I'm more of a jack of all trades between computers and audio, I wouldn't say I'm an absolute master of either, but I'll take a stab here.
brotherdave wrote:First question: Will the sound quality be any better using USB instead of the computer's integrated soundcard for recording? Will I get higher fidelity, increased bandwidth, lower noise, lower distortion, etc using USB as the recording interface or is it going to sound about the same either way?
I would guess this could get into the standard debate of analog vs. digital, really. All in all, the USB connection is a digital audio transmission of sorts. Not along the same line of AES/EBU or S/PDIF, but digital nonetheless. That said, you're much less likely to pick up noise from the computer internals (random voltage offsets, hard drive interference, etc) using the USB, however keep in mind that USB relies very very heavily on CPU cycles, so this could cause dropped samples, as it were, if other things are using it. Distortion is still possible, maybe less so from overloading the inputs of an analog sound card, but just as possible as any digital style signal.
Second question: The PV20 manual isn't very thorough on the procedure to use the USB capability. There is no longer a software disc with the mixer if one came with it as the sax player has owned this mixer for several years and doesn't know where the manual, much less any included disc is at this time. (I'm pretty sure he doesn't even know what USB is and doesn't have the USB cable either.) I know I need to connect a USB cable of course, however I don't want to connect the mixer to the computer only to have it use some inferior default drivers when better ones might be available. I can't find any drivers or software on the PV20's download page, only the manual and specs. If I need to download and install audio drivers where do I download them? And further, should multiple driver choices appear when I plug in the USB cable, which one should I choose?
Having not used the mixer specifically, I presume it will show as a generic audio device, which is just fine for what it is doing. The only reason I could see the need for specific drivers would be if you could control the mixer from the computer, which is not the case here.
Third question: We intend EVENTUALLY to do multi-tracking. After reading on the Peavey Forum I'm aware this console is either 2 channels in or 2 channels out via USB and not 2 in/2 out. So the question is what is the best way to do desktop computer multi-tracking with this console? (For example if I connect the USB and use the USB for the two inputs to the recording software (Audactity/Audition/etc), can I still output via the desktop computer's integrated soundcard and send that audio to a monitor bus on the PV20 (not back to the mix bus on the 2 recording channels), or is the desktop's soundcard disabled? Based on real world user experience, how do I configure the mixer and the XP machine for this?
Run the USB into the computer and the analog output to the Tape-In on the mixer and engage the Tape to control/HP. Now, mind you, I'm not sure on the process of preventing the tape from getting back to the main, nor how to keep the mains from going into the headphone at the same time, but I'm sure with some combination it is possible. That being said, XP is probably the easiest of the versions to do this, additionally most programs (I only have experience with Audacity, but I'd presume others do too) include the options right in the programs to route your playback to specific devices (and the options for playthrough to that specific device while recording).
I'll let someone else take the fourth question, and weigh in on my responses.