I’d like to point out that a lot of great classic tracks were mixed and mastered without a DAW and that a lot of great classic tracks were recorded directly to two-track using a simple low-cost mixer and minimal processing.
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Are we talking mixing or mastering op? There are a handful of multi track recorders on the current market that are good for getting tracks recorded and mixed without a daw. The zoom r24 and the tascam dp24 come to mind as option but sit at about the 500$ mark.
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I get you brother. Im pretty much in the same boat. Although i have Ableton 10 at my disposal. Perhaps you can do it. But im from an era when a recording studio would cost £££££ to hire just for a few hours. So Daws are like the cherry on the cake for record producers.
Are you looking for something that is recording specific or performance specific?
Recording - nothing wrong with a DAW. Once everything is in you can apply some master EQ or compression. depending on how you route your audio you might be able to smooth out you mixes as well. Recordings are special things because once you finish them they live that way forever. It’s worth taking the extra time to really finish a track.
Performance - maybe you don’t want to rely on a computer in a performance setting. That’s totally understandable. Maybe grabbing a mixer and one of those Strymon OB.1 or Deco?
Listening to your track on ADAM A8X monitors it sounds pretty great over all. Maybe what you’re doing is working for you anyway?
Really an interesting option, as I also tend to a recording mixer. But… I don’t see a DIN port, is it USB class compliant? How else can one sync the EFX to tempo?
No DIN port indeedy:
Yep, USB class compliant. Also EFX should be syncable, no?:
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Mixing without a DAW is possible, but getting close to the conveniences one has when mixing ITB are very hard to match OTB unless serious money is involved.
Now having said that, something like an old yamaha 01V could easily perform bread and butter mixing needs. At the end of the day, how much do you really need to mix? A dcent parametric eq on every channel, a compressor on every channel, three or four aux sends with parametric eqs on the returns… Gets you most of the way there IME. A featureset such as this can be accomplished without a DAW.
No. Waste of money.
Would sound crap compared to a daw
And then cutting tape again ? Its a matter of time and efficiency. Especially if you do it in your spare time.
Exactly.
More unnecessary work that will cost much more time and money, with inferior results in comparison.
Just answer this.
Why do you think it is that probably 99% of top music is mixed in a DAW these days?
Get a mixing board with enough channels, outboard effects, monitors, a multitrack recorder–tape, digital, whatever–and live mix it like these dudes in the vid below. Looks like fun to me.
…Awesome track, btw @rabid3k…
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If the OP is pretty much mixing his tracks in the OT, then what he really needs is the ‘finishing touches’ stuff, final EQ and compression and whatnot, and good monitoring. A portastudio won’t offer an increase in quality at that stage of the process.What would, affordable? – monitors, a laptop, an interface, a DAW (any will do, really, though I suggested Reaper).
Well not exactly. The only difference between mixing for recording in a DAW and a digital console is that you’re touching the knobs. A daw does the same thing (and often better than most antiquated or consumer grade digital boards)
If what you want is the hands on experience, you’ll get more mileage out of using a controller board for your daw, than you would out of a low or mid grade digital board.
Now for live sound it’s totally different.
If you really really want to do the analog thing there are some affordable ways to go about it, like using a cheapish digital board and recording to VHS. It’s far better sound quality than cassette tape, and more durable. The only way to learn how to do it is just to do it. There’s plenty of freq setting guides for various instruments online. For analog tape you don’t really need a master compressor, tape has it’s own natural compression. A limiter is not a bad idea though. Keep the audio chain as short as you can, and if you’re using outboard gear run it though the aux sends, don’t daisy chain it.
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well to get back on topic the question is about “mixing without a DAW”.
as in, ITBOT. In The Box of the OctaTrack.
since track 8 is being used as Master Effects Track, perhaps responses should focus on how to mix ITBOT … like, what effects and what effects settings on the Master Effects Track could help?
are there any tips and tricks for mixing a five minute dance track to an internal Octatrack recording onto the Compact Flash card, which may then be easily transferred via USB to soundcloud via means of the antiquated device known as a “Computer”?
any personal experience of having done so, and if so, how was the completed track?
any experience on using the Octatrack as a mastering device, and then recording the master to the Compact Flash card? Is it possible to use the Octatrack’s compressor like a limiter maybe - if so, how?
what, if any, information is out there about the Octatrack’s Spatializer effect? How could this effect be helpful in the Mastering stage or Project Mixing workflow?
does anyone know what the different dial settings on the Octatrack’s two EQ effect types refer to in the frequency spectrum, as in ranges… similar to some study that was made to find out similar information re/ the Machinedrum and Monomachine’s 1 band EQ?
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I’m a clean shaven, no nail varnish wearing, not inked, unfashionably laddish, meat eating, old dinosaur, who has never owned a macbook, so my opinion probably doesn’t count for much these days, but it is absolutely possible to make good sounding music without a DAW, all you need is a mixer of some sort, good ears, some half decent monitor speakers and something to record onto. Go for it.
BTW I’m not anti-DAW, (or beards, nail varnish or tattoos) just I choose to not use a DAW, not because currently it seems trendy to be ‘DAW-less’ (ugh!) but because I just don’t enjoy it. Tons of records were made in pre-daw days including some of the best techno, of course you can make decent sounding music in a DAW, but it isn’t a requirement, even today. It is certainly much much easier to use a DAW, but easy isn’t everything IMHO.
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Wow this blew up into quite the discussion!
Just a note on my setup:
- 3 synths run through a Mackie mixer and a multi-effects pedal via the aux send
- Mackie runs into the OT Input A + B - compression applied to thru track
- OT cue out runs to Boss Space Echo pedal, back into OT Input C + D
- All audio runs through OT master track with compression applied
- OT master out goes through a USB Audio interface
- USB Audio interface runs into Macbook Pro
- recording is done into Adobe Audition (I use Adobe CC at work so I have a free copy)
For monitoring I have the cheap Logitech speakers and a nice set of studio headphones (plugged into USB interface)
My next purchase should probably be a pair of monitor speakers, as I currently don’t know how things are going to sound until I make a recording and test on a bunch of different types of speakers.
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Thanks for this. Yes these are the types of things I’d love info on. I am indeed mixing within the OT.
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