How do you record onto separate tracks when playing together?

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Member Since: Feb 08, 2007

I’m trying to put together a system to record myself and my band. I’ afraid I have a fundamental gap in my knowledge that I hope you good people can put right.

If I have a mixer with say 8 channels on it and we all plug into that, then I can get a good well-balanced sound that then comes down into 1 cable. Let’s say it’s a FireWire mixer.

The question is how do I keep the separate channels on separate track in Sonar Home Studio? Does the mixer come with drivers that examine the FireWire data and splits it up into separate “virtual ports” or “virtual channels” that I can then assign to separate tracks in Sonar? Or do I have to simply record everything that comes down the FireWire cable onto one track?

How does this differ if I use a non-FireWire mixer that goes straight into a PCI soundcard via the line-in for example?

I don’t want to waste a lot of money on a system if it isn’t right, and we would like to be able to record ourselves playing live in the studio as a band (rather than all playing separately and recording each person individually one after the other) but we would like all the instruments and vocals (via their own mic’s) to go onto separate tracks for mixing and tweaking.

Is this feasible?

I suppose I’m asking what mechanisms are there for all of us playing together into microphones, but all of the microphone outputs being recorded simultaneously and going to separate Sonar tracks?

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Eat Spam before it eats YOU!!!
Member
Since: May 11, 2002


Feb 08, 2007 09:18 am

it depends on the mixer. generally speaking:

the mixer will have an AD/DA converter in it so whats going though the firewire cable is all data...allowing the drivers on the computer to differentiate between channels... so you would be able to open SONAR or whatever and select channel 1 or 4, etc.

Prince CZAR-ming
Member
Since: Apr 08, 2004


Feb 08, 2007 09:40 am

Yep, what zek said, firewire devices often create multiple inputs in the software. If the device driver has, say, 8 possible inputs, then sonar you'd see something like 'input 1', 'input 2', etc. Then you would arm each track for recording it's input, and press record.

Also, there's multi-analog-input cards, like the Maudio Delta 1010 (or 1010lt). On these, you would run from the preamp (in a mixer) to the interface inputs. This uses a PCI card to interface with the computer, instead of firewire.

So yes, it's done all the time, called multi-tracking.

Member
Since: Dec 11, 2006


Feb 08, 2007 11:12 am

well it depends on the firewire interface you are using, sometimes u can get some really good ones, for a lot of money mind you, but you can get them that split into separate imputs so you can play around with the tracks individually, they are normally used for the live band recoding perposes, but this is the esayest way if you have money. but the way ur saying ur trying to do it is kinda difficult, the way i have gone around that problem is by just paning the separte channels to left or right and have 2 tracks recording at once.

ultimately it depends on our gear, which u havent mentioned

Member
Since: Dec 11, 2006


Feb 08, 2007 11:20 am

im going to long and macquade like 2night so ill get the brand name of the firewire interfaces that do the multiple track splitting

Uh, at least one more time . . .
Member
Since: Feb 07, 2007


Feb 11, 2007 01:42 pm

Why don't you try (maybe you already have)
mixing your band down to two tracks and into the recorder from there? That is what a sound engineer does live anyway; a true "live recording"
is a mix of everybody in stereo. To really get the effect you're looking for would require soundproof rooms for all (especially the drummer).
I used to want to do that too, but it requires expensive hardware and software, and ideally an engineer behind the glass wall twiddlin' knobs.
Yes, what you're looking for is feasible. It's also expensive, and time-consuming. I would just keep rehearsing and recording in stereo, adjusting things as you go. Make quick cd mixes
of each session and listen in the car, and at home. Take note of levels on the board, and before long you'll have nice, stereo "live" mixes
that don't need any adjusting--no mean feat.


Member
Since: Jan 07, 2007


Feb 12, 2007 01:05 am


I went with the M-Audio Delta series. Firewire and virtual channel voodoo can be spendy.

I record our group starting from "one take" multi inputs mixed with a live sound mixer. I have (4) aux output sends. You can also use channel inserts for this. Four isolated "dry" outs go into (4) PC inputs via a Delta-44 sound card. One channel is vocal, one is the drum mix sum, next is guitar. Last is bass, keys or background vocals combined. The mixer stereo outs go to the house monitor system where we hear a "wet" mix.

When the band goes home I have some pretty good stuff to play with. Add effects and a quick mix down to stereo in a snap for review. Or most often you start playing around adding layers and proper effects to the tracks going for more of a studio result. It's all fun.

You could start with 8-10 channels but PC horsepower also factors in when recording.

Member
Since: Feb 13, 2007


Feb 13, 2007 02:42 am

If your board has subs on it you could use your subs out --- assign each track to one side (ie) right or left on each channel . say ou have 4 subs -- running mono on each of these will give you 8 mono tracks then make your conversion to stereo in cakewalk

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