thanks for the quick response...
the only thing is, i dont have a MIDI port (could i get a USB-> MIDI adapter?)
anyone know of anything else out there?
this may work just fine... ill look into it more
again
thanks
pj

Yes, anything that adds a midi port can be used to connect with the Mackie surface control.

Gary

midi sends all the audio signals plus adjusts faders within vegas?
is there any board that connects via FireWire?

im surprised the macki doesnt connect via firewire, or usb 2.0

pj

No, no audio passes through the Mackie, and you DON'T want it to. Anytime the audio leaves the computer as an analog signal, you lose quality. Mackie's Onyx system connects via Firewire, but you'll gain nothing.
Tascam's boards, not officially supported, can be mapped to work great in Vegas, and act as a sound card with USB inputs. Cheaper than the Mackie, but not remotely as sweet.

ok, then what is the record feature on the mackie for?
im confused, is it strickly for post?
i want to be able to run a up to 8 lines in at once, to 8 individual tracks on vegas 5.

i want faders, pods, (meters would be nice) and inputs...
thats essentially it.

(i mainly want it for recording.. for post i dont mind going in and using the vegas interface...)

thanks
pj

would this work with vegas 5?
http://www.tascam.com/Products/US-428.html

should i contact them?
ill look into it more.. but before i buy it i would really like to know if everything would work right..

obviously

pj

No, the newer/big Tascam isn't mapped to work with Vegas 5.
Read this article. http://www.dvdcreation.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=26514

Maybe that will help you understand.
Think of Vegas as the multitrack recorder, and the Mackie as the mixer board. But no audio ever goes into the Mackie. It's a controller. It gives you the buttons, knobs, etc that you want without the noise of analog.

im sorry, maybe im missing something...
i want audio going throug it..
i want to run my mics, guitars, drums, THRU it, with fader control, TOOO my computer. i dont want the mackie (i can do post in vegas just fine, although it would be nice, i dont care to dish out 1200 for that)

i would dish out some dough for what i described above...
wasnt it you spot who pointed me towards tascam.. now your saying the new/bigger ones dont work with vegas 5...
what are the newer/bigger ones??
would the one i included in the post (the http://www.tascam.com/Products/US-428.html)
work?

i want something just like that... that WILL work with vegas 5

thank you again
pj

If you want to work this way, then you'll need a mixer, and a sound card that can accept multiple outs. ANY analog system can do this just fine. However, it won't interface with Vegas directly.
You want automation control with analog inputs, that directly interfaces with Vegas. Nothing available right now that does this.
The Mackie has no audio, because audio shouldn't pass through it. It can control your inputs for Vegas, and if you read my article carefully, you'll see how it works as both an input and output device. It controls the input gain, it can control the compressors, EQ's, and other devices. It's a controller, hence it's name. It can start/stop/fast forward/rewind, shuttle, mark, etc in Vegas. The sound goes into Vegas via your professional sound card such as the Echo Layla, plus the external preamps. The Control controls it. That's the whole idea.
Using an analog mixer to input to Vegas is not gaining you much of anything except additional noise.

Spot, I have a Yamaha 01V digital mixer with automated faders and some capabilities for remote control of other midi gear using the faders. Do you know if Vegas can be set up to work with that?

Richard Hunter

Can I put it another way?
Vegas can record 24 tracks at 24/96 (26/48 is enough for most things anyway). With 24 bit res you've a monster S/N and headroom.
All you need on the front of the A->D converters are pretty basic level controls so you're not clipping anything, you can wind the level on any track up a long way when you;re working at 25 bit res.
Record everything dry and fiddle with ALL the FXs after you've recorded, you can even add them to the monitoring sends if needed, if you don't stress things too much Vegas on a decent speced PC will cope.
A mixer like you're after that can deliver the same S/N ratio will most likely cost heaps and as SPOT has said buys you nothing. If you're doing live sound at the same time then maybe it's justified.
I'd imagine if you're doing a big multitrack mix in Vegas then a control surface would be money well spent.
From the little I know of modern audio, the trick is to get it into the digital domain as quickly as possible and leave it there. This gives the minimal risk of noise and other nasties.
What you will need to buy is a multichannel A<->D converter and maybe some preamps, there's a huge range available, some do work via firewire, check over in the audio forum.
Bob.
Bob.

