knorr
03-15-2007, 12:57 PM
Hey everyone...I've been researching on sweetwater and numerous other websites for a while. I am going to be graduating from school very soon and want to get a professional setup going after school. I have been familiar with and would now say rather comfortable with Pro Tools and would like to stay there most likely because I am comfortable mixing there. However, the age old question comes up with having to select digidesign hardware. Obviously HD is out of the question because of price. I've used mbox1, mbox 2, and mostly a 002 for my recordings in the past and I'm having trouble getting past the fact that I'm not hearing much clarity at all. So because of that fact I actually started searching for other interfaces even knowing the fact I may have to switch DAW's.
One problem came up for me. I need more than 8 inputs. I am usually tracking with rock bands and it requires more than 8 inputs at once when including drums. I know I can use the ADAT to gain more than 8 inputs but then you are forced to either buy a nice word clock to control everything or to use the external clock of the preamp and make the interface the slave so that you don't get clicks and pops. At least that is my experince especially when working with an 002. If I'm wrong here definitely let me know.
So I thought about it and if I'm buying say a RME Fireface 800 for better converters then it wouldn't do me much good to say have an Octopre or something similar doing the A/D and sending it ADAT to the Fireface.
So my next option I thought we be to buy better converters and be able to send 16 channels of analog to these converters and go digital out of that to say an m-audio lightbridge as a dongle to pro tools. Would this be a viable option for me? I can't go to crazy with money but I want a step up from an 002 for sure.
It's worth noting I would be also buying a nice preamp at the beginning of this as well. I was looking into possibly a Focusrite ISA-428. And then just a little down the road I would be buying that 8 input preamp mainly for drum inputs.
So basically I want to get off the ground with better sounds right away than I was getting with an 002 and always have it available that I could do as many as 16 A/D conversions. I'm up for any suggestions to this so I would appreciate any insight or ideas that I have overlooked.
P.S. I currently have a Dual Core iMac so a PCI situation wouldn't work for me right now.
One problem came up for me. I need more than 8 inputs. I am usually tracking with rock bands and it requires more than 8 inputs at once when including drums. I know I can use the ADAT to gain more than 8 inputs but then you are forced to either buy a nice word clock to control everything or to use the external clock of the preamp and make the interface the slave so that you don't get clicks and pops. At least that is my experince especially when working with an 002. If I'm wrong here definitely let me know.
So I thought about it and if I'm buying say a RME Fireface 800 for better converters then it wouldn't do me much good to say have an Octopre or something similar doing the A/D and sending it ADAT to the Fireface.
So my next option I thought we be to buy better converters and be able to send 16 channels of analog to these converters and go digital out of that to say an m-audio lightbridge as a dongle to pro tools. Would this be a viable option for me? I can't go to crazy with money but I want a step up from an 002 for sure.
It's worth noting I would be also buying a nice preamp at the beginning of this as well. I was looking into possibly a Focusrite ISA-428. And then just a little down the road I would be buying that 8 input preamp mainly for drum inputs.
So basically I want to get off the ground with better sounds right away than I was getting with an 002 and always have it available that I could do as many as 16 A/D conversions. I'm up for any suggestions to this so I would appreciate any insight or ideas that I have overlooked.
P.S. I currently have a Dual Core iMac so a PCI situation wouldn't work for me right now.