Multitrack Recording via USB

Makobuilder · October 30, 2015

Hello, I did some searching on here but couldn't find an answer to my question.

I'm setting up a home studio for school, and I would like to record multiple, discrete tracks into a PC. I've found a lot of well reviewed mixing consoles, in the $300 range.

Most of the mixers I find only output stereo via USB, but I would prefer having each track recorded separately. I would prefer having a console to mix on, instead of fiddling with software via a mouse, until I absolutely have to, as I have RSI.

Anybody have any suggestions? I've been trying to Google my way to the answer but I'm not sure I'm finding what I need. I've never been much of a gear head.

Thanks

October 30, 2015

There are plenty of multitrack mixers/interfaces out there, but they aren't cheap.

ShearMe · October 31, 2015

This isn't something you buy for a school project

Makobuilder · October 31, 2015

I'm going to school for broadcasting. Years ago I was in school for anthropology, but dropped out in a fit of disillusionment with the academy in particular, and life in general. I did plenty of interviews on tape, but the local school doesn't have an ethnography program. After trade school and subsequent years of dead end work, I decided to pick up the documentarian torch again, but from the technical side. Plus, college is a great place to meet chicks.

I don't expect it to be cheap, I expect it to provide multiple tracks of audio. A/V stuff really isn't, but I got the fire in my belly. I'll come up with the money (really, Sallie Mae and pawn shops will).

But the things I find listed on Sweetwater and similar are leagues ahead of the 30 year old cassette recorders I used for fieldwork. I've got no real experience with a DAW, and while my school has a lab and broadcasting stations, it would behoove me to develop my own portfolio. That's what student loans and pawn shops are for.

phoenix230197 · November 1, 2015

Its been along time since I finished my Audio Engineering quals and I did it at the time digital consoles were coming into the fore. I started on cubase vst, protools and digi designs digi001.

What about the Digi Designs digi 003 series if you can find one around the traps and in particular this: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/digidesign-digi-003-factory-pro-tools-le-workstation#productDetail