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How to mix a d.piano and a netbook?


Leandrusi

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Hi, I want to play live with my dig.piano and trigger some sounds via midi from a netbook I have :p

I want to be able to mix them myself so the setup goes to 1 line out, or 2 if the live sound is in stereo (VERY unlikely...) so I dont have to come out 1 line for the dp and 1 for the netbook and struggle with mix level done by the sound guy.

 

So I need 1 device to get the dp and the nb to work as one (too bad my dp has no IN line :cry: )

 

I was thinking a usb audio interface, like say Infrasonic uax2 or M Audio M Track Plus 2 would be a good tool to achieve the setup, since it would allow me to mix the 2 instruments AND maybe let me use some more sounds from the netbook without crashing :p

 

Would that work? Or do I just have to get a mini 2ch mixer? What do you think? Any other interfaces/devices/ideas you may suggest me instead??

 

 

 

 

Pd: my budget is 1 uax2 aprox. and a d.piano+netbook+mixer+usb interface would be a nightmare to set up live to me :freak:

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I think you covered the options: audio interface for netbook, or small mixer. If you want to go for a *really* small mixer, look at the stuff by Rolls, like the MX28 (which handles 3 stereo inputs).

 

My Yamaha CP4 has audio inputs. I sometimes plug my Nord Electro into it, avoiding the need for a mixer. If your DP has audio inputs, you have a 3rd option. It's a great feature that I wish every keyboard had!

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Any decent audio interface would have ample sound quality for live use. Studio use is far more demanding. Live, the background noise level is so high a lot of subtleties disappear. The most important feature for live use is a wide "green" band so that you have headroom when you need it for dynamics, but that's easily managed. Shucks, we did fine back when all our stuff had 65dB S/N ratio at best. With over 90 dB of modern 24-bit digitals it's a no-brainer. (Admittedly, analog S/N ratio isn't directly comparable to digital dynamic range.)

 

I used 16-bit laptop outputs (using Native Instruments B4 and soundfonts) for about 5 years for live use at blues jams and for a pro-am circuit band and it was the least of my worries. Sure, a quality 24-bit audio interface (that I sometimes used, MOTU 828) sounded better, but I doubt anyone but me noticed any difference, and the difference wasn't big enough for me to bother with the extra box and cables.

 

Meanwhile, I have always bothered with the extra 40-lb speaker and cable so I can run stereo, just to put it in perspective. Stereo vs. mono: big difference; decent 16-bit vs quality 24-bit: much smaller difference.

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