Interface help

J

JRCnorth

New member
I'm finally moving to the thought of recording with a computer something I'm fairly reluctant to do as I'm not very comfortable around them.

I was looking at getting an iz radar but it's slightly out of the budget at the moment.

My partner at my studio is using logic on a Mac mini however the interface he uses has 16 inputs to the computer but only 2 out. What I would like to do is have 16/24 simaltaneous inputs and the same amount of outputs as I still want to mix using my console and outboard gear.

I did some research and the only thing I've found is the Echo audiofire 12 however I contacted the company and they said they no longer manufacture interfaces and so I was back to square one. The only other interfaces I've found that have 24 I/O all require a card to be installed in the computer and its not possible on a Mac mini as far as I know.

I really do not want to make a full switch to computer recording as I find the whole thing too fiddly. I have looked at other stand alone HD recorders but the only one I've liked has been the iz radar and as I've said its a bit too expensive for me at the moment.

Thanks
 
Hi,
You're right about the mac mini; You can't install any cards in those.
You can in the mac pro model up until 2012, but not the newest (black) ones.

I think a firewire interface with multiple adat/lightpipe connections is going to be the way forward, combined with a few rack units of preamps/converters.

Something like the Presonus fire studio light pipe, or the audio profile light bridge, would let you connect four sets of 8 channel adat pre/converter like the behringer ada8000.

How well a mac mini would cope with that amount of simultaneous I/O is not something I can tell you, though.

You could go old school and get a rack of Tascam DA88s or something like that! Again, you'd need preamps in front of them.
 
Ok. Thanks.

I vaguely understand that setup.

The Mac mini is the latest model and the highest spec one and it seems to be very fast however I'm no expert with computers.

Two questions I have, it says on the presonus website that the item is discontinued and it didn't come up in a quick ebay search so is another company making a similar one?
The other concern is I've never been too impressed with Behringer products but obviously I've never used anything to do with computers they have made so are those units a decent quality it again is there a better option on the market?
 
I also forgot to add. We have a lot of pres and front end gear so it would literally be the line inputs I need.
 
JRCnorth said:
I also forgot to add. We have a lot of pres and front end gear so it would literally be the line inputs I need.
Click to expand...

The behringer units get a good enough rep as converters (line level input).
The preamps don't get just as good a rep but if you have your own then you're laughing.

Is the maudio one still being manufactured?
 
Ah sorry. You left out the m in the original post so I couldn't find what you meant. That is still around.

Thanks for the help, though if anyone else has other suggestions please let me know.
 
I managed to get a m audio light bridge and while having a cleanup in the studio I came across a few items that have ad/da converters on it such as an alesis adat blackface and an 8 channel art preamp. it occurred to me would it be able to use 2/3 different ad/da converters with the m audio lightbridge or even if it is will it cause headaches and really stick to using only one type of converter?
 
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