Getting an interface/preamp

MaChMa

New member
Hey guys,

Well I'm finally ready to finish off my own little home studio for me and my band. I've been reading books and articles for the past few weeks and I'm finally ready to get my hands dirty.:spank:

I could really use your input on which interface/pre amp combo would be the best for me and my band. Here is the rundown on what we are working with:

We have are a hard-ish rock band with 2 hip/hop artists and a country singer (what a combo right?)
We have 7 members(vocalist/rapper/harp,rhythm guitar/vocalist,rapper/singer,lead guitar,bassist,drummer,keys/back vocalist). So that's a mess load of cords and mics we have to use.

Midi Keyboards:
Yamaha MoES88
Triton LE61
Couple of old Casio keys(I've been playing forever)
And I'm getting a cheap Midi interface(no Midi input on sc)

Mics:
3 shure sm58's
1 shure sm57
1 rode nta
1 sm81
1 at2020(usb)

Monitors:
Rokit rp8's
And a few set of cans

Computer specs:
My homebuilt pc(xp)
Intel Core2 Duo@2.80Ghz,4 GB ram

DAW:
I have Cubase but thinking about getting reaper because of how inexpensive and hear good things about it.

Question 1: When it comes to my Interface and pre-amp I'm a little hesitant to make the purchase. I've been looking at the Steingberg mr816 because apparently the internals are good enough by themselves. I also heard you can't use externals with the mr, so that's a downside.
I've also been looking at a Fireface800, maybe getting a used one so it's cheaper and picking up a good/preamp or channel strip with it.

For an interface I would prefer one with 8 i/o(don't expect to record more than 3 people at a time), and ADAT capability. A Hi-z port wouldn't hurt either.

I just wanna check with you tech-savy people before I jump the gun and waste a crapload of money on this setup that doesn't even work well together. Hopefully it all connects easily and painlessly. Obviously we aren't going for professional studio quality, but we need a decent to good sound for various demos/albums if need be.

Question 2:
Will the keyboards I mentioned above act as a decent Midi controller with a cheap midi interface?


Question 3

Would there be anyway to use the usb AT2020 with our interface. I've never heard of a female USB to XLR convertor...but maybe there is someway to wire it from the interface.


Thanks for the help guys :drunk:
 
I'll chime in on your first question... The MR816 interface looks like a fine option. You have lots of other options too. Line6 makes something similar that has some guitar simulation stuff built in. MOTU has the 8Pre. Presonus has what ever theirs is called now- FireStudio I think. Also look at stuff from Tascam and Focusright and MAudio. When these all in one firewire interfaces first came out, there were some issues in using them with cheap onboard firewire controllers and the fix was to get a pci firewire card with a "pre-approved" chipset. The other think to look for is that you get something with an ADAT input. This will give you expandability. If you're recording live drums, you'll probably end up using 6-8 channels just for that. Leave yourself some options for expandability. Read reviews. Compare specs. Be a diligent shopper...

Also, Reaper is great. I've been using it for about 3 years now- I'm still on 2.something. I've read (not recently) that Reaper's weakness was its midi facilities. I don't use anything midi so I've not experienced any downsides there.

There is probably no way to use your usb mic with your interface. You may or may not be able to plug the usb mic into your computer and run it side by side with your interface; you may find that the drivers conflict and you only get one or the other (a usb mic actually serves the role of mic, preamp and interface; so, basically it would be like trying to run two interfaces on your computer). Really though, I'd ditch the usb mic anyway. You're on your way to bigger and better things. USB mic's are toys.
 
This is where my noobishness and lack of hands on experience is going to show.

I was leaning toward the mr816, and like the m-audio, neither of them have a midi i/o on them. So if I want to use my synth as a Midi controller am I going to have to buy a separate Midi interface and connect it to the mr816 via ADAT? Or could I get a S/DPIF to Midi female convertor, and plug my synth into that?

I'm not sure how I could go about using both the Midi controller and recording instruments at the same time if my audio interface doesn't have a Midi i/o.
 
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