My new Behringer QX2442USB Mixer Arrived today. I tried it out by hooking up the outputs on my JAM PRO OUT to the first eight inputs, and recording eight audio tracks on the Falcon with Cubase Audio. I wanted to make sure there was no crosstalk on the channels. I haven’t had all eight analog outputs hooked up before. I usually just used the first two. Of course, I also wanted to “test drive” the mixer.
I am sending the main mix to my studio monitors, and Sub one and two are going through my ART DI/O into Falcon Digital Interface.
The recordings came out sounding clear with eight independent channels and no noise, just like I wanted. At first some of the pans on the GRAPHIC mixer I use in Cubase were not set fully to the right or left, so I thought something was wrong. Once I got the Pans set correctly, everything was just fine. It is a little tricky to get them fully right or left. There are four buses, and you pan everything left or right to get the eight channels (bus one left and right gives you channels one and two, and etc.).
My JLCooper DataSync2 also arrived today. It is in great shape and includes the manual and the ADAT sync cables.
I’m not sure how I will hook up the ADAT XT when it arrives. I have a lot of experimenting to do. It would have been best to have a larger mixer, but I couldn’t afford the money or the space for that. My studio space is tiny.
I’m hoping that the Datasync2 will sync everything together with Midi Time Code. What I am concerned about is that I am not sure that Cubase provides the Midi Machine Control to move the transports on the ADAT XT. The DataSync2 manual seems to read that the ADAT is master. I would rather control everything from the Falcon, but I supposed if I can ready the ADAT to record, and it will start the Cubase sequencer and stay in sync, then everyting will be fine. It is going to be an interesting experiment. Cubase has drivers and mixer maps for the old Fostex reel to reel recorders, and it looks to me that as long as I am converting ADAT Sync to MTC, things should work.
Most of the time I will be recording to the hard disk on the Falcon, but it doesn’t do multitrack recording. This is where the ADAT comes in. If I need to do some multitrack, I can use the ADAT, and bounce that to the Falcon.
One serious limitation I was running in to is the single MIDI out on the Falcon. There are few add on MIDI interfaces you can use, but they are difficult to find. I need two outs for my two synths, so I am going to try the MACMAN MIDIMAN interface that you can hook up to the LAN port on the Falcon. I found both the standard MIDIMAN and the MINI MIDIMAN on eBay for a great price. Hopefully one of these will do the job. I need two MIDI outs!
Well this is getting way too long! Here is a photo of the new mixer:
