Quote:


Less devices in the signal path = less noise and often a cleaner, clearer signal.



@eddie

This quote from rharv was my point - particularly for mic'ing. I go for minimal active electronics between my source signal and the computer - always. That's just the way I roll.

I guess the difference is that I don't do much multi-tracking of audio signals. The most I have ever recorded at my home 'studio' is 3 channels at once, vocals and stereo mic'ing of my acoustic guitar. I did that one time.

I also don't have room for a mixer in a convenient way, in the room that I record in. In fact, you can see me and my recording room (which doubles as the spare/guest bedroom/son's drum room/etc.) in a video I posted last night. http://youtu.be/NuEU2awyRU4

The wooden thing in the background is the most expensive piece of 'music' gear I have ever bought - a Murphy Bed. "A bed?" you say. Yes, because it folds up against the wall, I can use that room for other purposes (music) some of the time. But no room for a proper mixer/rack/etc. I do have a desk that has rack spaces in both sides and some up on the top (I think there are something like 24 spaces) but nothing racked because I just don't have it on hand. My only rack gear is my Behringer Bass V-Amp pro, but I gig with that a couple times a month, so I don't have it mounted.

The stereo acoustic guitar track for that video was recorded in my living room with a Samson Q2U mic (not in usb mode) and an EV PL80a mic. Neither were intended for instrument micing, but they have pretty tight patterns so they are very forgiving for background noise and what not. I won the EV mic, and I paid $39 for the Samson mic on a clearance shelf at Target, of all places. It is actually a USB mic that can be used purely analog - and it came with some pedestrian circumaural headphones. The pre-amps in my interface give lots of gain with very minimal background noise - it's the main reason I've stuck with that interface and not put it up for sale - because I will tell you the drivers for it stink. Tascam dropped the interface rather than try to do a better job with the drivers. I got it for $99 at Musician's Friend. GREAT preamps - subjectively evaluated against my PreSonus Firebox preamps and my standalone dbx mini pre.

My audio interface (Tascam US-800) has the main 1/2 inputs right on the front. So I'm not crawling around behind something plugging/unplugging - it sits right there on the desktop.

One thing I have considered is an entirely passive patch bay. That could be handy. Then again, that would be a couple hundred dollar investment in good quality cables and the bay. I can get a way cool guitar from rondo for $200. Guess which I would pick?

In my possession have 3 XLR cables, and 3 good quality 15' 1/4 instrument cables. That's it. Two of the 1/4" cables stay in the gig bag. The 'gig' that I have is at church, where I plug in to direct boxes or just plug in one of the church's XLR to the XLR out of the Bass V-Amp Pro.

So, to me, the rather small inconvenience of plugging/unplugging into the interface is worth the clean signals and the money savings. I guess it's because that's just how I grew up recording - starting with an SB Live Platinum card with front-panel inputs in the drive bay thing. I've never even considered putting a mixer into the mix.

It's just a different way that's all. I do think it offers a lower noise signal path in general.

-Scott

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