Audio Interface VS Mixer VS Control Surface | Which One Do You Need?

hey man what's the difference between a mixer a control surface and an audio interface which one do you even need let's talk about [Music] it what's up YouTube Welcome Back to the channel I'm wavy Wayne from wavy wayne.com wavy way.com is a dope online resource for you to download recording and mixing templates as well as join the recording and mixing communities like the wavy seals and the wavy seals Elite and you can even check out how you can get your songs professionally mixed by me wavy Wayne so visit my website wavy wayne.com check out all the things today's video is a topic that I keep getting asked all the time like a lot of the videos that I do so I decided to make a video to cover it once and for all I'm taking it back to my roots man it's kind of like the reason I started YouTube in the first place was because I was sick of students asking me the same questions over and over I wanted to just have something for them so they can always find the answers they needed thus my YouTube channel was born before we get off into this video and answering your question about what's the difference between a mixer a control surface and a audio interface and more importantly which one do you need I do want to shout out Sweetwater man sweetwater.com is the best place that I found online to actually buy your Studio Gear not only do they have fast free delivery but they include a warranty with everything and their customer service is out of the roof that's what really keeps me coming back is customer service man they got that Chick-fil-A level of customer service all right y so let's go ahead and jump into what this video is about um again I have a couple of items on my desk right here right now hopefully we can see them all I have a mixer here okay I also have a control surface here let me go ahead and zoom in on that and and then right in front of that is an audio interface now let's address the control surface first first thing first the control surface that I am using today that I always have on my desk is my pronus fader port 16 now simply put a control surface ain't nothing but a glorified Mouse all a control surface does is control what is actually inside of your doll just like the mouse does instead of me grabbing the mouse to click a fader it has the faders already mapped here on the control surface simply put there are a lot of large format control surfaces that you might see out there some big some small but they are all the same thing it's important that when you walk into a space you don't confuse a control surface like a control 24 c24 or a Neeve mixing console those are two totally different things all right one thing to note about a control surface is that no audio runs through it so there there's absolutely no audio running through this thing there is no inputs no outputs there's no preamps on this control surface all that it has is a USB port on the back to connect to the computer just like your mouse does so in comparison to the control surface let's talk about this thing right here that I have this is a mixer okay this is a baringer uh x1222 mixer okay it doesn't matter what mixer it is this mixer has mic inputs across six channels line inputs across every channel um and it has outputs as well for you to Route out now you can use this mixer if you're recording a lot of different instruments maybe keyboards and you need a lot of different preamps and mics um if you need a lot of different inputs that also might include microphones and different line level inputs for example if you are recording multiple mics for a band or if you are using this in in a live situation that's I use this as well when I'm doing a small live setup or in your studio even if you have a lot of analog keyboards that you're actually working with um you can use this mixer to mix them and then route that sound out to your audio interface or whatever your recording device might be now the unique thing about this mixer right um is that it also is actually an audio interface every mixer is not an audio interface this mixer can act just as a straight straight up analog mixer but if you look on the back there is a USB port here and that USB port will allow you to connect this to the computer for to act as your audio interface so again if you have a lot of inputs that you need to be working with maybe using a mixer that's also an audio interface would be a great addition to your studio I guess I didn't really talk about when you might need a control surface the only real time you need a control surface is if you desire to get more hands on with your mix instead of using a mouse to do everything you want to be able to touch some faders turn some knobs that is the only reason that you would need that this actually provides some real functionality there's compression and EQ built into every channel there's also internal effects built into this mixer it is a super powerful little box and again it's also an audio interface now here's the audio interface that's just an audio interface it's not a mixer at all um basically on the back we have my inputs and outputs where I can connect a couple of microphones and I have a couple of outputs um that I could use to connect to my studio monitors or line outs that I may use for something else maybe connecting to uh a hardware piece of gear or a um headphone output could be used for that as well all right the audio interface takes that analog signal and converts it to digital or binary signal that the computer can read and understand after the computer processes that signal it then converts again from digital back to analog that is the primary job of your audio interface now the audio interface also comes most audio interfaces I should say come equipped with preamps and um also Monitor and headphone controls as well so this is my audio interface again this is what I need to connect my microphone and my professional studio monitors to my computer here is a mixer that will allow me to mix a bunch of channels and I could just take these analog outputs out and put and connect those to my um uh interface but keep in mind that some mixers also provide uh audio interface functionality as well see we got faders to blend in between each of these channels and this thing is pretty dope cuz it also has some onboard effects that I like too and of course on my desk here we have the pronus fader port 16 which is nothing more than a big ass Mouse I hope this video has been helpful for you guys and understanding the difference between a control surface an audio interface and a mixer and how some may kind of combine everything except this is not a control surface so don't get that Twisted you can't actually use most mixers as a control surface some of them you can though so yeah let that be that all right now which one do you actually need again if you're using a lot of inputs in your studio you may need to actually have a mixer and especially if you're going to be doing recording you may need to have a mixer that is also an audio interface um an audio interface if you're doing any type of recording you're definitely going to need an audio interface recording onto the computer that is you're going to need an audio interface and the difference between them is mainly the quality quality of the a TOD conversion and also the quality of the preamps that are inside of these little boxes now as far as a control surface if you just want to get more tactile with your mixing more tactile with your workflow that's the way to go if you just want to add that additional Hands-On Vibe all right thanks for watching this video I'm wavy Wayne from wavy wayne.com make sure you shop Sweetwater and get some of this dope gear and I think they got these t-shirts too man I kind of like this check out my website wavy w.com download your mixing and recording templates today and request a quote for a professional mix from your boy wavy be [Music] dope

Channel: Wayne.wav

Views: 77,575

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Id: p0azfN5tWg0

Length: 8min 52sec (532 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 11 2020