Mixing Board
Sunday, August 17, 2008
, Posted by Anonymous at 2:01 AM
A mixer will be able to take in your XLR cable through it's input. Through it's outputs you will be able to connect it your soundcard or audio interface by 1/4 inch stereo cables. The mixer will usually also come with phantom power, which is necessary for the operation of most condenser microphones. As a rapper, all you need is a mixer with one XLR input, maybe 4 max if you have multiple microphones and are too lazy to unplug them.
I agree, as a newbie, mixing boards look tight as hell and at the same time intimidating, especially those big 48+ input mothers (Ahhh....Solid State). Sadly, these mixing boards are for orchestras, rock groups, live bands, stage performances, and professional studios that need most every single input for their obscene number of outboard sound equipment. Those knobs that go up and down, these are for professional engineers who mix and master tracks using that onboard analog (I doubt it though, they probably just load all the tracks in protools when nobody's watching) with each turn adjusting different frequencies by way of parametric equalizer (Which shits on graphic equalizers by the way) and panning system. In fact, the only thing you should be concerned with is wether those green and yellow dots hit red, letting you know your microphone is peaking to loud and to turn down the levels.
I know you're saying "I saw this video. And Eminem and P. Diddy and 2pac was sitting behind the gigantic SSL mixing desk and they was touchin' the knobs and I jus wanna be like them, and if they can do it so can I, so that means you're wrong!" Well I'm telling you now that they were schooled by the best sound engineers the record labels Interscope, Bad Boy and Death Row can buy. Well I'm assuming you weren't, so just brush those thoughts to the side for now.
In the previous situation, each track on those fancy mixing boards has a little sticky tape with permanent marker writing on it showing what each instrument is, some with frequency levels, vocal tracks and so on (hint, hint). As for myself, I developed into a sound engineer (graduated 2002, school of Hard Knocks, Philadelphia) over the years, but I'm telling you for your own good, leave those knob alone! Those same knobs are in the professional audio-editing software installed on your computer, where in it's safe non-destructive environment you can tweak and freak em' all day.
It is important that your recording obtains the exact sound you say before your audio chain delivers the signal into your audio recoding programs. If you wannabe a dumbass wanksta, be my guess.
As far as brand goes, I can tell you with mixing boards that it makes the world of differences (Alesis, Soundcraft and so on there's too many to name) This mainly has to do with the fact that different manufacturers pack in different pre-amps in their boards. Some with a higher quality pre-amp than others. Somehow, there is a correlation with better sounding mixing boards and better build or sturdiness Trust me, as a part-time studio owner, we broke more than a few behringers. Hey, but they would've broke anyways and most rappers don't know the difference between these nasty sounding cheap mixers.
There are many board manufacturer's, as a response to criticism I don't mean to take shots, but from the Big 3 companies I have to say it goes, Behringer, Yamaha, Mackie, with Mackie being the most expensive, yet having the best pre-amps and being the all-around best constructed. The irony is that I personally love Behringer and Yamaha equipment (Can't go wrong with a Motif and Behringer does wonders for my pocket), but I'm also picky on what I buy and am someone who goes through a ton of reviews before purchasing just that right product that fits me, with experience and after reading this book I'm pretty sure you'll be wiser too.
Like I said, if your financing can support it, buy a Mackie with Yamaha or Alesis as your second best bets. Prices for a 1 input mixer are about $40-$100, 2 input about $60-$150, 4 input about $100-$350. All prices are dependent on the brand.
RECOMMENDED MIXING BOARDS (Sorted by price, lowest to highest)
Behringer Eurorack UB502 - 5 channel compact mixer
Price: $29.99
Tapco mix.50 Compact Mixer
Price: $49.99
Tapco Mix.60 Compact Mixer
Price: $59.99
Behringer Xenyx 1002
Price: $69.99
Soundcraft COMPACT 4 Mixer
Price: $149.99
Alesis Multimix 8 USB 2.0 8-Channel Mixer
Price: $299.99
Mackie 1202-VLZ3 Premium 12-Channel Compact Mixer
Price: $299.99
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