Newbie Quest - Would a Mixer help?

[JakeStone]

Hey all - So I have been recording for a couple months now. I mostly record 'Live' in my home for personal use .. Me playing acoustic and singing simultaneously .. Here is something I did this weekend.

https://soundcloud.com/midnight_ride...acoustic-cover


My Gear:
Acoustic Guitar with built-in Pickup
2 Rode M5 Small Condesner Mics
1 AKG D5 Dynamic Mic
1 MXL990 Large Diaphram Condenser
Behringer 2 input USB Interface
TC Helicon Harmony G-xt
Reaper Recording software

I utilize a TC Helicon Harmony G-xt ... So my technique is to run guitar and vocal mic into the Harmony (reverb and harmony) ... Then I route that into the USB interface ( input 1). Plus lately I have been plugging 1 Rode M5 into the 2nd input on the USB.

My questions.... (1) What is the best way to set up inputs ... Mono or Stereo? What I mean is...(REMEMBER I'm a newbie)... How do I set up the inputs on both USB and Reaper.... Because the interface has a mono/stereo button and Reaper has choice of Mono or stereo for each input.. (Im confused on this).

Also (2) I just found a deal ($60) for a used Yamaha Yamaha MG82CX Mixer...Would it be better to "route" everything through this and then .. just go into 1 input on USB interface? / Any Suggestions would be great!

[FwL]

The mono/stereo button on your Behringer unit is for monitoring with headphones. It has no effect on the inputs. Each input in one mono signal.

In Reaper you set up each track with whatever inputs from the behringer you want.

For what you're doing there is no point in using stereo tracks. Just set up one mono track assigned to input 1 and another mono track assigned to input 2.

You don't need the mixer for any of that.

You could use the mixer to record things a little differently though.

If you were to come out of the tc unit with vocals only to channel 1, instrument through to channel 2 and the microphone to channel 3 you could pan the two guitar inputs a little left and right and leave your voice in the center. Then you would come out of the left and right outputs of the mixer into both inputs of the behringer and set up reaper to record both of those inputs to one stereo track.
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[JakeStone]

Originally Posted by FwL

You could use the mixer to record things a little differently though.

If you were to come out of the tc unit with vocals only to channel 1, instrument through to channel 2 and the microphone to channel 3 you could pan the two guitar inputs a little left and right and leave your voice in the center. Then you would come out of the left and right outputs of the mixer into both inputs of the behringer and set up reaper to record both of those inputs to one stereo track.

Great .. Thanks FwL that explains it nicely.

[JakeStone]

Question - So you suggested the possibility of taking the Mixer "outputs" to the USB "inputs" 1 and 2. (The USB takes either 1/4" or XLR)

Which outputs on the mixer would be best?

I assume the "Stereo Out L/R" ..correct?
OR what about the Record Out (RCA).

[FwL]

If you're not doing anything else with the mixer at the moment, you would just come out the stereo outputs L and R . If you were going to run the mixer as a PA as well you could come out the record outputs but you'd need to convert the RCA plugs on the other end of the cable to phone plugs to hook into the Bethringer.

The way I have my mixer set up is I run the main outputs L and R to my sound interface and use the monitor outs L and R to run a powered speaker array for playback. You could do the same thing with that mixer as well.

Another option you would have with the mixer is to use the 4th mic channel for another of your microphones. Arrange the microphones to record your guitar in stereo and pan those two channels hard L and R.

You could then mix in just as much of the guitar through from the tc unit in the center as you desire to fill out the sound.

These are just options... none of them are necessary unless you want to get fancy.

If you're going to get fancy about it though you might want to consider recording each sound separate on its own track in Reaper. In order to do that, you'd have to overdub the extra guitar parts.

With what you have now you could record the voice output of the tc to track 1 in Reaper with input 1 of the Behringer while recording the instrument through output of the tc to track 2 with input 2. Both tracks would be mono.

Then you could overdub a track or two of guitar... or a hundred if you so desired.

Having everything on separate tracks give you ultimate flexibility. You can adjust the level and position of each sound independently to achieve the perfect balance of guitar and voice. You can also go in after the fact and clean up any mistakes that would ruin an otherwise perfect take.

Welcome to the dark side.
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[JakeStone]

This is very helpful... (I actually followed everything your wrote).

Good Stuff.... Looks like this mixer opened up more possibilities!

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by JakeStone

This is very helpful... (I actually followed everything your wrote).

Good Stuff.... Looks like this mixer opened up more possibilities!

Well yes and no realizing that the mixer you are looking at is live mixing unit
designed to handle 4 channels of input mix them and sum's them into two channels of output to a PA system.
It is not actually a recording console/mixer which normally outputs as many channels as it inputs .

Now while it is certainly usable for recording and will work particularly as FwL mentioned by over dubbing (speaking of which another method to consider) would be to simply record the main guitar part in with the two SDC mics into Reaper, each on their own mono track, then pan them left and right, and then overdub the vocal with the LDC mic into a mono track panned center .


So looking to the future if you want to record the guitar and vocal at the same time
You might want to consider he move up to a four input channel interface .

[JakeStone]

Thanks KevWind ..I figured sooner or later I'd need an interface with more inputs.