I just got a PV 8 USB mixer... what now?

[ninjaaron]

This question really is as broad and idiotic as it sounds. I've played in churches with sound guys for years, but I've never done anything with the board (though the basic operation is pretty obvious, I guess). I've recorded a few parts for friends who do that stuff, but never tried my hand at it myself. My job has a "rewards" program where you get points when you do good things (or rather, things that are good for the company), and I had quite a few because I'm awesome. The points can be used to purchase things... all kinds of things. It's like Amazon, but not quite as all-encompassing. I snagged a Peavey PV 8 USB mixer with the vague idea that this would allow me to record things. What things, I don't know.

 

I already have a Blue Yeti USB mic, but I think it's not good for this. I think it's more calibrated for spoken word, and I sometimes sing freaking loud... and forget about pushing guitar amps. Yeti can't hack it. Distortion all over the place. Plus, I have some of those digital processor thingies, but, until now, no USB audio interface, and plugging into the analog in on my computer sounds horrid and makes monitoring difficult. This mixer addresses all of those problems.

 

At present, I have one mic, which I use to mic my cab live because I don't trust the church's mics. It is the same classic, cheap mic that everyone has, so no need to tell you what it is. You all already know it is and own it yourselves. I know it can handle loud noises. Is that good enough to be going on with until I can save some money for an NT1 and maybe a Fathead?

 

Also, DAW. I'm a diehard Linux user, and in any event, I don't have the money for a Mac and will not for the forseeable future. So it looks like I'm looking at Audacity and Ardour... which means my DAW is less powerful than a lot of what's out there, and orders of magnitude more powerful than what Pink Floyd and the Beatles were working with. I here there is a thing called plugins these days. I know nothing about them, and I don't know if they will work with my Open Source audio software. Any thoughts about the DAW?

 

Also, drums? I don't play, but I was thinking about getting an electric kit and learning. I was also thinking about getting a drum machine or just using a soft drum machine like Hydrogen ('cause Linux). It probably wouldn't be a terrible idea to learn to play drums and to program drums. Seems like one might help the other... and playing drums will probably help my bass playing as well. Drums?

 

I really have no idea what I'm getting into or even what I'm going to record. I just sort of picked up this mixer 'cause it was free and I didn't see anything else I wanted, but will admit that I've been kind of thinking about doing some classic hymns in sort of an "indie" style for a few years now. I was more just looking for a USB audio interface, but I suppose I'll figure out what to do with all those extra channels at some point down the road.

 

P.S. MIּDI?

[ninjaaron]

Also, I have recording anxiety. I don't preform as well when I'm recording (unless it's at a show. I play the best when I have a band and an audience). Is there a thing for that?