actually, i just looked at genelec's prices and yeah, that ain't happening for me right now. =)

so you are happy with the Edirol monitors? 

.- OH yeah.

someone above was suggesting genelec instead. 

.- Overkill and very expensive, unless you do serious audio work. And I mean serious audio work (multitrack mixing, etc.).

so your monitors are powered....do you need to have a sub?

.- I'm an Editor, not a Sound Engineer (My brother is)

All I need is a faithful reproduction of what I'm doing.

But, yes, you can add a sub if you want.

Actually, the speakers used for mastering are somewhat crappy, to replicate real world situations.

My brother use Genelec and JBL for mixing, but for mastering he uses a very old pair of Guyatone full range speakers with an old Pioneer home amp.

Edirols are fine for mixing but are also very good for mastering.

And when I finish the final mix, I master (sort of) using TV speakers, to hear how my audio sounds on real world situations.

  i'm just fearful sometimes of speakers in a theater playing the bass stronger and thus blowing something out too much when it sounded great in editorial. =|

.- Decent speakers with 6" (and up) woofers will give you more than enough bass.

how many tracks does your mixer support? 

.- It has four channels, plus the audio card's I/Os.

The bigger model,  compact 10,  has 10 channels plus the audio card's I/Os.

I need a minimum track support of probably 12-14.  are there any gotchas when getting one from soundcraft?  certain model you'd recommend?

.- Are you recording BANDS??

so the mixing board accepts the input from the Mojo....but how does it know to split stuff out?

.- Sorry, I don't understand.this question.

A piece of equipment (with the exception of  R2D2 and C3PO) doesn't know anything, you have to set things up.

awesome....thanks, edirol it is.  i've done that too...listen on the TV as stuff sounds different. 

my last question reflects my lack of knowledge.  here is my typical situation: 2-4 tracks of production sound in Avid, 4 tracks for FX, 4 tracks for music.  does that not equate to that many tracks on the board?  i just figured it was like mixing from ProTools (which i still haven't done much of).

so if I have a mojo, does that mean i'm limited to like freaking two tracks out?  do the new macs have sound cards good enough to do this stuff?

unfortunately, you are correct about Mojo.  you only have 2 channels of analog in/out via Mojo (unless you use the AES audio i/o's, which i believe will allow you 4 channels of digital (which won't be compatible with any of the audio consoles mentioned thus far).  the Mojo will not preserve your multi-track separations on output or allow you to input multi-track (beyond that mentioned above).  That i know of, AXP doesn't support real-time, multi-track output except through the Avid Studio setup.

as for the sound card, that is not really an issue as long as you have a decent sound card.  the Mojo handles the audio i/o independent of your system sound card.  I don't know about the "new macs", but i would assume that the stock card is sufficient for editing purposes.

if you want to be able to mix multi-track audio on playback using an external mixer, i believe the only option is to use the Avid Studio setup with the Digi02 mixing console.  i don't use this setup, so i can't say for sure what the capabilities or limitations are, but i can say for sure that it is well beyond the scope of the budget you've mentioned.  with that budget, i would recommend getting some decent speakers & mixing within Avid using the Mix Tool & Audio Auto Gain.

hope that helps.

shane

 One final suggestion for speakers, if you haven't taken the plunge already -  Blue Sky's MediaDesk 2.1 sub/sat system. Pound for pound the best near-field monitoring system I've ever heard, and they take up very little desk-top space. Audition them if you can.

you only have 2 channels of analog in/out via Mojo (unless you use the AES audio i/o's, which i believe will allow you 4 channels of digital

.- Mojo SDI has 4 analog I/Os, 4 AES/EBU I/Os and 8 channel digital audio I/Os embbeded in SDI

(which won't be compatible with any of the audio consoles mentioned thus far). 

.- A mixer is mainly for monitoring, VO recording and some routing.

If you want to output more than two channels using the mixer, you'll have to buy a mixer with four or more BUSES (much more expensive, of course)

A mixer is for MIXING.

Anyway, DV, HDV, and most Betacam SP (except the extinct BVW series and some converted PVWs) supports only 2 channels, in and out.

Some DVs and some HDVs supports 4 channels. But with the Mojo SDI,  you are covered.

Digibeta supports 4 channels.

the Mojo will not preserve your multi-track separations on output or allow you to input multi-track (beyond that mentioned above).  

.- Mojo SDI allows you to input and output 8 tracks separated via SDI embbeded audio, 4 analog or 4 AES/EBU (more than enough)

Mojo standard,  2 channels, mixed or separated..

That i know of, AXP doesn't support real-time, multi-track output except through the Avid Studio setup.

.- Avid (both AXP and MC) supports real time multitrack (up 8 tracks) output perfectly.

We do that everyday.

There is no commercial broadcast video recorder that suppports more than 8 separated audio channels.

Maybe a rare esoteric format or a modified one.

thanks indigo spin, and i'll check out those speakers bee gee.

raspago:  that cleared stuff up for me - thanks...when I look at ten tracks of audio in the timeline, when that is sent out of the mojo, they are all slammed together whether it be firewire or normal AES in and outs.  i guess i was looking at this like ProTools to a mixing board where each track in the software equalled a track on the board.

anyone used the Event Studio Precision 8 Powered Monitors? 

thanks, raspago, for clarifying.  i did neglect to point out the extra 2 analog channels & SDI channels on the SDI Mojo (which is dumb, because that's what i use!)

"i guess i was looking at this like ProTools to a mixing board where each track in the software equalled a track on the board."

jasperfdo, i gathered that you were thinking along these lines.  as raspago accurately pointed out, you have up to 4 analog channels & 4 s/pdif (Mojo SDI only) of output you can send to a mixer.  (there is no mixer within the universe of your budget that will accept & extract embeded SDI audio, which means that if you want to use those channels, you will need to convert the SDI audio to analog for your mixer.  i assumed you didn't want to go to that extent given your budget!)   of course nothing you do during playback on a mixer will affect the audio tracks in Avid.  as i mentioned before, beyond those 4 i/o's (8 SDI), Avid doesn't support real time multi-track output.

to accomplish what you want, you will need to use another software application (if you don't want to use Avid).  but as raspago mentioned, there are not many uses for audio masters with more than the standard # of tracks.  which also means you can probably live with a smaller & less expensive mixer... per your earlier posts.

shane

thanks...yeah, i was just all screwed up.  i've done a couple mixes with ProTools and a large mixing board, and that was just enough to be dangerous. it was infecting my Avid thinking.  =)

I can testify for BlueSky monitors.

We use it in our music recording studio -- very good! We're actually using the ProDesk 2.1 system.

For a monitor/recording mixer, a small one is fine but like they mentioned, you may want to consider extra inputs for other sources like CD, tape, DVdeck, laptop, etc.. - I find them really usefull.

QUICK LIST:

• Yamaha MW12CX 12-Channel USB Mixer - you can use the USB capability for other audio application such as Audition. The compressors are really interesting. I can definitely use them for voice recording.
• Mackie1402 - Mackie knows audio. I have used them for monitoring and recording - very nice!
• Alesis MultiMix 8USB Mixer - you can use the USB capability for other audio application such as Audition.
• Behringer EURORACK UBB1002 -This is what I am using now. I really love the extra stereo inputs. It may seem like a downgrade but we always have our nice audio room to handle the final audio.

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enjoy!