Mixer for keyboards into audio interface - recommendations please?

[Arpangel]

Mixer all the way, you’ve immediately got hands on control of EQ, effects sends to use, and live mixing.
How many inputs do you need? I’d look out for a secondhand A&H MixWiz, or on the other hand, a current Behringer will sound perfectly fine, something like a UX2442, I had one of these and it sounded fine, Yamaha are fine, Mackie, but the Behringer ones are exceptionally good value for money.

You see, it really comes down to the way you want to use it. Arpy wants the ability to grab a fistful of faders and EQ knobs in real time in one hand while he plays his keyboards with his other three hands, I get that, as he's a polydextrous meta-human, and that makes sense to the way he uses the gear.

For me the perfect situation is that all my external keyboards are available on an input to my DAW, to pull up at a moments notice, so my ideal solution would be a multi-input interface (possibly via a patchbay to give me flexibility to patch in external effects, etc- but these days I tend to be more than happy with plug-in FX so the patch bays are largely unused now)

You have to figure out what's right for you

After all these years, it still feels "wrong" to have to switch on a computer to record anything, I really don’t know why, but it does.
And I feel really insecure not having a mixer.
As I get older, an OS, an application, and a platform, are actually, more likely to see me out, so I don’t know why I even worry about those things.

[The Elf]

After all these years, it still feels "wrong" to have to switch on a computer to record anything, I really don’t know why, but it does.

Any real difference to having to switch on a mixer and tape machine?

[ef37a]

After all these years, it still feels "wrong" to have to switch on a computer to record anything, I really don’t know why, but it does.

Any real difference to having to switch on a mixer and tape machine?

AND cleaning the 'king tape path!
AND finding a virgin tape
AND lacing the fekker up
AND having 'end of tape' anxiety!

But then you can glory in the 2% THD (if yer lucky) the HF squash and the wow and flutter. Oh! And the noise...must not forget the noise!

Dave.

[adamburgess]

After all these years, it still feels "wrong" to have to switch on a computer to record anything, I really don’t know why, but it does.

Any real difference to having to switch on a mixer and tape machine?

I sort of get it. Took me years to trust a computer to be my main live sound source. Only feels right now. This is after sequencing on Macs since 1991ish.

And, I'm sure I recorded differently to tape than the red light syndrome I feel with computers…

I can still play a real piano, mind, and love it!

[Guido3]

I used an Alesis AI-3 to give me 8 analogue INs into my UAD Apollo X.

[Martin Walker]

I used an Alesis AI-3 to give me 8 analogue INs into my UAD Apollo X.

If only the Alesis AI-3 with its line-level inputs was still available (so many of us really don't need mic preamps for keyboards & synths!)

Some do appear on the second hand market though

[Arpangel]

It’s the feeling of insecurity, that your music doesn’t really exist, it’s a load of invisible digits, that are at the mercy of all the usual computer related anxiety’s around obsolescence. You don’t have something real, to hold, like a tape.

[The Elf]

It’s the feeling of insecurity, that your music doesn’t really exist, it’s a load of invisible digits, that are at the mercy of all the usual computer related anxiety’s around obsolescence. You don’t have something real, to hold, like a tape.

Ah, you mean that tape that degrades over time (and every time it passes over a play head), is not so forgiving of hitting the wrong 'record' button at the wrong time, sheds its oxide and can be erased by placing it too near a speaker? Don't get it creased, either. Your audio is just invisible magnetism on a thin layer of rust. It seems to me that most tape machines are pretty much obsolete now, too. If you want anxiety, try a spot erase or two!

Any such rose-tinted 'permanence' of tape is illusory. Put your hard drive in an old tape box - that's just as 'real'!

Personally I have perfect copies of all the audio I *ever* recorded to computer in at least five places (impossible to do with tape due to generative degradation). And I can re-play any of my audio any time, regardless of the computer it was recorded on - from ancient Mac, PC or Atari Falcon. No need to hire a place maintaining delicate old machines to recover it. I know which format I'd trust to keep my audio safe.

[Drew Stephenson]

Music I have lost of tape = lots and lots.
Music I have lost as wav files = very, very little. Would have been none until a fortnight ago.

[MarkOne]

It’s the feeling of insecurity, that your music doesn’t really exist, it’s a load of invisible digits, that are at the mercy of all the usual computer related anxiety’s around obsolescence. You don’t have something real, to hold, like a tape.

Throughout history music has been the one art form that doesn’t exist, in the same way as a painting, or sculpture say. You could argue that literature falls into that category too, because music and literature only existed in a form that requires decoding from a page, but with widespread literacy, literature was accessible to many, but unless you could read music and decode it into the played form, it was something you could only experience in the moment while it was being performed.

The advent of recording opens up the experience to many, but in the years up to the phonograph was Bach or Beethoven or Mozart only something that waited for people with the skill to make it real in the moment. (And that moment was different every time due to the subjectivity of the performer)

I guess, what I’m saying, is should music have an ephemeral dimension and should we not get anxious about the permanent nature of tape or drive.

Ok… back to your regular programme folks…

[Drew Stephenson]

I would only worry about the long-term permanence of my music if I thought that anyone else would want to listen to it.

[Drongoloid]

I would only worry about the long-term permanence of my music if I thought that anyone else would want to listen to it.

likewise....the idea that you would create music with the expressed desire that others listen to it is a very recent idea and of course the technology to record music has helped that. Of all the music created/ played/ written since the beginning of time probably one billionth of one percent is recorded for posterity; and most of that didn't deserve to be.

Most music has been about performance and the involvement of an immediate audience - most should stay that way. A conversation with your mates in a pub after a few beers may be a laugh for those involved but art it isn't (although most broadcast companies seem to think it is these days).

[The Elf]

I would only worry about the long-term permanence of my music if I thought that anyone else would want to listen to it.

[Arpangel]

I’m not worried about loosing it, that’s actually quite a good thing, it’s like a filter that I have no control over, I quite like that.
It’s understanding, and ownership that bothers me, digits are a mystery I’ll never understand, I look at a tape head, and a piece of tape, and understand it fully, that gives me a funny feeling of security.
Of course I want others to listen to my music, and I have 150% confidence that I’m doing something worthwhile, if you haven’t got the confidence to say that then I can’t figure out why you’d do anything.

[6120]

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