These are just my preferences...so eek what you can from it. 

For DAW's my preference has been digital performer and Logic Pro over protools. Protools is just as good as any I suppose, but from what I understand from my engineer friends that use all of them it doesn't matter all that much.  the DAW you use should be one that you feel comfortable with. Now that being said, I've basically converted from using DP on my project to logic pro exclusively, and the reason being the recordings made with logic just sound better. Could be it's a 64bit app over a 32, but whatever it is I'm liking it, and being a final cut user, I also like the interface. 

Computers, I would go mac all the way and the most powerful one you can afford, and preferably with a 7200rpm hd. You can go PC if you want too...but I don't know any pro audio outfit that uses them. 

Sound cards and imputs. I've got 16 channels of unballanced, and two pre'd ballanced XLR jacks on my firewire motu mkII sound card. And it has performed very well for me, but I could see you wanting more ballanced pre'd inputs. Take a look at whats out there, I'm probably not the best person to answer a mamoth multitracking live production like Ed's would be, and I've never used the unballanced inputs on my card to tell you that it would sound good (I always wondered why they had soo many 1/4 inch inputs). 

At the end of the day, whatever you get in terms of sound input, it should be capable of 24bit at 48khz at least, and with a low buffer capability...mine goes to 64. ANother reason why I like logic as it's built to deal with these latency issues like no other DAW I've used. 

So not much help here other than telling you what I use and or like. Couldn't help but answer a telegib question, it makes me feel so nostalgic! Hope you're haveing a good new year man!

-sallan

Lots of good software for recording. Logic, Sonar, Cubase, Pro Tools, Nuendo, Digital Performer. Some are better if you work with a lot of Midi and some are better for audio recording.

If you had been thinking about Pro Tools before you would have been tied to their hardware, but with the latest version you can pretty much use any interface, but you'll need an iLok.

As for interfaces with more than 2-4 inputs... also lots costing not much to fairly expensive... in no particular order except how they come out these names seem to pop up a lot... Motu, Focusrite, Presonus, RME, Echo, Apogee, Digidesign, M-Audio, Steinberg etc. A few I am interested in are the MOTU 896mk3, Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56 and Steinberg MR816 CSX. 

FWIW, thanks to eds1275, I ended up buying a Digidesign 11Rack, which came bundled with Pro Tools LE and I haven't had any problems and am real happy. But I can't record more than 4 sources separately at a time, hence looking at the above interfaces, now that Pro Tools has lifted it's hardware requirements and can use other interfaces.

Right now I have a Dell with a Core 2 Quad processor and 8 gigs of ram and a MacBook Pro with with an i7 processor and 4 gigs of ram. Neither has given me any problems although I favor the MacBook because of it's portability.

I came from a Roland MTR (vs2400cd) and haven't had any problems adjusting.

A really inexpensive DAW that seems to be getting a lot of attention is Reaper.... I checked out the demo a couple of years ago and it wasn't too bad. If you just want to get your feet wet that might be a place to start. I think at the time the license for it was like $60.

hey Guys,  Thanks a lot !   I really appreciate the info.  I'm wondering if this is still too much for me at this point .    S I G H .

Thanks again !!

S.

You never know until you give it a go. There are less expensive multi-input interfaces than the ones that I said I was interested in (by all the same manufacturers even).

Or you could just get Reaper (free to try) and one of the less expensive interfaces with less inputs (like Line 6's Toneports... maybe even used) and just experiment before committing to spending any real money. Then, if you find that you like it, sell your cheap interface and get something better... or if you don't like it... sell your cheap interface and forget about... LOL

My recomendation is - don't worry about the software. I am a protools user, on a PC, and it does the same thing as the other ones, just different ways to go about getting the same things done. SO - pick an interface that suits your needs, and use whatever software that comes with! There are plenty of options, ranging from 4-18+ inputs, and some have mic pres and some have line inputs for letting you pick and choose your own outboard pres.

If you have a mixing board, I would say choose an interface without mic pres [or without many], because the ones that come with are probably no better and if so only slightly. You're better off using the gear you have in conjunction with your new toys. You can route your audio out using the inserts, direct outs, aux, busses, groups, matrixes, etc - with and without EQ.

