Reaper question about recording two tracks from different interfaces

midlifecrisis

I have a zoom g3 which i use as a guitar interface and a zoom h1 which i use as a usb mic. Ive been messing around with reaper. Am i correct in that I cant record from the g3 and the zoom H1 at the same time, as i have to set one or the other as the input device, Is the only way to do this is with a 2 input interface?

Stuckfast

Are you on a Mac or a PC?

On a Mac you can probably do this by creating an Aggregate Device in the Audio MIDI Setup utility.

On a Windows machine it's not possible, as ASIO drivers only support one device.

octatonic

Stuckfast said:

Are you on a Mac or a PC?

On a Mac you can probably do this by creating an Aggregate Device in the Audio MIDI Setup utility.

On a Windows machine it's not possible, as ASIO drivers only support one device.

Aggregate device setups are so unreliable.
I really wouldn't bother.

midlifecrisis

I'm on PC. So I should get something like a focusrite? 

rico

midlifecrisis said:

I'm on PC. So I should get something like a focusrite? 

Would probably be a whole lot easier. I picked up a 2i2 from guitarguitar last week and was delivered next day. Very good bit of kit. 

TheBigDipper

 My view is it's always worth getting an inexpensive audio interface with two mic inputs that can also take line level signals.  That gives you the ability to record two things at once - electric guitar (direct) and voice (using a mic) and the ability to make a live stereo recording of the sound in the room. 

I've got a PreSonus  iTwo, but the only reason I chose that (in 2015) over a Focusrite was the MIDI ports it had. I used to have a MIDI keyboard that only used 5-pin MIDI, not USB. My memory says the Focusrite didn't have MIDI in/thru/out, just USB. 

octatonic

Ideally you want an interface where you can actually disable the mic preamps entirely.
Some interfaces with combi inputs don’t do this.

WiresDreamDisasters

Stuckfast said:

On a Windows machine it's not possible, as ASIO drivers only support one device.

Technically ASIO4ALL can do this, in a similar way to OSX's Aggregate Device feature. But it never really works well.

octatonic said:

Ideally you want an interface where you can actually disable the mic preamps entirely.
Some interfaces with combi inputs don’t do this.

I believe the Audient ID22 and ID44 allow you to do this, and they're pretty reasonably priced.

markv

octatonic said:

Ideally you want an interface where you can actually disable the mic preamps entirely.
Some interfaces with combi inputs don’t do this.

That's interesting - I've not seen this mentioned before in my (admittedly not hugely extensive) reading around the subject. Why is this better? Is it different from switching between line and instrument level, which I've seen on some AIs (e.g. Focusrite 2i2)? (sorry for slight thread hijack!)

Jalapeno

Was going to suggest a cheapo mixer - pan the sources hard left/right and split in Reaper

midlifecrisis

Jalapeno said:

Was going to suggest a cheapo mixer - pan the sources hard left/right and split in Reaper

lol, thats exactly what ive been playing around with this morning. i have a simple alexis analogue mixer which ive taken the lineout phono into the line in of the zoom h1 then by usb into the pc. it seems to work ok and sound quality seems quite good although i have nothing to compare it too.

WiresDreamDisasters

markv said:

octatonic said:

Ideally you want an interface where you can actually disable the mic preamps entirely.
Some interfaces with combi inputs don’t do this.

That's interesting - I've not seen this mentioned before in my (admittedly not hugely extensive) reading around the subject. Why is this better? Is it different from switching between line and instrument level, which I've seen on some AIs (e.g. Focusrite 2i2)? (sorry for slight thread hijack!)

If you're using external preamps then you don't want to colour your external pre with the sound of the built-in one in the interface. Well, in theory anyway.

rico

markv said:

octatonic said:

Ideally you want an interface where you can actually disable the mic preamps entirely.
Some interfaces with combi inputs don’t do this.

That's interesting - I've not seen this mentioned before in my (admittedly not hugely extensive) reading around the subject. Why is this better? Is it different from switching between line and instrument level, which I've seen on some AIs (e.g. Focusrite 2i2)? (sorry for slight thread hijack!)

No - disabling the instrument level is the same as disabling the mic pre

octatonic

WiresDreamDisasters said:

markv said:

octatonic said:

Ideally you want an interface where you can actually disable the mic preamps entirely.
Some interfaces with combi inputs don’t do this.

That's interesting - I've not seen this mentioned before in my (admittedly not hugely extensive) reading around the subject. Why is this better? Is it different from switching between line and instrument level, which I've seen on some AIs (e.g. Focusrite 2i2)? (sorry for slight thread hijack!)

If you're using external preamps then you don't want to colour your external pre with the sound of the built-in one in the interface. Well, in theory anyway.

Yes, also when using line level sources (synths, modellers etc) you don't necessarily want to go through the preamp as well even at "unity". (in quotes because I don't want to get into a philosophical discussion about unity).