live band recording

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electricavenue
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live band recording

Post by electricavenue »

I am about to use mixcraft for the first time to record a gig for a live band. I will take a mix from the desk straight into my laptop and into mixcraft.
My question is has anyone done this before and if so did you have to buy additional equipment. What will the quality be like using a 1/8 in? Stereo to Dual 1/4 in. Mono Cable in to the laptop. Would it be better if I bought a USB Interface and send the signal in that way?

using a hp pavillion laptop,2048mb system memory and 120GB hard drive

thanks for your input
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Acoustica Greg
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Post by Acoustica Greg »

Hi,

If you don't have a Line In input on your laptop (most of them don't seem to have them these days), you should go for the USB interface. The microphone input is only good if you are plugging a microphone directly into it.

Greg
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Acoustica Eric
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Post by Acoustica Eric »

Just to add to this. The 1/8 jack is the same quality as any other jack, it's just smaller.
leighm
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Post by leighm »

Acoustica Greg wrote:Hi,

If you don't have a Line In input on your laptop (most of them don't seem to have them these days), you should go for the USB interface. The microphone input is only good if you are plugging a microphone directly into it.

Greg
...and the mic jack is mono as well. Can't even get a two channel mix.

The USB audio adapters seem to be very expensive, but I found this 80 buck device after a few minutes searching around the internet:

24-bit/96kHz USB Audio Interface for Laptops
The Edirol UA-1EX is a simple ASIO-compatible USB audio interface capable of 24-bit/96 kHz operation and designed to offer component-quality audio signals in and out of your computer. The Edirol UA-1EX offers excellent sound quality for connection to any RCA or S/PDIF Optical device. The Edirol UA-1EX features professional A/D and D/A converters, ensuring accurate recording and playback, whether you're recording tapes or vinyl to the computer, or just playing your MP3 collection thru a home stereo receiver. The UA-1EX also offers an electret condenser microphone input similar to the "MIC-IN" on most internal sound cards and a headphone output with volume control to quickly and easily listen to audio from your computer.

The Edirol UA-1EX is ideal for use with laptops where audio quality is all but ignored, offering superior audio quality, versatility, and the utmost in portability. The included Edirol drivers for the UA-1EX offer superior performance over OS-Standard drivers. The Edirol drivers offer up to 24-bit, 96kHz audio resolution and Low Latency performance.

* Must have a compatible USB host controller.


Edirol UA-1EX Features:

* Up to 24bit/ 96kHz audio quality
* ASIO2.0 (Win/ Mac), WDM (Win2000/ XP), Core Audio (Mac OS X)
* compatibility
* USB Powered--NO AC Adaptor required
* S/PDIF Optical In & Out
* Supports both OS-standard drivers as well as Edirol's drivers* (Win/ Mac OS X)

sweetwater.com/store/detail/UA1EX/ ( no linkage to a sales site... add the www)

Disclaimer: Not only don't I work for this company... I've never even heard of them before.
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Acoustica Eric
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Post by Acoustica Eric »

Good info leighm, thanks for posting it. I am sure it will help users who need a usb interface.

Neat tag line at the end too ;-)
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