Tascam US-16x08 - recording tips

[tothemax]

I've got the new interface set up in the studio now and have played around with it enough that I'm familiar with it. My original goal was for an easy way to record practice sessions from the mixer board insert outs. I have that set up on and working on channels 9-16, while it works OK, the recordings are mediocre at best. I'm not sure if it's the Behringer mixer ahead of the DAW - this is work in progress for me. I'm not certain if the insert signal is pre or post EQ, I can tell that the mixer preamp controls are working. Today I'm going to try some direct recording with channels 1 - 8 (XLR) direct via the interface. Latency seems to be minimal, so I'm thinking my recordings should come out better. My microphones are pretty basic but not junk. For vocals I use my stage SM-58, Guitar and Bass cabs Digital Reference DRI100 (SM57 clone), I also have an SE X1A that I use for a room mic.
It seems the track recordings from the mixer seem to be low volume and a little muddy. This could be me, I've just started to seriously work on my recording skills. I'm still a little confused on headphone out from the interface, from the documentation it seems to be a mix of the stereo out from the interface and the DAW. I would think for recording I would only want to hear the output from the DAW. It's a holiday so I'm going get few hours in today. Any tips would be appreciated.

 

[tothemax]

I realize the question above is a pretty vague. Learning new hardware takes some time and I'm in the learning curve now. I did a bit research on my practice/studio mixer, a Behringer Xenyx X2222USB. The insert channels are Pre-Fader / Pre-EQ. If I'm getting a low insert signal then it's probably due to my mixer preamp settings being too low. I have a pretty big amp for a small practice space, so I usually keep everything dialed back. I got busy today and did not get a chance to record anything direct from the interface, will follow up when I have chance to compare recordings.

 

[spantini]

Use your interface gain knobs to set the recording level at your DAW's track fader meters. That should be pre-fader at that point. Post-Fader on playback. If you're not getting enough volume in your phones with a healthy meter reading, that's a monitoring problem which could be from one or more areas and easily adjusted.

 

[And I]

Inputs 11-16 on the back of the device have no gain knobs, so you are on the right track--turning the preamp gain up a bit on the Behringer. make sure inputs 9 and 10 are set to line and not instrument.

the preamps in the Behringer vs the Tascam are about the same as far as sound quality. Decent, fairly sterile, nothing to write home about. But... since the sends from the Behringer are pre fader, pre eq, why use it at all? Just use the mic inputs on the front of the tascam and remove something that's not needed from the signal path. probably won't be much of a different in the end result, but usually a shorter signal path is "better". If you need more than 8 inputs, well then you put the behringer into service and now you've got 16. pretty sweet.

usually, your DAW is going to be configured to output to the stereo bus of the interface so... unless you're utilizing the other hardware outputs, there should be no issue with the headphone output.

 

[tothemax]

Thanks for the feedback... For dedicated recording I'm going direct to the Tascam, channels 1 - 8. Channels 9 - 16 are set up off the Behringer for convenience during practices. If we are working on something and want to get a rough mix we can send the tracks to the DAW directly from the mixer. This is such an improvement the Behringer USB out was a stereo mix, not individual tracks like the Tascam. Really appreciate this forum for recording tips.

 

[tothemax]

Did some direct recording via the interface and worked on getting good signals on each track. Recordings really came out well, very pleased. Seems like it would be a simple concept, but new lesson learned: Get the best recording for each track then adjust it during the mixing process.

 

[And I]

Yup, the best mixes come from the best tracking.