maybe im not making myself clear...
ok... answer me this.
how do i go about, recording a band, 3 mics on the drums, one on voc, one on keyboard, one on guitar amp, one on bass amp... how do i record this, onto VEGAS 5, LIVE, all on different tracks on VEGAS.

i want an external mixingboard/soundcard in one...
i want an 8 input sound card (8-tracks) (with faders... thats all, eq would be nice, but just faders)
i want each input to have its OWN track in VEGAS.

i DONT want to use the mxing board for mixingdown, or post work... i want it strictly for recording!! for MIXING my LIVE inputs.. all at once, all on SEPERATE tracks..
is THIS possible!???
who makes such a board...

i dont care for it to interface with VEGAS so to speak... (mirror my actions on the board, onto vegas) i DOOO want it to put everything coming in CH 1, to track 1 ON VEGAS...
eq. kick drum in ch1 to vegas track 1, keyboard running thru ch2 to track 2 on vegas, so on and so on..

thank you!
paul

i want an external mixingboard/soundcard in one...

There ISN'T such an animal, as I indicated in my first post.
Mackie has the Onyx series boards, which as supported by Echo's technology. But you won't have automation or anything else like that. It's basically an analog board with a digital i/o. VEgas won't see it as anything but a digital input of 16 channels with a 2 channel mix return from the software.
In other words, the only difference between using this console and a tape machine/ADAT/DA98 is that Vegas is where you record to. You can't use the console in post.

whats not possible?
i dont care for automation in vegas.. i dont care for the board to do anything other than break up whats going in to the board, and putting it on seperate tracks of audio.. i want to record multiple audio tracks, realtime, onto veags. is that possible...

i guess all i want is a unit.. with anywhere from 4-8 inputs (14" and/or XRL) running in and out..
i want it to connect via USB or Firewire.
all i want, is to control the audio after ive recorded it, on seperate tracks
ie. drums are on track one, bass, is on two, vocals is on three, it was like that running into the mixer.
i want to use vegas as a multitracker.. cant i do that. i want to do it LIVE!!! and mix later.

woudl this work?
http://www.tascam.com/Products/US-428.html
i UNDERSTAND the faders wont control fader on vegas...
but will that product seperate... again, seperate... the audio going into it...
(so, ch1 is track one in vegas (ITS OWN WAV FILE) ch2 on the board is gonig to track two on vegas (ITS OWN,,SEPERATE WAV FILE)

want i DO NOT WANT, is a board that takes all inputs on the board and mxies them down to 1 stereo track.. I DO NOT WANT THIS.

so, im sorry if im missing your point. bare with me....
paul
(if there is no such thing... there should be, thats just silly)

OK, I'll try explaining one last time.
First, there is nothing like what you want, because what you want doesn't work within the paradigm of DAW recording. Even ProTools doesn't work the way you "want."

So, you buy audio cards ala Echo Layla, M-Audio Delta.
You buy preamp cards to go with them, or buy cards like the FirePod or other card that has preamps and audio card in one unit.

You buy a Mackie or other controller. Currently only the Mackie is supported specifically in Vegas, but you CAN map most other MIDI controlled devices to work in Vegas.

Audio plugs into your preamp/sound card. Mackie controls the track level inside of Vegas, soundcard provides the audio to Vegas. Vegas routes the audio back to the soundcard so you can monitor. Mackie controls how loud, how effected/processed/routed. You insert/remove/adjust FX with the Mackie, although it doesn't actually have audio in the board. It's a controller. Hence the name.

The Tascam you point to is essentially a toy. It's USB, which means it's latent as hell. Yes, you can map it to work in Vegas. Yes, it takes two channels of audio in at time. Yes, you can use it to write automation moves in Vegas. Yes, it will convert the audio coming back from Vegas to analog to be monitored on speakers as a multi-channel mix.
EVERYTHING that the Tascam can do is done with a Mackie/soundcard combo, except that you have more than 2 inputs, you have much better/realtime control, you have far, far less latency due to the sound card's interface not being USB, you have a REAL sound card with the Mackie system instead of the toy Tascam card that maxes at 48/16 bit, which wouldn't be bad if their DAC's were worth a damn, you aren't limited to 2 channel output with the Mackie/Soundcard combo.
With the Mackie/sound card combo, each input goes to it's own separate channel (it's own wav file) but that's NOT a function of the Tascam nor the Mackie/soundcard combo, it's a function of routing in Vegas.
EVERY product out there will input separate, let me say again, separate the inputs to different channels in Vegas. Again, that's not a function of the hardware, it's a function of Vegas. If you want to record 8 pieces/tracks at the same time on 8 separate channels, you need an 8 channel sound card. If you want to record 16 separate tracks with 16 separate wav files, you need 16 input channels, or two 8 channel sound cards.
Even the Mackie Onyx that I pointed you to will allow you to have 12/16 inputs to the computer simultaneously, but will only allow for 2 to come back from the computer. It's not a function of the hardware, it's a function of Vegas.
So, for live use you'll need
XX number of preamps
XX number of sound card input channels
That's all.
If you want to MIX during the live session for purposes of monitoring, you can use the Mackie. Or not.
If you read the article I linked to, it explains most of this. If you read the Tascam fact sheet, you'd see you have 2 analog inputs (which isn't anywhere near enough to do what you are saying you want to do) and 2 digital inputs. (which is what the Mackie Onyx does)
With the Onyx, you could do EXACTLY what you want to do, except that you can only monitor the stereo/master output when mixing down, using that board. But you could post it without the mixer if you need more than 2 channels of master at mixdown.
After all that is said, you could also take ANY live mixer that has split outputs/send returns per channel, and plug THOSE into any multichannel sound card and accomplish the same thing. Many people (including me for a while) did this for years to achieve multi-track digital.
I hope all this makes sense this time?

I would recommend looking at the Tascam FW-1884. While there is no native support for this surface yet, it does a decent job of emulating the Mackie Control. We are in communication with Tascam to develope native support for this device.

Also, it is full firewire digital audio device and a standalone mixer. Not cheap, but solves a lot of problems.

You can set this up to take a "channel" on the FW and route it to a 'track' in Vegas. One to one.

Also have a look at the Yamaha 01x, which is similar in fit and function as the Tascam unit. It also provides a basic Mackie Control emulation mode.

Peter

thanks for responding peter...
im very new to computer recording...

what i was confused about was the soundcard. i didnt know that you must get a soundcard with XX ins and XX outs...

what i was looking for i guess, was a SOUNDCARD, with ins and outs, but one that acted like a mixing board as well.
so, instead of having to run things in the SOUNDCARD, and then controlled on the MACKIE..
it would be all in one... soundcard, and mixer/DWA
something that would control the VEGAS interface, and work with mixing, EQing etc...

and the TASCAM fw-1884 looks like the ticket huh....
would this work with vegas? i would just have to map it out myself? or would there be more problems..

thanks again!
pj

Some sound cards DO include a software "mixer", for example the Lynx series. Maybe this is an option?

I think the system works like this:
You do not use a mixer as an input device.
You have 5 mics plugged into a soundcard with 5 mic inputs.. Vegas "sees" each individual mic as a separate track.
You have a Mackie Control Universal connected to your PC via midi in/out ports.
Your band records a song in Vegas and The Mackie Control Universal allows you manipulate each individual track like a mixer.

You could also use the Mackie to manipulate eight tracks of audio for a video project. Let's say you have eight interviews and each interview is recorded in different locations with different acoustical qualities & sound levels. You put each interview into a separate track inVegas. The Mackie will allow you to more quickly bring all eight audio tracks to the same decibel level and to add F/X than if you had to use a mouse and "fiddle" around with the Vegas track buttons.
I just sold myself on getting a Mackie!

now why couldn't I have said it that easily? :-)

I'm glad Peter chimed in, I never know what I can say. The Tascam DOES have a sound card, as he mentioned, but it's pricey. If you're gonna be just inputting for mixing, and need cheep....The Onyx is great, but again, no automation.