A bunch of questions about multi-track recording

U

Uncle Jam

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Hi, I'm looking into recording in the next year using some sort of multi-track recorder. First question is about Computer based recording systems. When you record into the software, and there are no internal effects built into the system like the FW-1884, can the software use effects like a compressor before the sound is recorded or do they have to be appled after the dry signal is recorded. This is a major issue since it will save me a lot of money on hardware gear. The second question is about headphones output. Since my studio will not be large enough to seperate guitar, bass, keyboard, drums and other gear into seperate rooms I plan on recording only the drums within the room and the other instruments I plan on recording within the DAW. So how can you have a number of headphones so that each musician can hear the mix if there's only one headphone output on the recorder? Also do you think this is a good way to record a live performance? I know it's a little weird, but I think this way my mixes will be better since there's gonna be a clear sound for all different instruments. Finally what multi-track recorder do you all recommend? I'm kind of steering toward the FW-1884 since it has fire-wire and is computer based.
 
You will not be able to compress a signal before going into your PC without first going through a hardware compressor with MOSt sequencers and set-ups, though there are a few I believe that will....You can get some soundcards or audio interfaces that will allow you to do so, but they ned to be specifically capable of doing so and have some kind of processors built in externally.(Hard for me to put in exact technical terms sorry)

With that said though, I *believe* Nuendo supports this option with its newer version, though I am not positive. This is also the sequencewr of choice I would recommend to you since you are doing lots of live recording. This, or Cubase. They are pretty similiar but I think Nuendo is more geared toward bigger studios recording bands rather than personal home studios, as well as having alot of video integration as well.

Also, maybe another option for you is a pro-tools setup and will nip everything in the bud. With that I think you wouldnt have a problem doing whatever it is you want.

To send multiple headphone outs from one output youre going to want a headphone amp of some kind which will feed out a number of headphones you may want.

Dont know anything about the 1884, is that a Tascam?....I dont think it is a multi-track Recorder though, it is more of a control surface. It will not store actual audio within the unit I believe, unless I am mistaking w piece of gear u are talking about-




555
 
The monitoring path should ideally have a seperate send for each musician so they can have themselves louder in their monitor mix. Usually this is just done with some prefader sends but to do this without hardware there'll be a bit of latency which musicians dont like.

The easiest option in my opinion is to buy a second hand console/large format mixer that has either tape inserts or 8 busses. That plus an 8x8 audio interface and you are set.
 
Why would the musicians want to hear themselves louder? Souldn't they hear how the mix sounds? I guess with the headphone amp you might turn up the volume a little bit for them to hear their instrument better, but wouldn't the final mix sound good as it is? How do you know there's going to be a latency issue?
 
Looking at the info on the Tascam unit you are interested in you should be able to monitor without any latency. The audio is most likely sent to the headphones before conversion.

It does have inserts on each channel so you can use hardware gear like compressors and reverb.

It is going to get tough on the monitoring side. Like Mungo said, a lot of people want to hear themselves slightly louder than the overall music they are playing to. You could possibly get a little creative with the 8 monitor outs and send them to several headphone amps, but that still wouldn't allow adjustment of one player over another.

I hope you have a big house if you want to try and record a band all in one shot, "live" so to speak. Everyone needs to be isolated from the other so the mics don't pickup each other. Thats also some long cable runs. Not to mention the need for all of those microphones.
 
The reason why I wanna go the headphone route is because I won't have much space to seperate the musicians. Plugging their instruments without hearing them inside the room is what I'm trying to get at. I'm not quite sure whether not being able to adjust the level for the seperate instruments is going to present a problem.
 
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