Should you have a recording mixer as part of your home studio? I say no. I know, I know. You experienced recording folks are going to say “why shouldn’t I have a mixer as part of my home studio?” Well as with most things, the idea of a recording mixer is one of those “it depends” type of situations.
If you truly understand all the routing (gozintas and gozouttas, as I’ve heard them described), then using a mixer as part of your home studio CAN be useful. I use one to receive inputs from several sources (computer sound card, two different audio interfaces, etc.) and it is only for listening. My mixer, a Mackie 1202 VLZ Pro, sends nothing out except a signal to the speakers/headphones. Most importantly (for this type of mixer), it does NOT send any signal into the computer for recording purposes. And of course, if you’re recording a live band (straight to stereo – not doing multi-track recording), you’ll want a mixer for that.
But my general advice is this: you don’t need a mixer for a computer-based home recording studio; and trying to add one to your set-up may well cause more confusion and trouble than it’s worth. You should either be using a USB microphone plugged straight into your computer, or have an audio recording interface into which you will plug your microphones and/or instrument inputs. To hear and monitor playback, you’ll either use your computer’s speakers, headphones (preferably plugged into your interface and not your computer sound card), or monitor speakers plugged into your interface. There will be (on a vast majority of recording interface units) a volume knob to control playback.
So why am I writing this article? A reader recently sent me an e-mail asking for help with his home recording studio setup. He was using Reaper recording software (excellent choice!) on his computer, along with a mixer, a drum machine and a keyboard synthesizer, along with some mics plugged into the mixer as well. He wanted to be able to record several things simultaneously (or sequentially) onto their own tracks. But he couldn’t manage either. He said he’d record the drum machine on track one, and try to record the keyboard onto track two. But track two ended up with BOTH the drum machine and the keyboard.
Now this can be caused by any number of things, but as soon as I saw that he had listed a mixer as part of his home studio set-up, I was pretty sure I knew the cause of his trouble. I asked him if he could tell me how he had everything plugged in. Basically it was as seen in the picture on the left (which I drew using the Paper app on my iPad – free and very cool! But I digress).
He had an audio interface, but a very limited one, called the Behringer UCA 222, which is not designed for multi-track recording, but rather for you to plug in line-level signals from things like tape decks, mixers, and other consumer audio devices, as well as electronic instruments like keyboards, drum machines, etc. There are only 2 inputs, but they are designed to accept a stereo pair (inputs are L and R) of RCA plugs. There is also a pair of outputs to connect speakers/headphones to). So you can only plug in one thing at a time. Also, and this is important, there is no preamp in the UCA222 (see our article about what a preamp is here: What Is A Mic Preamp ). That means in order to plug a microphone in, you must first plug it into the mixer to use it’s preamp, and then plug the mixer’s output into the UCA. The trouble with that is the preamps in a mixer like the 1202, though decent, are pretty cheap by necessity. There are 4 of them on a 1202, and if they used top-notch recording quality preamps, it would drive up the cost of the mixer by a lot. The 1202 is mainly designed for live sound, not recording.
So the thought process goes like this. I only have a pair of stereo inputs on this interface (UCA222). But I also have a mixer that has lots of inputs! I can plug everything into the mixer and then just take the main mixer outputs (left and right) and plug those into the UCA222). Then I’ll plug the outputs from the UCA back into the mixer, and hook up my speakers to the mixer as well.
There is a major flaw in this set-up though if you want to do multi-track recording (have each instrument/sound be on its own track). Raise your hand if you see the problem. Exactly! Everything, including the playback, is going into the mixer, which is perfectly designed to – well – mix. [end of part 1 of this article. See part 2 here].
mixer
Mixing Music Is Like Cooking
I’ve often felt that there were tons of similarities between mixing music and cooking. I’d probably see more similarities if I could create meals in the kitchen that didn’t involve a bag of some kind or a jar of peanut butter. But I get the concept.
One of the similarities that comes up a lot is how one thing can mask or overpower another thing. The best chefs use multiple flavors that complement each other. And if one ingredient is not as prominent as it should be, the right answer may not always be to “add more.” Sometimes a flavor can be coaxed out more by doing something with the heat, or adding a touch of another thing that makes the first thing stand out more.
If you followed any of that, you may sense where I’m going with this. In a music mix, if the acoustic guitar seems like it can’t be heard well enough, the amateur will immediately turn up the volume on the acoustic guitar channel. But the master will know to try more subtle moves, like maybe turning down just the middle frequencies of the piano – not the entire piano track, but maybe just a few key frequencies of the piano that may be masking the guitar (you’d use an equalizer [EQ] for this). Other things to try would be to use reverb to push something more to the back of a mix, or to use panning to help separate certain sounds.
The track volume (gain) sliders are like hammers. Beginners see them as the only tool for mixing, so every instrument is like a nail. Did I go awry with this simile? Eh, you get the idea.
Here is an article by Joe Gilder that uses this extended analogy to provide some tips on bringing focus to a music mix.
