Best Quality Recording Interface?

I'm getting a pair of FireStudio Projects. My friend uses one right now, and it works great. Of course, you'd have to get a pair of them for 16 XLR/1/4" inputs, but they sound pretty good.
 
I have the 1818vsl and the preamps are ok, you're not going to find a whole lot of difference at that price point but between the fire studio and Vsl I'd go Vsl because FireWire is on its way out of a lot of computers. The use the same preamps so they'd sound pretty identical. You wouldn't want two of either though the best way to do it is buy one interface then a preamp bank such as the digimax d8 (same pres as 1818vsl) and insert them with light pipe/adat for your extra 8 channels
 
The VSL is also USB 2.0, so it's faster than Firewire by about 80Mbps (theoretically speaking).
While Firewire IS going out as far as computers go, you can buy a PCI card that has firewire ports for about $15, so if you're looking to pick between the two, don't be worried about having firewire ports being a problem. =]
 
What's your budget?

I have a Focusrite liquid saffire 56 and an OctoPre Dynamic Mk II

This gives me 16 channels of Inputs including 4 dedicated Hi-Z Instrument inputs.


On this I have a Neumann TLM 102 going through the Avalon 737 emulation on one of the built in liquid channels and an SM57 through a normal channel.
I then have an SM58 going through an actual Universal Audio LA-610 plugged into a line in on the OctoPre and an SM27 Condenser going through an avalon 373 emulation on the other liquid channel.

I have then used an MS pair with an sEX1R ribbon and a Rode NT1a to capture the room, and pointed an SM58 to one of the corners to capture the reflections.


The Focusrite stuff is really transparent, but for the OctoPre you're looking at £350 and £500 for the dynamic, the liquid 56 is £600ish everywhere.

It is also ProTools Compatible (although I use it with Logic Pro) and Rackmountable.
The Liquid 56 uses 2U and the OctoPres use 1U.

photo-1.JPG

I'd personally avoid Presonus like the plague. Any time I've used their equipment I've had bad results.
 
MrWrenchey said:
The VSL is also USB 2.0, so it's faster than Firewire by about 80Mbps (theoretically speaking).
While Firewire IS going out as far as computers go, you can buy a PCI card that has firewire ports for about $15, so if you're looking to pick between the two, don't be worried about having firewire ports being a problem. =]
Click to expand...

You can but why not futureproof yourself now? You may want to do location recording on a laptop down the road with no firewire card, or you may want to use your pci slots for other things, why use an increasingly outdated technology?
 
Pahtcub said:
You can but why not futureproof yourself now? You may want to do location recording on a laptop down the road with no firewire card, or you may want to use your pci slots for other things, why use an increasingly outdated technology?
Click to expand...


Firewire is still better for Multitrack recordings (as it works in parallel as opposed to in serial)


Also 80mbps is only 10MBps and makes no difference in practical terms.
 
They both offer enough bandwidth for their use. I just switched to USB interface from my 01V96 mlan FW because there are less and less options in computing with firewire, I don't want to have to buy a macbook pro for location tracking when an air will do the job just fine. With USB I can even record 16ch simultaneously on my iPad for christ sake. Eventually firewire will go away like I said so unless you're getting a good deal or don't mind buying new interfaces when you buy new computers firewire may not be the smartest choice at this moment in time.
 
PaddyGordon said:
I have a Focusrite liquid saffire 56 and an OctoPre Dynamic Mk II

This gives me 16 channels of Inputs including 4 dedicated Hi-Z Instrument inputs.

The Focusrite stuff is really transparent, but for the OctoPre you're looking at £350 and £500 for the dynamic, the liquid 56 is £600ish everywhere.

It is also ProTools Compatible (although I use it with Logic Pro) and Rackmountable.
The Liquid 56 uses 2U and the OctoPres use 1U.

View attachment 73793
Click to expand...
I see you like your rack upside down. Got to try that with my Saffire 56+Octopre mk2
:p
 
It was a firepod with 8 combi-pres.
The 8th one stopped working completely. The 3rd one (I later learned) was intermittent. And the rest (which were working fine) didn't have any punch, warmth, boom or clarity.

I used it in march 2011 for a drum recording.

My MacBook is in for repair at the moment but I'll be able to send you an audio file in a couple of days when I get it back.
 
PaddyGordon said:
It was a firepod with 8 combi-pres.
The 8th one stopped working completely. The 3rd one (I later learned) was intermittent. And the rest (which were working fine) didn't have any punch, warmth, boom or clarity.

I used it in march 2011 for a drum recording.

My MacBook is in for repair at the moment but I'll be able to send you an audio file in a couple of days when I get it back.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I was wondering. I guess you might have landed yourself with a dud there. But one dud doesn't necessarily a winter make.
 
moresound said:
I have two PreSonus ACP88's. The older one just up and died the newer one has channel 5 not working so good.
Click to expand...

Oh wow. Now it's all coming out. :p
I hate bad legitimate bad news about a manufacturer. So disappointing.

Don't think I've heard a bad word about presonus until now.

Was their support any good? Did they get you sorted?
 
To busy to keep up with things that go bad. The older one is in a heap somewhere and the newer one is still in a live rack being used - except for channel 5.
 
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