound less good than on your analog desk.

 

I guess that you have multiple analog outputs from your computer which you mix on the analog mixing desk, or you have some other gear connected to the analog desk (otherwise you would directly connect your computer's digital output to the digital recorder's digital input). For multiple digital In/Outs, you will have to choose a digital mixer and soundcard with an Adat, Tdif, or AES/EBU connection, which can handle up to 8 tracks simultaneously.

 

Maybe the Yamaha 01v is the right choice: 16 analog inputs for external gear, one digital multichannel option (Adat, Tdif, 8 ins/outs), and SPDIF In/Out connection. The converters are OK. EQs are +-OK, and you have two integrated effects units which are very good. Dynamics on 16 channels (compressor, Gate, etc). However, converters are 16 bit only, and up to 48kHz. But it can handle audio up to 24bits using the digital connections.

The 01v costs around 1666 euros new. An Adat option costs 290 euros.

 

Another advantage of digital desks is: total recall!!! You can save your mixing scenes. Faders are also motorized, so you can record fader-movements, via MIDI or internally. If the faders send MIDI, you can also use them as MIDI controllers. The 01v for example lets you program the MIDIcontrollers that the faders and the buttons send out, in 4 different banks (4 times 16 faders and 16 buttons!!). You can then save money by buying synth rack versions(Waldorf MicroQ, Virus XL), as you have all the knobs on your mixer!

 

In the analog domain, audio cables can improve audio quality: use a balanced system (XLR, or symmetric jacks) and good quality cables (Klotz, Mogami, etc).

For SPDIF connections use 75 Ohms cable, for AES/EBU 110 Ohms.

 

Hope that helps

[Guest Spindrift]

What i understand you wan't to get a mixer to shape the sound of your productions??

If you are looking to get any digtal mixer for less than the mackie D8B, the EQ's and compressors will be of lesser quality than good vst one's.

Especially the yamaha's is awful in that respect.

Some sequencers mixing algorithms is very bad, and I tried when using a yama O3D with adat-card and a computer with cubase what the difference in sound was sending out eigth separate tracks to the O3D, compared to when mixing them in cubase. I was amazed.

With logic i could not hear any difference, so I belive the mixing routines in it to be fine.

Why don't you record on your computer?

If you want the mixer as an fx, it doesn't seem to make sense to buy all those channels, just get a stereo FX unit.

If it's analouge warmth you are trying to achive then i can reccomend to get something like the focusRite tone-factory, with analoge compression, dist, gate and eq, and just route your audio thru that when recording.