Presonus Audiobox USB 96 vs Scarlett 2i2 ???

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by tinnitus

I play/sing "live" occasionally on Zoom. Most of the more experienced zoomers there have nice mics on stands, so do I but not hooked up. And am I correct in assuming that either the Audiobox or the Scarlett will serve as a live interface to Zoom with one of my better mics?

I use my regular Electro Voice RE20 that use for music and spoken word vocals for my Zoom meetings. It's connected via a Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 with a Cloudlifter to boost the RE20's modest output levels. Works great with Zoom software via MacOS or Windows 10. It's overkill for just talking in a meeting, but I'm used to the mic from my use of it when recording.

[tinnitus]

Well, I got the gear. I'll hook it up this weekend. Went with the Audiobox USB 96 because it was in stock and they aren't sure when they'll have the Scarlett again. Thanks for the feedback above. Report later.

Interesting side note:
I don't need high-end headphones because hearing loss and tinnitus make my ears the weak link in that circuit. So my criteria was based more on cushions big enough to fit over hearing aids (if I wear them - usually don't for guitar). With that said, the sales guy helped steer me toward a pair with closed backs, pointing out that the open-back pair I was considering could possibly leak a bit of sound back into the room during playback as I mic the next track.

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by tinnitus

... the sales guy helped steer me toward a pair with closed backs, pointing out that the open-back pair I was considering could possibly leak a bit of sound back into the room during playback as I mic the next track.

Good steerage by the sales guy. If you sing, closed headphones sometimes mess with a person's sense of pitch but you can always get a more open pair just for that.

[tinnitus]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

Good steerage by the sales guy. If you sing, closed headphones sometimes mess with a person's sense of pitch but you can always get a more open pair just for that.

That's so true. I've experienced that with headphones, so I just cover one ear.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

Good steerage by the sales guy. If you sing, closed headphones sometimes mess with a person's sense of pitch but you can always get a more open pair just for that.

True but If you use a click I just learned to have it much lower in volume than with a pair of closed back. I just got done doing a quick recording with my pair of Senn. HD600 open back and at both intro and outro /fade out, I ended up with noticeable tic -tic-tic which I have been experimenting with iZotope "Declick" and a gate to tame

[keith.rogers]

The RX de-click is a little aggressive in some places, but for a guitar part in a mix it's useful (as is the mouth-click one!).

If you're singing into a LDC at a pretty close range, even with closed back headphones it can seep out enough, but the only place that I've really heard it is in a long fade-out at the end of a song. And, then, yeah, you probably had the click too loud, but (for me) the RX spectral repair can be almost magical in cases like that.

The singing in pitch thing is something that I liken to "drive by wire" where you have to listen to the voice in the headphones, and adjust your own singing so that voice goes up/down, instead of listening to the voice in your head. I really got out of practice and the last little home recording thing I worked on, the first pass I was pretty uniformly flat. Re-did the entire track, *listening* to the person in the headphones instead of myself...

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by keith.rogers

The RX de-click is a little aggressive in some places, but for a guitar part in a mix it's useful (as is the mouth-click one!).

If you're singing into a LDC at a pretty close range, even with closed back headphones it can seep out enough, but the only place that I've really heard it is in a long fade-out at the end of a song. And, then, yeah, you probably had the click too loud, but (for me) the RX spectral repair can be almost magical in cases like that.

The singing in pitch thing is something that I liken to "drive by wire" where you have to listen to the voice in the headphones, and adjust your own singing so that voice goes up/down, instead of listening to the voice in your head. I really got out of practice and the last little home recording thing I worked on, the first pass I was pretty uniformly flat. Re-did the entire track, *listening* to the person in the headphones instead of myself...

I will check out the spectral repair also,,, which I do use for string squeaks and buzzes

[tinnitus]

Okay, guys and gals! In the absence of any warnings here against the less expensive Audiobox USB96, I bought that one because the Scartlett 2i2 was still not in stock when I went to town last week.

Finally found a moment to install the hardware, drivers, software and instruction manual, and now I can see a sound level indicator jumping from the mic. And I hear it through the earphones, so it works! Next step is to record something.

I'm thinking the elemental "It Doesn't Matter" from Steven Stills Manassas will be a good place to start, stacking 5 separate tracks:
- rhythm guitar (with a count-in to edit out later)
- vocal
- harmony vocal
- lead guitar
- twin lead
Then mix it down and see what I have. Perfection is hardly the objective. I just want a multi-track working piece I can fiddle with.

With all this said, I'm hoping to find a basic video tutorial that'll bypass those distracting mountains of features and minutiae I see (online and in the manual), and get me started with basics.

Thanks for whatever you more experienced players might recommend.

[phcorrigan]

Originally Posted by tinnitus

Okay, guys and gals! In the absence of any warnings here against the less expensive Audiobox USB96, I bought that one because the Scartlett 2i2 was still not in stock when I went to town last week.

Finally found a moment to install the hardware, drivers, software and instruction manual, and now I can see a sound level indicator jumping from the mic. And I hear it through the earphones, so it works! Next step is to record something.

I'm thinking the elemental "It Doesn't Matter" from Steven Stills Manassas will be a good place to start, stacking 5 separate tracks:
- rhythm guitar (with a count-in to edit out later)
- vocal
- harmony vocal
- lead guitar
- twin lead
Then mix it down and see what I have. Perfection is hardly the objective. I just want a multi-track working piece I can fiddle with.

