Need help getting ADATS out of Sony Vegas chain

[toddallman]

I need some serious computer advice from Vegas users. I am a small demo recording studio that is being held back by my older adats. I would like to take all three adats out of my system and just keep them racked for when I would like to use them not rely and need them.

List of my frequently used equipment: Computer running Vegas 8(new computer waiting to be incorperated), Sound Forge, Acid and CD and DVD archetect, 3 ADATS, old computer running ADAT connect, Emu 0404, 24 channel mix board(that I use for preamps and monitoring), MOTU MK1 not yet incorperated.

Here is my work flow: First, I record all drum tracks and scratch vox,gtar,bass tracks with the ADATS. Then I have to transfer all of my tracks to an older computer (8 tracks at a time) that uses Windows ME because XP will not work with ADAT connect. I then have to transfer all the tracks to Vegas and set each one and do a quick mix, because I usualy have clients waiting, impatiently I might add, and then I use an Emu card to record the rest of the tracks and one at a time to get quality sounds per intrument. This takes hours!

As soon as I get the bugs worked out of the computer that I just rolled I'll have a really nice work station. Now to the advice.

I have a MOTU MK1 that I would like to incorperate into the system but have never used it so I am not attached if you think that it will not serve me well. How could I, and what kind would you suggest, preamps and or gear such as a MOTU system would work well so that I can record directly to the computer (12-16 channels at a time) and then mix in the box using Vegas 8.0?

Ready to leave the age of ADATS...

 

[RawDepth]

It sounds like your Emu is holding you back. I would focus on replacing it with an interface that has more input channels.

I don't know what is on your MK1, but if it does not offer at least 8 channels into the new computer, then I would leave it behind as well or keep it as a secondary interface.

You may want to take a closer look at something like the MOTU 896mk3. It has 8 mic inputs, 16 channels of ADAT ins and various other connections. It delivers it all to the computer via firewire cable. It should get along just fine with both XP and Vegas. (And you could still feed your old ADAT tracks into it.)

You could also connect something like the Behringer ADA8000 into one of the ADAT plugs. I believe the Motu will pass it on the the computer. Then you would have 8 more cheapo mic inputs in case of a larger drumset or additional instruments.

Your Alesis Blackfaces may be getting old, but the ADAT optical connection method is still alive and well in a lot of modern gear. (Just be aware that the same plug type is also sometimes used for optical S/PDIF format.)