Mixing board w/DAW?
 

I just finished mixing my band's first album and I am HOOKED!

I've been doing some reading/watching youtube video's etc. and am wondering about integrating a USB mixing board into my (very humble) set up:

Macbook Pro
M-Audio M-Track USB Interface
Reaper DAW

I found one on ShopGoodwill.com that as far as $ goes is a low risk option:

http://www.shopgoodwill.com/auctions...-35534639.html

Any thoughts and or suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

reaper doesn't already do what you need it to do? what would be the purpose of the usb mixer?

play music!

Geedub,
Be aware that every device you pass your audio through is going to contribute noise. Also, used equipment just needs a single scratchy pot to ruin all your efforts.

One of the best features with any DAW is automation, from simple volume editing on to all the other stuff that's easy to automate in virtually any DAW. The outboard analog mixer will take your skills in the opposite direction you want to go.

Rudy is right. It's only going to add noise you don't want and limit you. You can do a hell of a lot more with your DAW than you can with that board. Put that money towards something you actually need.

The only reason I ever used a mixer with my interface (at the time M-Audio Delta 44 ... four in/four out) was for the preamps and the convenience of leaving mics and instruments plugged in. If you have the interface, you don't need a USB mixer ... an analog mixer will do fine.

Thanks for your comments.

After reading through them I'm having kind of a "well duh" moment!

I guess that's the price of being a curious newbie!

Many of us have wasted money on gear we didn't need over the years. It's good that you're asking questions since it gives you a chance to learn from our mistakes.

I bought a much more expensive Yamaha board than that one when I first started. I hardly ever used it. Now, I'd find a board a hindrance rather than a help. As RustyAxe said, if the board has great pres or great dynamic processors, that's a board worth having. But having a board just to have a board doesn't make much sense today.

Best of luck to you.

Just for the sake of information, there are applications for consoles, but they typically revolve around large-scale music combo sessions.

For example, I work in a hybrid recording/mixing/post-production room that revolves around a console and DAW. The console is a 96-channel Yamaha DM2000 that interfaces with a Steinberg Nuendo DAW. In a large-scale session the two devices interface in two ways:

1. On the audio side, the console preamps are used for some of the mic inputs and flow to the DAW via direct outs or mixing buses and DAW monitor channels return to the console and go to the mixing channels. All audio data travels between the DAW and console in AES format.
2. At the same time one layer of the console's fader bank and the console's "FAT channel" actually control the DAW's automation via a serial bus. The DAW faders, mutes, and EQs are automatically mapped and I can map plug-in functions as well (but don't).

As a result, the console behaves like a large-format console, allowing me to adjust the input levels, the monitor levels, and the headphone mixes separately. Using the fader-to-DAW interface I can also begin roughing-in the automation for the final mix as the recording session is happening. But on simple overdub sessions I'll just set up the DAW with a pair of stereo output mixes, one for the control room and one for the performer's headphones.

http://www.in2guitar.com/images3/xmas2014.jpg

I've been using this rig since the very earliest days when Steinberg and Yamaha were wrestling with making the the coding on the interface work. For the first year, during every session I suffered a loss of connection on the fader-automation interface that would have required rebooting the DAW computer to recover. As a result I learned to quickly and accurately draw my mix info on the screen with the mouse. Though the DAW/console interface was eventually squared away I didn't have time to wait so the mouse has become my main user interface during mixing sessions.

In reality, the average home user doesn't work with sessions that large or time pressures that short, so having a console in their way could very well be nothing more than a pain in the neck.

Bob

I had a Yamaha O1v back in the day. I got it because the person who helped me set up my first studio thought I needed it. I bought a used one at the time and got a decent deal on it. I rarely used it and I wound up giving it away a couple of years later to a friend who was doing soundtrack work using a linked pair of these. One of his died and I looked at that as a good excuse to take that piece of gear out of my chain.

I can only agree when I first started my home studio I had a Digi 002 combo, 8 channel mixer and interface.
And honestly buy the time I was 6 months or a year into learning to mix the only thing the faders did was mimic the automation I almost always entered with a mouse. So when I upgraded to a new interface the physical faders went away and I have never looked back. That said I am however a one man operation, so I do not need more simultaneous inputs then I have on my interface.

The Mackie 1640i, Allen and Heath R16, and Presonus Studiolive, mixing boards are all geared to smaller studios and interface with most DAWs effortlesssly.
I have the 1640i and the Onyx preamps sound great. That said, I rarely use it unless I'm recording more the 8 channels at a time.