How to record from older mixer?

[willise]

Hi all,

I inherited an older mixer board - it's a Mackie CR1604-VLZ. It sounds pretty good when we have it all hooked up, so I'm pleased with it. Hard to argue with free.

Anyway, we want to record ourselves and the manual for the board shows how to connect the board to a tape deck or reel to reel recorder, but I would like to connect it to my PC somehow.

Is that even possible? Can I get an RCA to USB adapter and connect that way? As you can tell, I don't have much experience with recording, so any help with this will be greatly appreciated.

Ultimately, I'd like to get a digital recording of us practicing.

Thanks for the help!

[LarsOS]

Originally Posted by willise

Can I get an RCA to USB adapter and connect that way?

Yes, it's called a sound card.

The Steinberg CI1 is a cheap, entry-level USB sound card with decent sound. It lets you record two channels simultaneously (in other words; stereo). I guess that's what you're after.

But the inputs (and outputs) are mono jacks, so you might need a pair (or two) of RCA-jack adapters if you go with this card.

[winny pooh]

Get a portable recorder like the zoom h4 which has line inputs. Send a stereo line out from your desk (main 2 or an aux send if you want different levels from the pa mix.) into the zoom (or a simple stereo compressor first to prevent any crazy peaks) and download the files at home later.

If you are feeling smart you can send a bass/drums submix to aux1 > input one & gt/vox to aux 2> input 2 so you can control some levels between them when you sum to mono in a software program later.