USB Mixers
As a new member of the Voices.com community, I spent an hour or so this evening drifting through various blog pages until I came upon your contributions. Are you an old radio-head? I haven't heard anyone mention OPTIMOD in years, and frankly, I almost quit my radio career when I began seeing computers creeping into the various studios.
However, that was then, this is now...after 34 years on the air and six more years trying to squeeze out some extra income doing voiceovers out of my home studio, I think I've created a modest but well-balanced home studio. I have a custom-configured computer with an Athelon dual-core processor, an M-Audio Delta Series DI, a Shure SM-7 studio mike running through a Mackie Micro Series mixer and recording into Adobe Audition. Everything seems to work just fine, but I do have one question...because the Mackie mixer is a few years old and was previously used by me on many a remote broadcast, I'm thinking of replacing it before it up and croaks on me suddenly. What would you recommend?
Is there a decent, reliable mixer for not too much money that connects via USB, or should I pick up another Mackie? The reason I use an analog unit in the first place is that I have several other sources feeding into the computer which have no way to be fed otherwise (turntable, VHS tape player, audio cassette player...you get the picture). Remember...for me, verstility and cost are two biggies. Thanks for your input...and I've really enjoyed reading your comments to other questions!




