Starting Again!!!!

J

jamest748

New member
Ok, after unsuccessfully building my currnet studio with bits and bobs I'm going to make a fresh start and try again!

What I want is for home use, good gear, 2 tracks max (mainly guitar and Vox) and I have a Roland TD12 for good measure!

What I have currently is:

Neumann U87 ai
AKG C414 XLS
Avalon vt737 sp
Apogee PSX 100 A/D and D/A Converter
Sonar 8.5 Producer
Marian Marc X Soundcard
Genelec Monitors
Beyer Dynanmics Headphones


I can't seem to get it all going so I was thinking of upgrading the soundcard to something with a a bit more and also getting another pre-amp for stereo recording.

The other thing is, I'm currently mixer-less but want to add the headphones somewhere in the mix...where do these connect in my current set up to be able to monitor the audio playback and metronome???

Thanks in advance for help and advice.

Cheers,
James.
 
If you're mainly doing vocals and guitar you should look into the Line 6 UX2 or something similar. If you're willing to spend the cash an MBOX 2 works well if you don't mind ProTools (I myself, am not a fan). The UX2 has two mic inputs (for stereo recording) and two intrument inputs (norm and pad or active instruments). The inlcuded PODFarm software is decent and provides a fair amount of tones for guitar, bass and vocals. You can also use the interface with Amplitube 3 (which is sweet!).

The UX2 would essentially replace your onboard soundcard and assume the role. I use it for recording guitar and bass direct and also for recording guitar with mics with no problems. Best of all it's under $200 and comes packaged with a shit ton of additional software.
 
floorpuncher said:
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Ah ha, did you read the list of his current hardware? You suggesting a $200 interface as a replacement for an Avalon Pre and Apogee converters!?

James, sorry I haven't got back to you again, had a pretty mad few days. If you're still up for trying to get your current stuff working then I'll try and find some times that I could do the remote desktop session for you to pick from.

As for any upgrades, probably a soundcard with a bit more of a solid userbase behind it might be a reasonable plan; maybe one of the cheaper RME offerings? Though I hadn't heard of it before now, on the surface your current soundcard doesn't look bad (and anyway, it won't affect the sound in any way as you're running through the digital inputs)... however a card from a more well-known company like RME would probably have better, more stable drivers and would more-than-certainly play nicely with the Apogee. Really, there's no obvious reason why your current setup shouldn't be more than fine as it is though with no further investment.
 
mattr said:
Ah ha, did you read the list of his current hardware? You suggesting a $200 interface as a replacement for an Avalon Pre and Apogee converters!?
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Yes I did read the list. Did you read the part of his post that stated that he was having trouble getting everything working properly? I was suggesting an easier alternative is all, not that his gear was inferior. I mean, this is a forum for advice right? Suggestions? Ideas? No one said you had to be a dick about it.
 
floorpuncher said:
Yes I did read the list. Did you read the part of his post that stated that he was having trouble getting everything working properly? I was suggesting an easier alternative is all, not that his gear was inferior. I mean, this is a forum for advice right? Suggestions? Ideas? No one said you had to be a dick about it.
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Whoah whoah whoah, it wasn't an attack on you. I was just pointing out that he already has some very very decent gear, and I got the impression that you hadn't read the list from several cues in your post; simply the way you said "...if you're willing to spend the cash..." etc, to mention one when heck, that preamp alone costs over 10x what a UX2 does, let alone the rest of it :p

As for suggestions for an easier alternative to his current setup i.e. an interface withe everything integrated, something like a Prism Orpheous would be more in line with the kind of level of gear the OP currently has. Got to play with one for a few minutes once and it seemed like it would be a very nice interface, though I really couldn't pass judgement based on such a brief encounter with no proper use - the guy who had it mentioned he had a few driver issues when he first got it, but I think all those have been sorted with updates now. Maybe worth a look? :)
 
mattr said:
Whoah whoah whoah, it wasn't an attack on you. I was just pointing out that he already has some very very decent gear, and I got the impression that you hadn't read the list from several cues in your post; simply the way you said "...if you're willing to spend the cash..." etc, to mention one when heck, that preamp alone costs over 10x what a UX2 does, let alone the rest of it :p

As for suggestions for an easier alternative to his current setup i.e. an interface withe everything integrated, something like a Prism Orpheous would be more in line with the kind of level of gear the OP currently has. Got to play with one for a few minutes once and it seemed like it would be a very nice interface, though I really couldn't pass judgement based on such a brief encounter with no proper use - the guy who had it mentioned he had a few driver issues when he first got it, but I think all those have been sorted with updates now. Maybe worth a look? :)
Click to expand...

Understood. My point was, and perhaps I failed in delivering it, if he was willing to spend the cash on shit. I hate DigiDesign. I think it's shit. If this was a failure on my part I apoligize but you did come across rather condesending in your subsequent post.

As for the Orpheous, it seems you may be right in terms of an "all in one option" for the OP... Personally, I prefer simplicity over complexity. I think people put too much emphasis on price tags, names, and "keeping up with the Jones's" instead of what works best. I love the UX2. It's a great piece of gear that I've gotten great results from. I can't say that the Orpheus isn't a superior piece of gear because I've never used one but at the same time I can't say it's worth $4,500 dollars simply because it costs $4,500.

I apologize for any misunderstandings.
 
First off...nice gear list. :D

Now, what exactly are you having trouble with? I'm not familiar with your soundcard, but it looks like it has all of the inputs/outputs that you need.

The connections should look something like this.

MICROPHONE to AVALON MIC INPUT. From AVALON OUTPUT to APOGEE ANALOG INPUT. From APOGEE SPDIF OUT to MARION SPDIF IN.

You'll have to setup the Marion soundcard in Sonar. I'm a Cubase user so I'm not sure how to do it in Sonar.

Your monitors and headphones should be plugged into the soundcard. If there's a way to connect your computer case's headphone jack to the soundcard, you could do that and plug your headphones into that jack.


Maybe that helps. Maybe not.

And MattR, don't worry...you weren't being a d***. :D
 
Ha, cheers guys I didn't want to start anything!

Thanks for the advice, it kinda seems like I've got all the gear but no idea!

But...I've tried everything. Somethings not syncing up....I believe it's the soundcard but not 100%.

All I'm getting from the A/D is white noise. No inputs, just white horrible digital noise on every channel of ADAT. The signal path is exactly as you describe just with ADAT and not SPDIF. Not sure why I've done that, think I tried SPDIF with no luck either.

Anyway, I'll get some photos up soon of the studio to see what you think.
 
Try taking the Apogee out of the equation. Go from the Avalon to the Soundcard and see if that works. If that still doesn't work, try plugging a line level input into the soundcard and bypass the microphones, preamp, & converter.
 
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