Mixer Stage

Mixer Stage
Recording Drums...Need Interface?

I want to record my yamaha stage custom kit through logic pro 7 on a brand new iMac with Samson 5 piece drum mic kit with 2 overhead CO3's. I currently have a presonus firebox, but it doesn't have enough inputs, so I need to do something. I know i can get something new or get a mixer, but I don't have good acoustics in my studio so I don't can't sacrifice any more sound quality. What should I do (I'm on a low budget)?

Basically I think you're looking at hardware. Soundcard(s), mixer, etc.

If you can pick up a couple cheap soundcards and the right adapters you could go that route. Though I'm not sure how flexible macs are with multiple soundcards. In linux I could run however many I have slots available for.

Something I have done is take a sample of each piece of my kit and then use Hydrogen to lay down a drum track. Mostly I've done that because playing the drums at 2am while the kids are sleeping or during the day when the wife is sleeping (but I'm really trying to work on something) is not an option. But I would certainly prefer doing a live play recording running each mic into it's own track on Ardour. Though alas I haven't got around to picking up a mic kit yet.

The Hydrogen option would take care of the sound quality issue, but then you're dealing with not really playing the pattern so the dynamics kinda suffer. While hydrogen does have a humanize function, it's still just not the same.

Carvin has a nice mixer ideal for home studio use, which is what I plan on getting when I get around to it. It's about $250, which isn't bad for what it is, but doesn't necessarily meet the low budget requirement.

http://www.carvin.com/products/single.php?ItemNumber=sm162

Radio Shack used to have some multiple input mic mixers for like PA use that were reasonable, but I'm not so sure they do anymore.

The Firebox has what 4 inputs total, right? So if it allows output to the computer via firewire, then you could use your inputs on the soundcard for at least two more mics, maybe three (mic input and line input). That's assuming you could adapt the mics for the line in, which would require some type of preamp or direct box and seperating the left and right channels which once line level would just be a stereo to two Mono Plug adapter. But need to adapt two mics to line level to input into the firebox line ins too.

EDIT: A pawn shop is a place to look for mixers and related musical equipment. Sometimes they have decent prices, but it depends on what it is and at least half the time I've seen that prices are close the price of buying new at a good discount music outlet.

Check out the Mixer Stage listings below and save 20% to 70% off retail prices:

 

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Playing the Bass Guitar: Mixer/Stage Setup


 

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