Soundcard(s) suggestions to meet my needs?!

Cazzbar

Throbbing Member
OK, I'm looking for an interface for live recording with 8 Mic Pres and 8 Line Level Instrument Inputs, and at least 8 Analogue outs... and importantly 16 channels of ADAT out to fed a HD24.

Firewire or PCI (for home use) but it needs to be able to function in standalone mode for live use... with basic standalone mixer functions a nice luxury.

Any suggestions?! :)

I accept getting all this in one unit may be a bit much to ask, so I'd be happy for something like a MOTU 8Pre light-piping into something with 8 Line Ins and 16 ADAT Out

Or maybe an 8 Line In A/D converter (Alesis AI-3) light-piping into a Firestudio (which has 8Pres and 16 ADAT out, no built in mixer but this can be setup with a laptop) but I haven't found an A/D converter with any channel gain controls, which I'm sure I'd need

I know people rate the Fireface 800 as the holy grail, but with only 4 Pre amps it just isn't enough... I'd use all of those on the drums leaving nothing for vocals :o

I've been looking so much I'm starting to feel queasy, so any fresh ideas would be most appreciated!

Cheers
 
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Well my reply will be (because I own it and I know it works!) the Firestudio and a Digimax FS, the Digimax has 8 pre's with gain control over all of them. do some research on these units they are great!
 
Cazzbar said:
I know people rate the Fireface 800 as the holy grail, but with only 4 Pre amps it just isn't enough... I'd use all of those on the drums leaving nothing for vocals :o
Cheers

If not mistaken, Fireface 800 has 8 mic pres. Channel 7-10 both have an XLR and TRS connections that can be used simultaniously. So that's 8 mic pres.
 
Carter said:
Well my reply will be (because I own it and I know it works!) the Firestudio and a Digimax FS, the Digimax has 8 pre's with gain control over all of them. do some research on these units they are great!

Cool, I didn't know about the Digimax FS. Although thinking of cost, is that system giving me 16 Class A Preamps where I only really need 8? Albeit I need gain control on the other 8 Line level inputs? I'm assuming here the amp needed to boost a mic level signal is more expensive than that required to boost a line level signal... or do they/should they both use the same high quality preamp? :confused:
 
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pkmusic said:
If not mistaken, Fireface 800 has 8 mic pres. Channel 7-10 both have an XLR and TRS connections that can be used simultaniously. So that's 8 mic pres.

OK, I'll love what you say to be true... but this is a quote from RME's website

RME said:
On the front side, the Fireface 800 has 4 discrete balanced microphone inputs with class-A stage, separate activation of 48 V phantom power and separate XLR/TRS inputs, where the latter can also be used as adjustable Line inputs with a gain range of 50 dB! Two of the four mic inputs are permanently available as channels 9 and 10, the other two can be used together with or alternatively to the inputs 7/8 on the back

The extra TRS connections on input channels 7-10 expects Line level inputs, and not Microphone level inputs. I know you can plug a Mic with a TRS connection into a line level socket, adjust the gain and 'it works'... but you're not getting the correct mic preamp treatment this way are you?

And whether each channel has a preamp for the XLR connection and the TRS connection, both sharing the same gain knob and thus making 8 preamps instead of 4 I don't know :confused:
 
Only 4 Pres on the FF800.

The Presonus, a MOTU 896, or a Focusrite SaffirePro would work. The 896 has the best true standalone mode.
 
Hard2Hear said:
Only 4 Pres on the FF800.

The Presonus, a MOTU 896, or a Focusrite SaffirePro would work. The 896 has the best true standalone mode.

Thanks for the confirmation on the number of pres on the FF800

Although the MOTU 896 only has 8 ADAT channels out (need 16) and the Saffire Pro/Firestudio has 8 Mic/Instrument Pres where I need 8 Mic inputs and 8 Instrument inputs

Thanks for the help so far
 
Oh I see. Youre not going to get a unit that does standalone then.

Ive sat up PCs like that using a RME HDSP 96/52, and a couple RME Micstacy's. You get 3 sets of adats on the HDSP card. But its not cheap and its not standalone.
 
Yeah it's tricky, and I'm only trying for record a 4 piece band live :)

So that's 8 Mics (4 around the drums, 1 lead vocal and 3 backing vocals) and 8 Line Instrument inputs (direct bass, emulated guitars, stereo keyboards and stereo fx)... all linking via lightpipe to a HD24.

The closest I've come is an Alesis AI-3 (8 Line in A>D) lightpiped to a Firestudio (8 Pres + 16 ADAT out) and the mixes done by plugging in a cheap laptop to set the DSP chip on the Firestudio. Just there's no gain control on the AI-3, I normally have to bump up the instrument gain when plugged into a standard mixer.
 
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