Mac di's

[WeaserP]

Hi everyone. Just breaking in to the home recording scene and want to make sure that i get the right interface for my needs. I've got a new iMac (<1 yr old) and I've been looking at the Alesis MultiMix Firewire 8 but my understanding is that that's a now discontinued item. My requirements are fairly simple at this point - I'll be doing mostly acoustics/electric guitar, vocals, maybe simple drum tracks but probably not much more at this point. Budget is fairly low, maybe <$200 for an entry level di. I bought and read the KHR and, as great as it is, I'm still questioning my ability to pick the right di. Thoughts?

[paul999]

Have you done the sound card wizard? The alesis stuff is great. I wouldn't worry about it being discontinued. See if you can get it cheaper.

Cheers

[WeaserP]

I have done the wizard, Paul. I'm just not positive I'm understanding everything correctly but, if you would agree on the Alesis maybe I am. Just thought I'd check with the minds on the Board here to be sure. Thanks for the response!

[String7th]

You can still egt some great stuff that's been discontinued, but there's also the bad stuff you can find that's absolutely useless. The Presonus Digimax 96k is the perfect example. It's twice as expensive and does the exact same thing the Digimax LT but they still sell both on a bunch of online stores because they are both still in stock.

With a budget of less than $200, you will be stuck in 2-channel interface land, and you will not be able to use the more in depth drum micing techniques, but there's a lot you can do with 2 overheads. And there's always EZdrummer.

Tascam is a good brand, as well as M-audio and Presonus. With what you want to do, stay away from the USB mics, they would be too limited.

[WeaserP]

Yeah, as a primarily solo guitarist, more involved drum mic'ing is probably a bit down the road. Just looking for something that I can record with as well as have enough play techniques (compression, reverb, chorus, delays, etc.). So the Alesis or something similar would be adequate plus a little if I got more involved?

[String7th]

Yeah, as long it comes with Cubase you will have good stuff to learn on. It should have Cubase LE and maybe even a few demos of good software. My Firestudio got me addicted to drum programming with the free version of BFD lite I got.

[WeaserP]

Another question while I have some attention here - if I were to pick one up off the Bay, would you know if they all come with "effects" or is that similar to Cubase where some are being listed with the software and some aren't. In other words, are the effects built inherent to the mixer or are they in the software?

[String7th]

If you were to buy one on Ebay, be certain it's got the Cubase disc. You can't download the software, and the free DAW's around the internet (Reaper) may not have the capabilities and eq/compression freedom Cubase has.

But yes, the eq, reverb, compression, gating, delay and such is all inside Cubase as software. You record dry and add effects inside the computer. Great for messing around with different options.

[WeaserP]

Great. Thanks, S7th! More questions to come I'm sure.