what’s wrong with jack-rack ? can you make and post a snapshot of the connector patchbay window of qjackctl when you attempt to play your guitar through jack-rack ? and also a jack-rack window snapshot.
I’d recomend going with an m-audio Mobile pre, which is what i’m using, and it cost me $150. Works pretty damn good for my basic guitar tracks. using this will bypass your soundcard entirely, so you’ll get a cleaner signal going into the machine. it’s also really low latency since it’s usb. i’m using it on os x though. probably should work in linux fine.
About the h/w, don’t know for that price. If you plan to use the mixer’s preamps, be sure they are good. I just read a review on the 1st gear you mention (the SA MDR6). It’s in french, here it is :
Sonorité :
Alors là, c'est le drame ...
Pas de gain reglable sur les voies 5/6 et 7/8 ... pourtant la presence d'un preampli micro necessite celà !!!
Toutes les tranches à 0 meme avec rien de branché dessus ... montez le master et vous entendrez un joli sons de pluie. C'est vachement bien si vous voulez vous specialiser dans les bruitages de pluie ... mais pour le live/enregistrement ... c'est plutot pas top ...
Les Preamps son crades ... Son Agressif, Basses baveuses, mediums semi parametrique bloqué a 2,8 kHz (Beuuurk). Bon ok par rapport aux autres consoles de meme calibre y'a des fadders ... enfin si on peux appeler ca comme ca.
which means :
Sound :
Let me tell you, it’s a disaster!
No settable gain on busses 5/6 and 7/8 … though the presence of a mic preamp would require it!!!
All tracks set to 0, even with nothing plugged to them … raise the master volume and you will hear a nice rain sound. It is excellent if you want to specialize in rainy noise creation … but for live /recording … it’s rather not tip-top …
The preamps are crap … Agressive sound, “drooling” bass, semi parametric mediums stuck at 2.8 kHz (yaaak). Well, to be fair by comparison with other gears of that kind, there are faders … well, if one can call them so.
Mmm that not a quite positive story about the mixer…
Is it better for me to just buy a new soundcard?
Some say buy a m-audio Mobile pre, others something like a m-audio audiophile 2496. What the difference and what’s better? Can you use a mobile pre also with a mixer (for if I decide to buy such a thing later in my career )? And isn’t a mixer better then a m-audio mobile pre?
Right now I just put the guitar in the line-in of my onboard soundcard (82801DB-ICH4), and the sound goes out to my stereo amplifier and then to my speakers…
it’s very hard for me to advise you with such a budget. You can look into USB devices, they seem to be popular nowadays. It’s all a matter of how many i/o’s you need. I use an RME Hammerfall DSP + RME Multiface II together with a RME QuadMic preamp system (way above your budget) but I tell you, I am more than satisfied and it fulfills all my needs (8 analog balanced i/o’s, MIDI io, spdif/adat, quadmic preamps with line or mic level input with phantom power on each channel, etc). Cannot ask for more in my modest home studio.
The m-audio audiophile 2496 has worked well for me. Then get one of the mixers you mentioned or even get something smaller ($50-60). This way you mix the input before going into the soundcard. I’ve heard good things about the RME Hammerfall on linux forums, but they are overkill for my use.
I also have an m-audio audiophile USB that sounds great, but has always been a pain to record with on both Windows and especially Linux. It should eventually work, but it requires too much tweaking and the latency is not as good at least in my experience.
The 2496 has 1 stereo input rca jacks (or 2 mono). There is also a spdif digital input, but I have only used the analog so I don’t know if the digital in/outs work.
My setup is very basic and I record 1 stereo track at a time. For example: Mic --> Mixer --> Soundcard RCA. The mixer is needed to get the correct input level. This allows you to get a good recording of one instrument at a time.
OR you could have a mic/guitar going into the mixer and send the mixed sound to the soundcard. This limits what you can do with it later since you can’t tweak individual instruments anymore.
OR i suppose you could get vocal mono on the left channel, and guitar mono on the right channel in the mixer, record the stereo output, then split the stereo output into monos once it’s in the software. this sounds like it would work, but might introduce noise and be a pain.
Like a previous post said, it’s all about the inputs and outputs and how many you really need. There are many more options if you get a card with multiple inputs, but costs start to go up quickly since you’ll also need better mixers to go with the multiple inputs.
i have a similar though smaller Behringer mixer. It has 2 xlr inputs which you can pan to the left and right to get to seperate output channels. They sound OK and noise is not a problem here, when I use the symmetric inputs at least.
I was hoping to use the “aux” channel as a third channel but it’s not an option as the “aux” is post-fader.
Beware, the newer “Xenyx” models of the small behringer mixers do not have 48V phantom supply so you can’t use condensor mics.
Altogehter I’m quite happy with the thing, it’s compact as well.
