Best gear to record hardware devices on separate tracks simultaneously

after all this time - people now want to ‘get away from the daw’ – if the daw was released tmrw after no one had ever heard of one then it would be the hottest thing since a phal curry… this really is a first world problem here mate… get a couple of elements into the daw and go from there… many of the mixers out now cashing in on the trend of ‘dawless’ introduce noise, so id watch it and chose carefully, i was all set to do the same type of thing thinking id be better off ‘without a daw’ and then processing it all into the daw afterwards then read a load of posts about this being counter intuitive because when all is said and done unless you own a huge studio with tape machines and all that other hipster backward stepping youll have to process it all in a work station of some sort anyway. i use a daw as its the best and most forward thinking way to avoid external gear ruining my mix with hiss

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I disagree with the holier-than-thou sentiment but I do sort of agree otherwise. If all I was trying to do was to have fun jamming on my machines then I would forget the computer and just run audio out of the stereo outputs of a mixer. But if I’m trying to make good music and release it commercially then I think you’re right: it’s somewhat mad to forego the power of a DAW.

Anyway, I came to the conclusion that its far simpler, cheaper, and space-saving to expand my interface via ADAT and get a midi controller to record live levels and aux sends to my hardware effects. I checked the latency of that arrangement and it’s totally fine on my current interface. So that setup should provide most of the ‘performance’ functionality I’m after.

I got my Clatrett 8 Pre interface since November 2016 and it records multiple channels without issues. I am not using all 8 most of the time but usually I am only using 4 channels and it works out great. The mixing routing software for it works well so my 8 outs route into SSL Xdesk’s 8 ins and i can do my automation from there.

Latency is great and running Maschine in live or standlaone feels like I’m running my 2000XL.

Sound quality is very neutral and there isn’t any audible coloring when recording the Moog Voyager, Yocto 808, analog keys, and EPS Classic.

My previous thunderbolt interface the Apollo Twin Solo colored my Analog Keys and EPS recordings on the low and mids. I guess UA was giving it an Analog Desk sound. So when I routed the Apollo twin into the SSL there was a built in low end/ mids added to my mixes. This is great for drums and bass sounds but if you had a vocalist it could sound a bit darker than you intended.

I bought my 8 pre for 700 and think that it’s a great value for an 8 ins and 8 outs audio card.

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Where did you see the EQs are based on the soundcraft ghost? If so, could they also be modded like the ghost?

zoom l-12

especially (though not essentially) when paired with a decent analogue mixer, for fx sends and saturation

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a mixer to pair with a mixer though?

well lets just agree to disagree on that one. I think there is no one right way to do things, Whether someone loves ITB or OTB is their decision and its all cool with me. Anything less would be kinda foolish and ignorant IMO.

Its not always even about ”efficiency” or logic… Sometimes this kind of choices are emotional ones. And emotional choices can be just as valid as intellectual/logical ones, after all this is music we’re talking about.

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I prefer not to use a computer and am not a hipster. So yay for me.

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I generally think resorting to hipster-calling is lazy and never adds any further insight into anything. Anything can be hipster if you add a beard and tattoos to it?

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any suggestions for a small 4 channel mixer with usb multitrack-recording while overbridge für dn/dt is still vaporware? doesn’t need to be expensive because its hopefully just a temporary solution.

zoom h6 or one of the cheaper models would do the job for you if you don’t need EQ or aux

Is there any chance you could explain how you would use the abalogue mixer in that scenario? Thank you

Hi guys,

Late to the party, i know, but i have a question about the Soundcraft MTK 22 and it’s USB-multitracking function. So it seems like almost everyone on the internet is answering the question, wether it’s possible to send channels via USB to the Computer AFTER EQ and FX with “NO”.
Isn’t that eventually false? cause it seems that you just have to set up another channel…?! I mean that’s not fancy and all, but some users claimed that it works. Like, that you can record EQ and effects to the computer, if you give up another channel to do so and route it via aux or groups.

Would be so thankful if someone could verify that.