m-audio octane

[thomaswomas]

i'm currently shopping around for some new preamps to add to my alesis multimix fw 16 set-up.

i've heard alot of good things about the m-audio dmp3's and have thought about buying a couple of these. but lately i've been told about the octane. so i'm considering buying 2 dmp3's, an octane, and maybe an m-audio firewire 1814 interface which would give me 14 decent preamps to add to my set-up.

is this a good idea? has anyone got any positive experience with the octane?

also, will the m-audio firewire 1814 work with cubase se, as i'm aware that some interfaces have trouble working with certain software.

thankyou in advance

TW

[thajeremy]

I have an octane and have been through several DMP3's....they are pretty much the same thing...the dmp3 has a little more gain but they sound the same to me. the octane has the digital out...which I have never used, so I cant comment on that. If I were looking for different sounding pre's...I wouldnt go for these 2 units. I do recommed the octane though...but choose something else in place of the DMP3...

[thomaswomas]

thanks for the reply, thajermy.

can you recommend anything else? i'm looking for the best preamp for my budget and the dmp3 seems to be the popular choice in the £100 price range.
would something like the presonus tubepre or the art tube mp be as good as the dmp3?

i'm not too concerned with getting different colors to my preamps. i'm mainly looking at getting a large number of good, clean preamps to record drum-kits and full bands.

but if anyone can recommend a preamp that is as good as the dmp3 at the same price then i'd appreciate your thoughts.

thanks

TW

[jonnyc]

If you're looking for something in the same price range but a different flavor than the octane you should maybe consider picking up a couple joe meek 3Q's. I personally love the way they color the sound and find the eq very useful. Great bang for the buck.

[thajeremy]

then just get 2 octanes....they can be had for around $400...by the time you spend $300 for 2 dmp3's, you might as well just throw in another $100 and go for the second octane... I use mine for drums %100 of the time...and sometimes for guitars as well...It also has instrument inputs on channels 1 and 2 so you can DI your bass if you want...thats what I typically do...I also have a Joe Meek VC6Q, a DMP3, and 2 ART PRO MPA's so its not like the Octane is my only choice.

[thomaswomas]

how about the focusrite octopre le? i've just noticed that i can pick one of them up for less than the octane. so i'm thinking 8 channels of octane and 8 channels of octopre sounds like a nice set-up. but then i've heard some mixed reviews on focusrite stuff.

is the octopre le worth a look?

TW

[Gorty]

Over here in Australia the prices we pay are astronomical compared to you guys. I'm looking at an ART MPA Gold for around $650-700 Australian. Any feedback on this pre???
A Joe Meek 3Q is around $1250 over here!!

[thajeremy]

Originally Posted by Gorty

Over here in Australia the prices we pay are astronomical compared to you guys. I'm looking at an ART MPA Gold for around $650-700 Australian. Any feedback on this pre???
A Joe Meek 3Q is around $1250 over here!!

I have 2 of the pre "GOLD" models...mine are just plain black. I must say that I really like them...but i got them both used...one for $230 and the other for $150 from ebay....they are well worth what I paid...but for $650 to $700 Id get an RNP and have money left and forget the MPA completely...

[Gorty]

Originally Posted by thajeremy

I have 2 of the pre "GOLD" models...mine are just plain black. I must say that I really like them...but i got them both used...one for $230 and the other for $150 from ebay....they are well worth what I paid...but for $650 to $700 Id get an RNP and have money left and forget the MPA completely...

Ideally I need the pre-amp to be rack mountable. The frustrating thing over here is that most of the major outlets only deal with certain product names which makes it very difficult to actually buy over the counter.
I am glad you have favourable comments on the ART pre's.

[Nick The Man]

I have the Octane and I love it, I also use it for mostly drums, I also use the Digital Out which works just fine. It was real nice to tack on 8 more ins to my interface, through one optical cable!

[NeveSSL]

Not sure on the Octane, but I would recommend NOT getting the 1814. It only has about 9dB of headroom (which drives me crazy.. EVERYTHING seems to clip) and the inputs are not balanced. It also sounds dull, for lack of a better term. I am planning my 1814's demise as we speak.. lol

However, since the Octane (and OctoPre LE and others) have lightpipe or the option for lightpipe, you could get the M-Audio light bridge and have up to something like 34 in/36 out (at 44.1k or 48k, 24 bits) I think. This is what I would do if I were you. Get the Octane (or other pre with Lightpipe outs that you like) and get the Lightbridge. From there you can expand over time. You can even eventually upgrade to high end converters with line-ins and dedicated external pres.

Also, it will do SMUX over Lightpipe, which means with a pre such as the Presonuc Digimax FS, you can do up to 16 channels in of 96k, 24 bit.

The only reason I mention this is that my 1814 drives me nuts and I'm beginning to plan on getting rid of it eventually. For now, its still a decent interface and a quick fix for me would be to just get a Digimax, Octopre, etc. and use it as the main front end to avoid the headroom issues. Plus, I've got ProTools HD at school, so I don't do a ton of stuff at home, anyway. Not yet at least.

Just a thought!

Brandon

[thajeremy]

Originally Posted by Nick The Man

I have the Octane and I love it, I also use it for mostly drums, I also use the Digital Out which works just fine. It was real nice to tack on 8 more ins to my interface, through one optical cable!

what interface are you using?

[Nick The Man]

Originally Posted by thajeremy

what interface are you using?

The Tascam FW-1804, i think its been discontinued. But thats something to research... and theres always ebay

[Nick The Man]

what interface do you use jeremy

[kojdogg]

thomas, if i am understanding your situation here correctly:
in order to use your alesis fw interface and something like the 1814 at the same time, you'd need to make sure that they are both operating with the same type of driver (e.g. asio2, wdm, etc.) at a minimum and you might need to use something like the centrance driver that allows you to use multiple audio interface devices of different types (which you have to pay for) and they'd need to be clock synced.

you'd probably want to get pres and then use the conversion on your alesis, or get pres with built-in a/d conversion.

[thajeremy]

Originally Posted by Nick The Man

what interface do you use jeremy

I have 2 delta 1010's....Im not sure how the lightpipe thing works....could that add 8 more ins to mine as well for 24 ins??? if so...that would be pretty bitchin...

[NeveSSL]

Not on the 1010s... they don't have lightpipe.

Brandon