Make sure your interface has the appropriate number of outputs! 2 for speakers is a good start - at the very least you might want 4 - 2 for your speakers, and 2 for a headphone amp. I personally have 4 headphone mixes out of my unit, so I use 10 total. Note that that's separate mixes though, it's actually not too hard to get away with just one mix most of the time.

Most aspects of software are not scary. They all strive to look and operate like a mixing board, and basically boil down to recording the same way:

1. Select your inputs and outputs
2. Set your level with your on board out outboard mic preamp
3. Set your effects using the plug-in inserts
4. Set up any auxilliary outs you may want to use, or send something to a buss
5. Use the fader to set the volume

I will not enter the mac VS pc debate. I use both regularely, and am not for or against either one.

Thanks Eds 1275.   Again, I really appreciate the info. 

Here's another dumb question....can I use my 16 track along with a software program to widen the abilities of mixdown?...and not Record into a computer? 

 IOW, continue to use my 16 track for recording and run my instruments through that....but then somehow use a nicer "mixdown" software program that will connect up with my 16 track and allow me to mix with better options than what my 16 track can do on it's own?

My BR1600 has USB ports and connections.

Thx.

S.

That depends on the capabilities of the BR1600. Personally I have a Roland VS1880 that I use for mobile recording, and I just set each of the 8 tracks to each of the 8 outputs [4 adat, 4 RCA] and spit out all the tracks into protools.

If you can use the br1600 in a similiar way, or maybe output each track as it's own file and then import into your software, you'd be all set. I imagine the USB port would have something to do with all that, however I have had gear with USB ports on them in the past that only uses it for a software update!

Thanks.  Did some research last night on the web.  #1, I'm a doofus for not checking this stuff out before asking.

The BR1600 will export files on it's own to a PC environment, all with the USB port,  but....the process is super slow when using just the BR1600 on it's own.

There is software that will convert the files on the BR1600 and export them to a PC or MAC much, much faster and efficiantly.  It was developed specifically for the BR1600.  It's called WAV-MAKER1600.   This will convert my recorded files to a WAV format and allow me to export them to a PC in a quick easy manner, then I can use whatever DAW software I want to edit, mix, master and finalize the production as desired.  All tracks are saved as files and it was explained as a very easy step to do.  I can also just use the DAW I choose to edit and mix and send the files back to my BR1600 for mastering too. My choice.

So....this is great news for me. I'm excited.

I also discovered I can sync up 2 BR1600's together and use one as a "master" and the other as a "slave" and have up to 32 tracks mix, 16 simultanous inputs for recording....and still then send files to a PC or MAC for editing with different DAW software.

Here's a question.....after reading all this last night, I went to DELL website and "spec'd" out a PC based on the requirements of the software I am interested in (Cakewalk Sonar X1, "studio"), approx $200.00......The cost of the PC I spec'd was very expensive so.....Do I really need all the "requirements" as stated on the software IF I ONLY WANT TOI USE IT TO EDIT , MIX AND MASTER....NOT RECORD DIRECTLY TO THE PC.???

I guess I'm thinking I can use the software on a more affordable PC with less bells and whistles so I can just use it for mixing purposes, not recording.  I would continue to use my BR1600 for all recording.

Thoughts ?

Thanks again in advance.

S.

Telegib, it has been my experience that recording on/with a computer requires very little computing power, but, and here's the rub for you, editing and mixing requires a great deal of computing power, unless you have loads of free time to wait for changes.

Our band used a 500mhz P2 Gateway for years (it finally died a couple of years ago) to record with, 8 simultaneous channels, and had no problems doing so.  The problem was editing and mixing, to illustrate, it would take up to 10 minutes to apply a 3db cut to a track. With up to 12-15 tracks to deal with, this aspect became unacceptable. The work around was to dump everything to disks, and take the tracks home to a faster computer. 

Good luck to ya.

S I G H .

Does anyone know where I can find a lot of money?

LOL.

Chester, thank you.  Appreciate the info.  Not what I wanted to hear but it's what I needed to know.

Thanks again.

S.

Hey Robbissua......Have you used the Reaper software?.....I'm looking at it and reading up on it....interesting.....this might be a good option to start with....my only concern is that in life I've realized you get what you pay for...although free, it's $150.00 after 30 days if you want to continue using it.

Has anyone had experience with Reaper?...positive?,  negative?

thx.

S.

