New to hardware / outboard / analogue .advice and Help appreciated

[scottishraver]

Hi all .
It's been about 4 years since iv touched my music PC , moving house twice and becoming a dad has put messing with sounds on the bottom of the things iv been able to do .
However I'm trying to get back into the swing of things .
After wiping my PC I bought a stienberg ur22 , as my last interface had crackles etc

But around 2 weeks later A friend has basically just gave me 3 electribes and a mfb 522 drum machine for an amazing price .

So having never used hardware before my question is what's the best way for me to start using this gear .
How do you use hardware in your productions ?
Would I be better buying another interface with more ins and outs ? Or an anolougue desk to record as 1 stereo file ?
Or should I just record loops and hits into ableton and arrange a track from there ?
I'm selling all my dj gear to free up funds for either of the above and possibly an analogue synth .

Any advice on ways I could work or links to tutorials for producing with outboard gear would be much appreciated .i also look forward to hearing about the way you produce , route and record using outboard into a PC .

Any replys appreciated ,
Thanks in advance

[BertKoor]

Would I be better buying another interface with more ins and outs ? Or an anolougue desk to record as 1 stereo file ?
Or should I just record loops and hits into ableton and arrange a track from there ?

You do whatever you can
If all this stuff is all playing at the same time, then you could record it all at the same time. In separate tracks if possible.
But you could as well just record one device at a time. Then your current interface suffices quite well, and you don't really need a mixer. Do all that InTheBox. Makes it also easier to correct mistakes and polish it up further.

[thecontrolcentre]

If you have more gear than inputs on your audio imterface then a mixer will come in handy. I use a ZED 14 to connect my analog gear to my pc. It has a built in audio interface.

[SWAN808]

first of all decide if you like these instruments...then if you want to use them in your productions you can hook them up via midi - and run the audio into your computer vi a small mixer such as the soundcraft M4 or allen heath zed 10....or you can do what many poeple do and forget about a mixer - and have them going straight into an audio interface - which will need more inputs. If you dont want to spend loads the steinberg or focusrite ones are not bad...

The other thing you can do is to just sample the sounds into your computer as you need them...

[scottishraver]

If you have more gear than inputs on your audio imterface then a mixer will come in handy. I use a ZED 14 to connect my analog gear to my pc. It has a built in audio interface.

I was looking at the zed mixers seen them in a few studios on the net .
When you say it has a built interface does that mean I can record the separate channels together into ableton through the USB ? or will it still be just the final stereo mix / 1 at a time ?

Thanks for all above replies

[thecontrolcentre]

The ZED mixers have a stereo out via USB (plus around 3 other stereo outputs and a mono out.). Would be great if you could multi-track with them, but the prices would be much higher if that was the case. They are 16 bit only FYI.

[scottishraver]

The ZED mixers have a stereo out via USB (plus around 3 other stereo outputs and a mono out.). Would be great if you could multi-track with them, but the prices would be much higher if that was the case. They are 16 bit only FYI.

Thanks for the info ,
I thought I read they had 24 bit conversion ?

[thecontrolcentre]

Maybe the new ones do ... dunno. Mine is a couple of years old and is 16 bit. I only use the analog outs anyway.

[scottishraver]

Maybe the new ones do ... dunno. Mine is a couple of years old and is 16 bit. I only use the analog outs anyway.

Thanks for the speedy replies and help mate .

[faun2500]

I have my analogue synths going direct into reaper via a rme fireface uc. It works well, As I get more synths I will run out of inputs so would have to get another audio interface or mixer but for how I do things each synth needs its own channel really.

You have some good ideas already. Sometime I will just sample a sound and use it in kontakt. Like today I done just that with the little monotron duo for a sub bassline. Other times I will record noodling and take good bits out and arrange in the DAW. Lots of ways to do it.

Do what inspires you!