M-Audio Octane - thumbs up

[MadAudio]

Well I finally got a chance to put my Octane to work, and it's definitley a keeper.

I first used it as a pre for my drums - M201 on snare, Beyer TG-X50 on kick, SM57s on all toms, MXL 603s for overheads). I took the outs of the Octane directly into my Layla. Well right off the bat the sound was much cleaner than the pres in my old Mackie 1604. However the overheads were not so great, so I switched those back to what I had been using before - DMP3->Rane ME15B (for light eq and gain control) ->Layla.

The next day I had a client in to work on a new song. I figured I'd finally try Mid-Side micing since the Octane has an M-S matrix. I used my CAD E-300 for the figure-8 and a V67G for the cardiod. The guitar player loved the sound, and I was pretty impressed, too. It took a little tweaking to get a balanced stereo image, but it was worth it.

So far I've only used the analog outs. I guess I need to pick up an optical cable to try the digital outs. I'll report back once I do.

[thajeremy]

Iv had my octane for going on a week now and still havent hooked it up yet. I also have a dmp3. I figured that I may still use the dmp3 for overheads, but ofcoruse I didnt know since i havent tried the octane. what do you know about the digital outs? my soundcard, a Terratec EWS88/MT, has a digital in but is that only good for one channel???? maybe its a dumb question...but i dont know the answer so..not that dumb of a question for me... .

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by thajeremy

Iv had my octane for going on a week now and still havent hooked it up yet. I also have a dmp3. I figured that I may still use the dmp3 for overheads, but ofcoruse I didnt know since i havent tried the octane. what do you know about the digital outs? my soundcard, a Terratec EWS88/MT, has a digital in but is that only good for one channel???? maybe its a dumb question...but i dont know the answer so..not that dumb of a question for me... .

The Terratec card does S/PDIF, while AFAIK, the Octane can only do ADAT lightpipe protocol. They're not compatible. You'd need a card that can handle lightpipe to take advantage of the digital out.

[kid klash]

I've had my Octane for almost a year now, and I absolutely love it too. It's really clean, uncolored and open-sounding. As I've mentioned in other threads, I use the M-S matrix for stereo drum overheads (SP B3 for the figure 8 mic, SP B1 for the single pattern mic), and I'm really blown away with the imaging and lack of phase issues associated with M-S mic'ing. The preamps have a ton of headroom, so the Octane is a natural for drums and other really loud, dynamic sources. I use the lightpipe output 95% of the time, although the analog outs sound great too. M-Audio did a fine job with this box!