I used Reaper briefly and it was comparable to others I had tried like Sonar and Cubase. Not as full featured maybe, but definitely had them beat on the price/performance aspect. And they were always working on it and adding features and trying to make it better. If it didn't have what you wanted, you could put in a request and a little while later they would put it in for you if possible, esp. if it had multiple requests. All the updates appeared to be free and updates came fairly often. At the time I checked it out (2-3 years ago), it was $60, so I guess it's gone up in price. It was also free to try and the unregistered version didn't expire (it just had a line in the title bar that said unregistered until you got the code that registered it). Had all the basics pan, mix, eq, etc. and some effects delay, reverb, compression, etc. Real flexible routing matrix.

Some of the Pro Tools guys at their forum were even using it in tandem with their Pro Tools rigs because it had features that the LE version of PT didn't have and it could be re-wired to work together with PT. This was before the latest version that just came out and I haven't really heard much more about it in the last couple of months, but for a while Reaper had some really serious followers over there.

Not sure if cost vs. performance is what it used to be since price has gone up, but, judging from my past experience with it, I can only assume it's gotten better and it was pretty good before.

Also, I did bring some of my Roland VS tracks into Reaper to play around with and, as eds said, it works pretty much like any of the other programs out there. And like any other program, people will either like it or not, as they all have different work flows. If it has a trial version still, I would suggest you check it out.

I've heard good things about Reaper. Like I said, most of them actually end up doing the same thing...

About Dell - in my experience, they use the cheapest parts available. The specs always look great for the price, but if you get 2 gigs of no-name ram and 2 gigs of name brand ram... that name brand stuff is gonna outperform the cheap stuff. Customer service is what everyone raves about... my guess is that everyone needs to use it. I haven't bought anything from them since I bought one for my fiance. The onboard graphics wouldn't cut it for her video game, so I bought her a new card and opened it up only to find out that Dell had UNSOLDERED AND REMOVED THE AGP PORT. WTF. Anyway this was a number of years ago and they may be better now.

I did a quick search for you and found a few computers that would be up to the task.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883114091

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103342

I'd also check out www.NCIXUS.com if I were you. The website is down right now though.

Eds,  thanks a lot man. So much appreciated.

S.

Good Morning.  Hey, I just want to say thank you to EVERYONE  who offered some suggestions for me.  I really appreciate all your help.  I've looked into a lot of these already and it's helping me form a better opinion and direction to go.

Thank you.

May I ask 1 more dumb question?.....I've always tweeked my recordings initially through headphones just for basic sound adjustments, but then do the "real" mixdown and majority of  adjustments and mixing the overall production through my room monitors ( Event PS-5 studio monitors).  I've always thought it was best to mix in a room with speakers as oppsed to in phones for the purpose of getting a  more "room realistic" sound.

When you use a computer for mixing audio through a DAW, are you using the computer speakers to listen and mix or do you run regular studio monitors through it?...or are headphones the way to go?

Thanks so much.

S.

My pesonal situation is that I have a seperate set of monitors (JBL) attached to my computer just for this very purpose. I usually listen to mixes through my home stereo, my computer speakers (both the regular, and my monitors) and my car. Headphones seem useful in panning things, but I've never been much of a headphone guy to begin with.

Kinda what I thought.  Great.  Thank you Chester!  and again a million thanks to everyone for chirping in.

Have a great weekend everybody.

S.

I can't believe I missed this thread. What a good one.

funny, I'm actually considering making the opposite switch. Currently I only have a 2 channel USB interface for my pc, which is quite limiting as you can imagine and I don't really care for the software that comes with it either. I can see the usefullness of it for some applications, but it's quite limiting.

Also, as I look into everything I need to get what I would be looking for in an MTR for pc based recording, it's more costly. Strangely enough, despite being a pc technician I find the MTR to be a better fit for me. I like the convenience of having the all in one solution and I like that it's more portable... the MTR is roughly around the same size as a laptop. Also, since I don't have a suitable space for having a band come in to record at my place, I like the idea that with an MTR, I can go to the band. Unfortunately this doesn't necessarily give me good acoustics but they can't be much worse than what I have at home...besides, sometimes the room adds character to the recording - for Example, I forget which Zepplin album it is, but they recorded it in an old castle in England and the room where John Bonham had his drum kit is largely responsible for the huge drum sound on that recording. I recall that Page had suspended mic's from the ceiling in the corners of the room with the drums in the center of the room.