Recording feed from mixer board (with room mics)

[tothemax]

I have two mixers, a Behringer X1222USB in my practice studio, and a Behringer X2222USB that we use for gigs (and band practices). We like to record our practices and using my Tascam DR 5 hand recorder works but loses a lot of the mix, we have a drummer and a full percussionist in a big room. What I'm trying to work out is adding a couple of condenser mics into the mix (for the room) and then take that feed. I don't want the room mics in main out so I'm thinking I use the monitor (Aux) send on the X1222 board, and either Aux 1 or 2 send on the X2222 to my recorder. Both of these boards have a stereo out (USB and RCA jacks) but I'm pretty sure that they are dedicated to the main outs. The manuals says that the Aux sends are always mono, there is a single slider output control for the monitor out so that makes sense.

Two questions:
1) The spec sheets for both mixers show the Aux sends as TS unbalanced - so that is just a regular mono 1/4 phone connector?
2) I'm planning on using the Tascam DR-5 to record with, it has a stereo input jack. I'm thinking I can use a mono phone plug with a splitter, will that work without damaging either of devices?

Will appreciate any feedback or suggestions

 

[And I]

you could use 2 auxes (if they are both pre-fader sends, as your faders will be down to keep them out of the mains) and a Y cable that brings each aux out to a stereo signal and plug that in. Most common is a dual-RCA to stereo 1/8" with rca to 1/4" TS (mono) adapters going into aux 1 and 2 out. Plugging a mono cable into the line in won't damage anything but it might not work. You may get everything on one side.

But my advice is don't do any of this. the DR5 is already literally a couple of condenser mics in the room. it shuts off the internal mics when you plug something in to the line in... you'd just have two different room mics that likely won't be any better as far as bringing things that are quiet in the room to the forefront. If you want a better mix you need a recorder with more inputs and close mics on the things that are too quiet. Alternatively you can move the things that are quiet closer to the recorder, or have the things that are too loud play more quietly.

 

[And I]

Doesn't the x2222 let you connect to a computer via USB and record each input as a separate channel into a daw?

 

[tothemax]

Actually, the USB out does a stereo send of the main out, same as the tape in/out. You can send a single channel or the whole mix to your DAW.
I'm using the DR5 as a room mic but the way we have our monitors, facing the band, the instruments are drowning out the vocals. I'd like to get the direct output from the board and also get the room sound for drums and guitars.
But a TS 1/4" phono plug is different than a regular 1/4" mono cable (say guitar cable). That part of my confusion here.
Thanks for the feedback.

 

[And I]

oh i see! that makes sense.

a "phono plug" like... from a record player? "phono" refers to phonograph. a 1/4" TS cable is a 1/4" mono cable. i'm not sure what this 1/4" TS "phono cable" you are talking about is. record players mostly use RCA cables, and they are all stereo.

i would not use a mono send to the stereo input of the recorder. it may not work right. i would use aux 1 and aux 2 (set aux 2 to "pre") to send to the tascam. get a Y cable (two TS connectors on one end, one TRS connector on the other) to patch from aux send 1 and 2 on the board into the line in on the tascam. you can get a 1/4" to 1/8" stereo adapter and you're golden. or you can get an RCA to 1/8" stereo cable and put 2 RCA to 1/4" TS adapters to plug into the aux 1 and 2 out. aux 1 will be the left side, aux 2 will be the right. send equal levels to both auxes and it will be panned center.

 

[tothemax]

Wanted to post an update, finally was successful with this endeavor. But not as originally planned. I ended up using a small 4 channel mixer as my condenser mic input controller and then sending the main outs (stereo) to a stereo channel on my main mixer (Behringer X2222USB). This allowed me to have good control over the condenser mic channels and easy control of the output (with +48v phantom power). I could use headphones to dial in my room sound on the smaller mixer pre-send to the main mixer.

On my main board this let me use a channel with 1/4" inputs rather than one of my 8 XLR channels, which was a plus. The results were pretty decent. On the condenser mic channel on my main mixer I left the main volumes off and controlled the mix on AUX1. My mix had room mics only for amps, with vocals and a drum machine coming through the mixer - as I mentioned I was pleased with the results. For the connection to the DR-01 I connected one leg of a stereo RCA to 1/8" cable to the Aux1 send (with an RCA to 1/4" TS adapter) and set the recorder to mono. It worked fine.