The full article is here: http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/in_the_studio_three_ways_to_find_focus_in_a_mix/
Top Notch Small Studio For Recording And Mixing A Band
Someone recently asked for advice about gear to record her all-girl heavy rock band. She specified a budget of about $6,200 and asked for recommendations for:
- A microphone ideal for female voices
- A mixer for a small but contemporary recording studio
- A pair of active loudspeakers for monitors
First, it is important to point out that specific people and specific microphones may or may not make a good match. I once recorded a female singer who sounded fantastic through my AKG C3000. But my wife’s voice does not sound very good through that mic. For my wife, the Audio-Technica AT2035 sounds great, as does the Rode NT2-A. So you really need to try different vocal mics before you buy, if you can. A lot of music stores will let you try them out in the store at least. Some may even let you try them at home. Of course you can always rent if you must. Anyway, because it worked so well on several voices, not just my wife’s, I recommended the Audio-Technica AT2035 for the mic, which costs $125.
Normally, I don’t recommend a mixer in a home recording studio. They can cause more trouble than they are worth. See Why You Should Not Use A Mixer In Your Home Recording Studio for why I say this. However, it sounded like she really wanted a control surface for recording and mixing using a digital audio workstation (DAW) recording program like the industry-standard Pro Tools (current version as of this writing is Pro Tools 11). This will act like a mixer, but what it really does is allow you to control the knobs and sliders in your DAW with actual, physical knobs and sliders – which is what a “control surface” is, versus a “mixer”). Of course you can mix, but also you can do so much more with the unit I recommended, which is a Focusrite Control 2802. Here is a great video demonstrating it:
The Focusrite Control 2802 costs about $3,500.
She will also need a recording interface, which has analog-to-digital converters as well as mic preamps. And she’ll need at least 8 mic inputs for her band. So I recommended the M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R for this. I also double-checked to ensure that the Fast Track Ultra 8R is officially supported as a Pro Tools 11 interface and it is. You can see all the supported interface units here. This interface costs $400.
The final piece of the equation was a pair of active monitor speakers. My recommendation here was the KRK RoKit 6 G2 Studio Monitors Bundle. This bundle consists of a pair of KRK RoKit 6 G2 68-watt 6″ two-way active nearfield monitors, along with stands for the speakers and cables. This bundle costs $347 at B&H.
The total cost of the above excellent small studio for recording a rock band is $4,371.58, which saves her $1,828.42. Not too shabby.
I should point out that in order to record the entire band at once, she’ll need a few more mics. So she can use that surplus in the budget for that;).
Why You Should Not Use A Mixer In Your Home Recording Studio, Pt 2
This is part 2 of the article – Why You Should Not Use A Mixer In Your Home Recording Studio. In part 1, I spoke of a problem one of our readers was having with his home studio set-up. He routed everything, including the playback, through his mixer, and wondered why he couldn’t do multi-track recording.
His set-up looked like the picture on the left. I finished part 1 by asking who could see, by the set-up on the left, why the owner of this studio couldn’t seem to get even sequentially-recorded sounds to be by themselves on their own tracks. Here is the problem.
With this set-up, if you record one instrument first, say the drum machine, all will be well. The drum machine goes into the mixer that sends the signal to the UCA222 interface, which sends the signal to the computer and onto a Reaper track. But now you want to record the keyboard part on track 2 in Reaper.
So you arm track 2, disarm track 1, and hit the record button in Reaper. Track 1 is playing back, of course, so you can monitor it and play the keyboard along with it. But you’ve plugged the output of the UCA222 into your mixer, which is blending the drum machine playback with the keyboard you’re recording, and sending both sounds to the main mixer output, which as we know, goes to the inputs of the interface.
And just like that, you’ve recorded BOTH the drums AND the keyboard onto track 2. This is exactly what my reader was complaining about. He wanted ONLY the keyboards on track 2, and the drums on track 1. And yeah, that is how it should be. But you can’t do that with his set-up.
The reader also said he wanted to do simultaneous recording of multiple instruments, and was concerned that Reaper couldn’t do this. First of all, Reaper most definitely CAN do this. But you need an interface capable of receiving multiple inputs, which the UCA222 is not. And once everything is blended (mixed) in the mixer, Reaper certainly cannot separate them again.
He is definitely constrained by his interface to recording only one thing at a time. This is really not a big deal. Lots of folks record this way. But like this reader, there are lots of folks who might expect that they can record multiple instruments/sounds simultaneously (onto their own discrete tracks) just because they have a mixer they can plug everything into. Clearly not so.
One solution might be to NOT plug the USA222’s outputs into the mixer. You could connect your headphones or speakers to the UCA222, making sure to disconnect the interface’s outputs from your mixer. That way you can monitor playback separate from the mixer, and it won’t be fed back into the inputs of the UCA when overdubbing. But then you are still left with the problem of having to use the not-so-great-for-recording mic preamps when you want to record vocals. And if you have speakers plugged into the UCA222’s outputs, you’ll have to disconnect them or turn them off (assuming they have an off switch) when you record the vocals, otherwise the playback of the music will be picked up by the mic. Sigh. These are not terribly difficult work-arounds. But life would be so much easier, and you would have a lot fewer problems if you simply stop using a mixer altogether.
Instead, get yourself a decent recording interface such as an Avid Fast Track, which has a nice-sounding preamp designed for recording. If you need to record more than one sound/instrument simultaneously, get an interface with as many inputs as you need. For example, I use the Focusrite 2i2, which has two mic inputs. Focusrite also makes the Clarett 4Pre and the Clarett 8Pre, with 2, 4 and 8 mic inputs, respectively.
In effect, these interface units are mini-mixers in themselves. You control the input levels of each sound source like you would on a mixer. That, combined with your multi-track recording software’s mixing controls, gives you all the mixing you should need for simple, hassle-free high-quality recording. Forget the mixer. 90 percent of folks don’t need it.