With all this said, I'm hoping to find a basic video tutorial that'll bypass those distracting mountains of features and minutiae I see (online and in the manual), and get me started with basics.

Thanks for whatever you more experienced players might recommend.

I assume you're using the bundled Studio One Artist. There is a Studio One Facebook group and also a Studio One sub-Reddit. There are also a lot of YouTube videos for Studio One. You're going to have to slog through a few to find the ones that speak to you.

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by tinnitus

With all this said, I'm hoping to find a basic video tutorial that'll bypass those distracting mountains of features and minutiae I see (online and in the manual), and get me started with basics.

The first few things you'll need to know how to do in Studio One, or any DAW, are:

1. Configure it to be able to see/use your interface
1. Create a new track
2. Set the inputs on that track to the inputs from the interface
3. Adjust the levels appropriately
4. Hit record

The first is probably the most difficult, but sound like you may have that part done already. The rest is very simple and you can ignore any other minutiae you like.

From there, the rabbit hole gets very, very deep.

[tinnitus]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

The first few things you'll need to know how to do in Studio One, or any DAW, are:

1. Configure it to be able to see/use your interface
1. Create a new track
2. Set the inputs on that track to the inputs from the interface
3. Adjust the levels appropriately
4. Hit record

The first is probably the most difficult, but sound like you may have that part done already. The rest is very simple and you can ignore any other minutiae you like.

From there, the rabbit hole gets very, very deep.

No kidding about the rabbit hole stuff in Studio One! I see dozens and dozens of bells and whistles that I know nothing about (so far). Intriguing and intimidating all at once.

LOVE the audible and adjustable metronome! Recalling the primitive recordings on tape I made last century, I assumed I'd have to record a minutes-long click-track from a stand-alone unit to ditch later. Very cool feature.

So far, I've put down a simple two-chord acoustic guitar pattern (Deja Voodoo kind of thing) on track 1. And an acoustic blues lead on track 2. They sound great together.

I don't know how to use any effects yet, aaaand... I wanted to go super simple as a baseline. Single Shure SM57 about 2 feet away on bar-height standing desk. Very pleased with the dry tone for my purposes - and glad I'm not already looking for ways to change/fix it.

Next, I need to figure out how to save them together in a .wav or .mp3 file.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by tinnitus

No kidding about the rabbit hole stuff in Studio One! I see dozens and dozens of bells and whistles that I know nothing about (so far). Intriguing and intimidating all at once.

LOVE the audible and adjustable metronome! Recalling the primitive recordings on tape I made last century, I assumed I'd have to record a minutes-long click-track from a stand-alone unit to ditch later. Very cool feature.

So far, I've put down a simple two-chord acoustic guitar pattern (Deja Voodoo kind of thing) on track 1. And an acoustic blues lead on track 2. They sound great together.

I don't know how to use any effects yet, aaaand... I wanted to go super simple as a baseline. Single Shure SM57 about 2 feet away on bar-height standing desk. Very pleased with the dry tone for my purposes - and glad I'm not already looking for ways to change/fix it.

Next, I need to figure out how to save them together in a .wav or .mp3 file.

Generally speaking you will want to have your session/s (called "Song" in S1) pre configured as a WAV. file and if you do that it will automatically be saved as a WAV file when you close the song. If S1 Artist is like S1 Pro you can always "Export" in a different format (like MP3 ) for some specific need of MP3.

Do not worry about "the rabbit hole" it's learning curve in any DAW format and will in a year or two be an asset not a detriment

The real beauty of DAW (digital) recording over tape is two fold

#1 almost everything is in realtime, and not destructive i.e. you can lay it down and edit it and change it to your hearts content, and you do not have to live with result if you decide you don't like it

# you now have at your finger tips and array of possible studio effects (that you will eventually learn to utilize effectively in time) that would literally have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire in the analog days of yore

[DCCougar]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Generally speaking you will want to have your session/s (called "Song" in S1) pre configured as a WAV. file and if you do that it will automatically be saved as a WAV file when you close the song.

Is that how it works in Studio One? I'm using Cubase, and the file format while I'm working in the program is some proprietary format that only Cubase would recognize. Then when all the tracks are finalized, I go to "mix down" (I forget what it's actually called), which enables you to output the mix into a stereo wav file. (You've just got to pick where to start and end on the timeline.)

[phcorrigan]

Originally Posted by KevWind

If S1 Artist is like S1 Pro you can always "Export" in a different format (like MP3 ) for some specific need of MP3.

Artist v4 would only export as WAV, but I believe that's been fixed in v5. If not, the free winLAME (for Windows, I'm sure there's something similar for Mac) will convert WAV to MP3.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by DCCougar

Is that how it works in Studio One? I'm using Cubase, and the file format while I'm working in the program is some proprietary format that only Cubase would recognize. Then when all the tracks are finalized, I go to "mix down" (I forget what it's actually called), which enables you to output the mix into a stereo wav file. (You've just got to pick where to start and end on the timeline.)

Really I did not know that about Cubase (learn something new every day).

I think a some of DAWS that launched early had proprietary recording file formats. If I am remembering correctly Pro Tool originally recorded tin AIFF but then later had the option for WAV
Most of The DAW's that I have used for the last ten years or so,,,, Pro Tools, Reaper, Reason, Studio One Pro, all allow setting the format in preferences