Thru-box for mic'ing drums

[namewithheldbyrequest]

Hey,

I'm trying to mic a set of drums for recording and am having trouble figuring out how to do it cleanly. I have been using a Berhinger UB1832FX-PRO mixer to record in stereo, but now I'm wanting independent tracks (as much as possible.) Unless you know something I don't, the Berhinger is not going to work with the set up.

I have on one side 8 XLR mics (actually 12, but I can mix the toms down to stereo.) On the other side I have a Fostex VC-8 ADAT converter which is lightpipe'd to a Fostex VF160 digital recorder. The VC-8 wants 8 RCA inputs. Some of the mics require phantom power and volume control (the raw phantom mics overpower the non-phantom mics and peg the needle on the ADAT converter.) It would also be ideal if I could monitor the mix with headphones.

So I guess what I'm looking for is a through-box that accepts >= 8 XLR inputs (with phantom power) and has independent trims (and maybe pans) and a headphone tap. I probably want the output connectors to be 1/4" or XLR as I'd like to be able to add a noise gate inline at some point.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Pope NameWithheldByRequest

[Mark Alan Miller]

You need a mixer.

One with enough mic preamps with phantom power to handle the number of channels you're looking at, and direct outs or inserts on at least all of the channels you need to keep discrete. (The inserts/direct outs are used to send individual signals off of the mic pres.) Then, you can use the regular mixer stereo output for your tom submix. Just make sure that you can un-assign the individual channels from the left/right mix so they don't end up in your tom submix too. This may be nessesary to turn up the fader to set the level out of direct out. If it's the send from insert points you're using, then you don't need to turn up the faders on the individual channels at all (and the signal path is shorter that way too - never a bad thing.)

If you didn't need to submix anything you'd only mic preamps.

[namewithheldbyrequest]

Thanks for the response Mark,

If I'm right, the setup you're suggesting is as such:
- all mics connect to the UB1832FX-PRO (which has only 6 inserts)
- the mics for the toms go into the flunky "stereo" 1/4" jacks
- the 6 inserts go directly to the ADAT
- the 6 toms get mixed to stereo and are the only channels allowed in the sub-mix
- the L-R sub-mix out then fills in channels 7 and 8 on the ADAT

It's a small issue, but an annoying one: the inserts are sent and returned before the mixer's trim can be set: the signals from the phantom powered mics "peg the needle" and distort badly. But I suppose I can fix that with in-lining a directbox that has volume control (and later in lining a gate.)

Thanks again.