Miro uses direct A/D/A conversion from his analog gear. Meaning he has separate preamps and not a audio interface that does both.
OK these 2 posts confused me.
Yeah....I didn't mean to confuse anyone, I was just commenting on the gain thing....and yeah, like Jimmy said, all combi AIs that I'm aware of use solid state pres, so the jacking up the gain to drive the preamp tubes for some character and tone color...doesn't apply.
Of course, you still need to get that mic-preamp relationship optimal...which could require a bit more gain than usual for some mics....but not usually.
I don't know if every AI out there follows the same layout and uses the same general circuit structure...?...I doubt it.
I know some are kinda "one-knob" things, and I assume they've taken care of the gain structure from preamp to converters internally, and you just turn that one knob to set everything....but I'm sure I've seen more involved AIs where there may be a gain knob for the preamp and maybe a separate output level knob...etc...and that's what I was getting at, that when they combine stuff, it's not always evident how the gain structure is staged internally...whereas with the kind of setup I'm doing...I know where all the knobs are going.
I like it this way, and doing it over again, I would still prefer to have separate preamps and just pure converter boxes.
You just get more control, and many decent standalone preamps give you additional features that you don't usually get in a combi AI.
Not saying everyone needs to do this route orf that it's necessarily better...especially not for basic 1-2 channel recording at a time, and then staying ITB. Ideally...you want to "keep it simple stupid" if you can. No need to complicate the shit out or your setup if you're not going to really benefit from it...it there's no real need to.
For me, the multiple multi-channel converters were how I wanted to set up the studio...mainly due to the analog side...the use of tape deck and console.
Back when I started putting together my DAW rig...there wasn't such an abundance of combi AIs...you had converters...and it was on you what you fed into the converter.
My multi-channel converter boxes are old...but they work the same today like they did when I bought them, so there's no reason to abandon them. Their downside is how they communicate with the computer...via internal PCI cards.
So at some point a computer upgrade that kills off the multiple PCI card options is what will force me to abandon these converters for something newer...but I've got a backup computer same as my primary DAW computer...so I think I'm going to be good to go for a bunch of years more, before that bridge needs crossing.