Problem With Mixer In Home Studio So why am I writing this article?Ī reader recently sent me an e-mail asking for help with his home recording studio setup. There will be (on a vast majority of recording interface units) a volume knob to control playback. To hear and monitor playback, you'll either use your computer's speakers, headphones (preferably plugged into your interface and not your computer sound card), or monitor speakers plugged into your interface.

You should either be using a USB microphone plugged straight into your computer ( but only if your budget is under $200), or if you want to ensure professional quality, have an audio recording interface, and plug your microphones and/or instrument inputs into that.Īudio interface units - such as a Focusrite Scarlett or SSL 2 USB Audio Interface are good examples. You almost certainly do not need a standard analog mixerīut my general advice is this: you don't need a mixer for a computer-based home recording studio and trying to add one to your set-up may well cause more confusion and trouble than it's worth. And of course, if you're recording a live band (straight to stereo - not doing multi-track recording), you'll want a mixer for that.

Most importantly (for this type of mixer), it does NOT send any signal into the computer for recording purposes. My mixer, a Mackie 1202 VLZ Pro, sends nothing out except a signal to the speakers/headphones. I DO NOT use it for recording! I feel I need to make this clear based on some comments I've seen on our FB page. I use a small mixer to receive inputs from several sources (computer sound card, two different audio interfaces, etc.) and it is only for listening. For you, I say please YES - use your mixers as you have always done.

And you probably have high-quality mixers that integrate with your computer (or even tape machine for the really old-school folks). If you truly understand all the routing ( gozintas and gozouttas, as I've heard them described), then using a mixer as part of your home studio may well be what you're used to. You experienced recording folks are going to say 'why shouldn't I have a mixer as part of my home studio?' Well as with most things, the idea of a recording mixer is one of those 'it depends' type of situations. Should you have a recording mixer as part of your home studio? For people who are beginners or otherwise not experienced audio engineers, I say definitely not.

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