Simple Signal Flow

Introduction to the Tracking and Mixing process with the Mixer/Soundcard Approach

What? You want me to draw you a picture? OK I will. Below you see a simple rig consisting of an entry level keyboard, a PCI soundcard, and a mixer with a recording bus with monitors. Add a decent Mic and you can get started. Yes it is that simple.

The basic setup with the Mixer/Soundcard approach: Follow the flow. MIDI DATA (not the sound of the keyboard!) from the keyboard goes to the computer via the soundcard's MIDI port. The MIDI data travels through the MIDI sequencer and is recorded as MIDI tracks. These midi tracks can be routed back to the keyboard (or to software synths), which makes sound and goes down the AUDIO cables to the mixer and the speakers. You can then loop channels of audio back to the soundcard's AUDIO inputs and record an audio track.

In the sequencer, in the box, you can tweak all these audio tracks into a stereo mix that can be burned to a CD, or written as a .WAV file.