Mixer vs Audio interface

dickmalibu · 2014-06-19T14:40:57.000Z

UA Apollo interface to be primarily used as a mixer would be overkill and a waste of money that you could put towards other purchases.
UA has great conversion but its advantage is obviously the the DSP and quality of plugins.

A unit that people overlook but has amazing conversion and a built in mixer/standalone operation is the Steinberg MR816X or CSX (Effects built in)
I would recommend that :

MR816X (firewire 400 ports) Approximately $500 on ebay

Apollo Twin Duo (can be had for under $800 if you shop around)
great micpres and micpre/compressor emulations. So compression immediately following the micpre, great channel strip.
UAD quality plugins and
ADAT optical in (so any audio interface/or micpre like audient ASP008 for more channels)
High quality headphone amp /guitar input

MR816 /Apollo Twin Total $1200-1300.00 usd

Steinberg UR824 $800
24in 24 out on board DSP reverb for recording with or without effects
2 banks of ADAT$
8 Analog in 8 Analog out
Word Clock
2 Headphone jacks

And the Stienberg units support standalone mode (mixer functionality

UR824/Apollo Twin $1800usd

Apollo Quad $2500 MAP

sovietpop · 2014-06-19T15:13:59.000Z

I’ve bought a second hand Presonus Studiolive 16.4.2 and its awesome really .
Lots of aux , sub channel etc.
I needed 16 io and i wanted a mixer for routing my Elektron gears , FX etc.
Costed me 1000$ can.

Giuseppe_Magnatti · 2014-06-19T15:43:36.000Z

""sovietpop"":

I’ve bought a second hand Presonus Studiolive 16.4.2 and its awesome really .
Lots of aux , sub channel etc.
I needed 16 io and i wanted a mixer for routing my Elektron gears , FX etc.
Costed me 1000$ can.

does record 16 channel all together as well ?
Thanks

SoundSculptor · 2014-06-19T15:45:27.000Z

Wow, thanks sovietpop! I’ll have to look more into that.

I’ve been looking at a similar setup, but was eyeing the Mackie Onyx 1640i, which from initial glance at the photos, has a simlar I/O section to the 16.4.2.

I’d like a mixer (and not an audio interface), so I can both record, but also use a tactile mixer’s aux routing to push whatever sound I want into the Octatrack, so I can sample live, but still have the other machines running on their own. Along with something like the Cymatic Audio LR16 plugged into the D-sub connectors, you could record all your tracks individually and then mix later if you wish.

Giuseppe_Magnatti · 2014-06-19T15:46:00.000Z

""nirun"":

check this out, not cheap but I think it will check off a lot of your needs. http://antelopeaudio.com/en/products/zen-studio-portable-audio-interface

i really want to replace my focusrite scarlett 6i6 with one of these but i have a bit of saving to do

This 1 looks amazing !
I will make some research on it
thanks

sovietpop · 2014-06-19T16:29:33.000Z

[quote=““Giuseppe Magnatti””]

[quote=“sovietpop”]I’ve bought a second hand Presonus Studiolive 16.4.2 and its awesome really .
Lots of aux , sub channel etc.
I needed 16 io and i wanted a mixer for routing my Elektron gears , FX etc.
Costed me 1000$ can.
[/quote]

does record 16 channel all together as well ?
Thanks[/quote]
Yes all 16 channels at the same time.

Somatech · 2014-06-19T17:15:13.000Z

You can go for a cheaper audio interface that has ADAT, like an RME UCX, and add an Behringer ADA8200 ADAT device for 16 analogue inputs

The ADA8200 has reasonable converters (definitely not bad ones).

Much cheaper setup anyhow.

R7 · 2014-06-19T17:32:33.000Z

I had tried buying a mixer with a usb audio interface in it thinking it would be the best of both worlds. The Yamaha MG10XU. It was absolutely terrible as a audio interface. It only had a left and right channel that would show up in the DAW even though it was a multi channel mixer, everything was summed before USB. I knew this before buying and wasn’t too concerned but it had terrible ASIO performance. Dropouts and crackles at anything but the highest buffer settings.

It was too bad because I really liked the sound of the Yamaha D-Pre’s.

I ended up returning it for the Steinberg UR44, which also has the Yamaha D-Pres but some of the fastest ASIO performance around and all the inputs are available to the DAW. It also has some built in DSP FX and from what I can hear the AD/DA converters are great. I’m very happy with it and they have a higher end version called the UR824 with more inputs.

Giuseppe_Magnatti · 2014-06-19T18:12:31.000Z

""SoundSculptor"":

Wow, thanks sovietpop! I’ll have to look more into that.

I’ve been looking at a similar setup, but was eyeing the Mackie Onyx 1640i, which from initial glance at the photos, has a simlar I/O section to the 16.4.2.

I’d like a mixer (and not an audio interface), so I can both record, but also use a tactile mixer’s aux routing to push whatever sound I want into the Octatrack, so I can sample live, but still have the other machines running on their own. Along with something like the Cymatic Audio LR16 plugged into the D-sub connectors, you could record all your tracks individually and then mix later if you wish.

