relationship between mixing desk busses and soundcard ins

[karambos]

Hi,

I don't understand the relationship between the busses on a mixing desk and the sound card. It seems to me that if you are using 8 microphones to record simultaneuosly and you wanted each of those microphone signals to be recorded on seperate tracks in the sequencer then obviously, you would need a soundcard with 8 ins.

The way I picture it is that in order to be able to control the levels, you would plug the microphones direct into the mixing desk and then connect the busses to the ins on the sound card.

However, if my mixing desk only has 4 busses, am I right in thinking that I can only record a maximum of 4 signals seperately and simultaneously? In other words, to be able to record 8 individual signals and have them record on 8 individual tracks in the sequencer, you have to have
a) a mixing desk with 8 busses
b) a sound card with 8 ins.

Am I also right in thinking that normally, you wouldn't plug the 8 microphones directly into the sound card? Because if you did, you have no way of controlling the input (apart from within the sequencer)?

And what happens when you want to record using more than 8 microphones at once?

I run LOGIC and have a 16 track mixing desk which has 4 busses. I want to be able to record a full drum kit so I'm looking into buying a soundcard like the Aardvark Q10 or Creamware Luna II or M-Audio 10-10 but I just don't know what I actually need until I find out how this whole thing works.

I'm grateful for any help

Karambos

 

[purplepeople]

Look at the block diagram for your console. On each input channel, there should be several post-fader points you can use like insert or efx send. If you want the all mic levels to be controlled simultaneously by the master fader, then buss out is the only option. In addition to your buss outs, there may be a stereo L/R output that can also be used as long as they can be made to not sum a number of inputs.

You could also get 8 preamps and plug them into the soundcard. If they don't have variable gain, you'll have to ensure the pre-amp output level is not greater than the input sensitivity of the card.

Or use the 4 buss console and add 4 preamps direct into the card.

Or you could play the sequence twice and record only 4 mics each time.

ensen

 

[usekgb]

Does your desk have direct outs on the individual channels? If so, take the output from the direct out directly in to your sound card. This will bypass all of the electronics in that channel except the mic pre-amp.

If you are looking in to getting an eight channel sound card, the Aardvark Q10 is an excellent choice. It has eight great sounding mic pre-amps built right in. This means you don't have to go through your desk to record anything. You just plug right in to the soundcard, set your levels, and rock on!

I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Zach

 

[karambos]

Thanks to you both for the replies.

Actually, purplepeople, you're right, it does. There's a direct out, a line in and an effects send. I will read the manual to find out where these exit the input channel because at the moment, I'm not sure.

The desk is the Behringer MX2642A

One other thing, I have six "auxilliaries". These are six 1/4 inch ports at the back of the desk with 6 buttons on the desk itself. Now I have looked at the manual for the purpose of these and it's not terribly clear. They have something to do with the Pre Fader Levels but I'm not sure what. I hope I'm not asking to basic a question if I ask could anyone clarify what they are used for.

Thanks

 

[haldor]

Hi karambos,

The aux sends are just additional mono mixing busses. These are normally used for two different purposes:

- Foldback monitor mixes so the performers can hear themselves during a performance (that's what is being fed to those floor wedge speakers at the performers feet). For this use you don't want adjustments made to the house sound to effect the performers monitor mix, so these are set pre-fader (means the channel fader setting has no effect on the level of this channel in the monitor mix).

- To feed an effects box (reverb, delay etc). In this case you do want the channel fader to control the level in both the house mix and the aux send so you use Post-Fader (which means that both the channels aux send level setting and the channel fader control how much of this channel goes into that aux mix).

For recording you can use these as additional groups or for musician monitoring or whatever you want. Most low end boards like the Behringer have some aux sends that are always pre-fade and some that are selectable between pre/post fader.

Phil