I was looking at this Cymatic AUDIO… Could you tell me something about the rec. quality… My main purpose is to record and export it into a DAW for editing, I found 1 second hand for only 400 euro…
That’s a great price but I am wondering about the recording quality, for 400 euro I don’t think is going to be great…

Giuseppe_Magnatti · 2014-06-19T18:32:41.000Z

http://www.joeco.co.uk/main/BBR_models.html

has anyone have one of this?

Naboo · 2014-06-19T18:47:26.000Z

I would rather use a mixer for a couple of reasons. First of all I would rather spend the same amount of money on an interface with just a couple of inputs. That way you will know you are getting best quality ad/da conversion possible. You can buy some pretty good converters for that money. Secondly I would prefer to do some of summing through an analog mixer. And for individual tracking into the DAW, the mixer providing its own influence in regards to colouring and EQ etc.

Giuseppe_Magnatti · 2014-06-19T21:07:03.000Z

""Naboo"":

I would rather use a mixer for a couple of reasons. First of all I would rather spend the same amount of money on an interface with just a couple of inputs. That way you will know you are getting best quality ad/da conversion possible. You can buy some pretty good converters for that money. Secondly I would prefer to do some of summing through an analog mixer. And for individual tracking into the DAW, the mixer providing its own influence in regards to colouring and EQ etc.

I like the idea THANKS

G0n35y · 2014-06-20T09:22:05.000Z

[quote="“R7” date=“2014-06-19 17:32:33"”]
I ended up returning it for the Steinberg UR44, which also has the Yamaha D-Pres but some of the fastest ASIO performance around and all the inputs are available to the DAW. It also has some built in DSP FX and from what I can hear the AD/DA converters are great. I’m very happy with it and they have a higher end version called the UR824 with more inputs.
[/quote]

A fan of the UR44 then!?! I’m tempted with it. Im still using my X-Station interface but I could really do with another pair of ins/outs especially with how I plan to use the OT. Was actually tempted with the UR44 for PC and hardware duties with its smaller brother the UR22 as a dedicated iPad interface. They are pretty cheap.

namnibor · 2014-06-20T10:17:01.000Z

My Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 is incredibly versatile as both an audio interface and can operate in standalone mode without computer as a mixer as well. Lots of ins/outs, ADAT, clock sync, USB, MIDI, individual level controls on front, dual headphone, and the Scarlett Mix Control allows for multitude of possibilities. Around $500. USD. Very good converters.
With that said, I too use a few rack mixers as summing mixers because I do not use vst anything–all hardware keyboard synth set-up as well as racked FX units so I can control my FX send/receive on various synths before going into interface and then Reaper.
Focusrite also just came out with a brother of it in the Sapphire Firewire/Lightening nexus as well.

AUX · 2014-06-20T23:17:56.000Z

A&H R16 or Midas Venice?

or you could daisy chain a couple of cards and buy a decent 16 ch mixer for the same price as the Apollo…

R7 · 2014-06-21T03:43:01.000Z

""J0n35y"":

A fan of the UR44 then!?! I’m tempted with it. Im still using my X-Station interface but I could really do with another pair of ins/outs especially with how I plan to use the OT. Was actually tempted with the UR44 for PC and hardware duties with its smaller brother the UR22 as a dedicated iPad interface. They are pretty cheap.

I love it. Excellent sound quality, fast ASIO and built in DSP FX. The Rev-X reverb the UR44 comes with sounds good to my ears.

dimi3 · 2014-06-21T05:24:01.000Z

I have and UltraLite and a scarlett 18i8 think they are both great.

Scarlett to drive into and iPad and the UltraLite because it is 24/128 and powers of the firewire… one less adapter traveling…

ark · 2014-06-21T05:53:06.000Z

I would like to suggest the Roland Octa-Capture or Studio-Capture interfaces. They are substantially less expensive than Apogee, RME, etc., but appear to have good converters and very low latency. The Octa-Capture is 8in, 8out; the Studio-Capture is 16in, 10out.

Two features make these devices particularly useful for your purposes:

you can use either of them as a mixer without the computer connected at all. It’s kind of fiddly to do so, but it’s possible.
if you need more channels, you can add a second identical device and treat the two of them together as a single audio interface with lots of I/O.

Giuseppe_Magnatti · 2014-06-21T08:48:24.000Z

I am heading towards an Antelope ORION 32… I don’t mind spending more if you get more…

bluewolfse7en · 2014-06-21T10:31:51.000Z

I’ve been really exploring mixer v interface over the last couple of weeks. Ran up a 24 ch soundcraft with all my Elektron/modular/Op-1/Virus etc. bussing everything to everything.
Did the same with a Yamaha LS-9 which was cool b’cos it gave me 4 fx & dynamics + I could sidechain.
In spite of the power I felt like I was at work mixing with the focus now on the desk & not my musical endeavours.
Once I had a patch I really liked I transferred it back to my RME UFX just running 12 in to 8 out. I’ve got to say I’m a lot happier this way as it’s more transparent & the focus is back on the machines. I can still record everything separately or bussed thru the OT. Best of both Worlds for me