Equipment Recommendations: AD and Pre

U

urobolusmusic

New member
Good morning,

I am trying to determine if I should buy a premade workstation desk or make one myself. (If I was smart I'd just go with the latter because it will be a lot cheaper, but having the time is a different matter). Anyway, I'm not completly sure how much rack space I'll need so I was wondering if you guys could suggest some things to give me an idea.

I know I am going to get these things:

- Lavry DA10 (seems to get the best reviews regularly for its price range)
- Switch Witch (definetly don't need any fancy monitor management)
- Power Conditioners (not sure how many yet; want to see what you guys suggest as far as preamps before I can determine how many I might need)

So the items I was curious if you could suggest are:

- Preamp(s) - I'm probably only going to need two channels at most for micing percussion (not drumset), acoustic guitars, or vocals. Electric bass and guitar I plan on recording direct so not sure if I should get a directbox or if there is a decent preamp that handles direct recording well. Also, if I should get a seperate preamp for instruments and a seperate preamp for vocals. I'm willing to spend up to, or around, $1000 on each unit.

- AD converter - Probably just two channels again. Don't intend to record anything requiring more than two mics. Drums I'm going to record with DFH:S since I live in the city, in an apartment.

Thanks for the help yet again!

Uro
 
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Just out of curiosity, If you live in the city how are you going to make a complete workstation out of wood? Just asking
 
Yea, what the hell am I thinking? I forgot things like wood and screws don't exist in cities; nor power tools for that matter. Or cars, so that makes it impossible for me to drive somewhere else to build it and then drive back and assemble it... Guess I'm stuck buying a workstation desk... :rolleyes:

Anyway, it would be greatly appreciated if someone would be able to assist me. Given the turn the thread has taken, I doubt that is going to happen.

Thanks,

Uro
 
It doesn't seem like you need a custom desk. It's not like you have a huge mixer and need 40 rackspaces for your gear.

And building your own isn't necessarily cheaper than buying one premade.

Plywood has gone through the roof. And tools aren't cheap either.

If you have the tools and the space to work in, building your own stuff is a great way to go. I've built 4 huge gobos, a 14-space rolling rack over a 12h x 18w x 22d storage drawer, and modified an old desk into a custom workstation.
 
monitor management is pretty important
your mix is running thru it

however, for what your talking about you might just want an audio interface. that will cover your preamps..A/D...D/A...and monitor management (unless of course you have more than one set of monitors)

if you want to get outboard preamps it really all depend on what sound you are going for

sounds like your sitting on a couple grand...Spend it wisely...you might not need what you think you need.

what is your artistic situation? are you recording your personal demo? are you opening a recording studio? is this a hobby? are you a songwriter submitting songs to a publisher?
 
Sorry...

I didn't mean that in a mean way.

I would build one If you have access to tools and a workspace. There is a certain satisfaction from building your own stuff (for me at least).

However, as stated above building materials may well just cost more than buying a premade one.
 
I probably should explain myself a little more.

Basically, the only people I plan on recording are myself (mostly), the band I am in with some friends, or just my friends. I’m not planning on opening a recording studio, but who knows down the road. I’m not even considering it right now. I would like to be able to do all my own tracking and mixing, and will probably send out for mastering. As such, I want to get the best possible sound I can for my budget which is about $1000 per piece of equipment. I don’t want to get something I am going to outgrow and end up selling it for less than I paid for it to finance something better. I guess you could say something quality and something to grow into.

I guess the same thing goes for the desk. For starters, I haven’t been able to find one that is exactly what I want which is basically everything—my Keystation Pro, QWERTY keyboard w/ mouse, and US-2400 control surface—right in front of me with the rack gear and computer monitors. (I’m tired of getting pains in my neck from looking over to one direction for too long while using the Keystation and looking at the monitor). As well, I don’t want to buy or make something only to outgrow the amount of rack space and then have to do it all over again. (Yea, I could just get a side rack, but…)

As far as effects and EQ, if not done at the source, will be handled with either native plug-ins or maybe one of the UA cards, so nothing outboard. As such it seems to me I’d just need (besides mics): a micpre for vocals, instruments, and/or DI (was hoping you guys could help me determine if it would be best to get a pre just for vocals, one just for acoustic instruments, and/or one for DI recording, or if there something that will handle all these superbly); AD conversion (leaning towards Lavry AD-10); into an RME HDSPe RayDat; into PC (XP, Reaper, 8GB mem., 2x Intel Quad Cores); back out to a Lavry DA-10; through a Switch Witch (don’t need anything fancy for monitor management and from what I hear these are very transparent); then to a pair of Adam A7’s and a pair of Yamaha NS-10’s to A/B (which I think the NS10’s are passive so I’ll need to throw a power amp in there).

For me, I’d be recording electric guitar and bass direct and processing in Guitar Rig, but for my friends I’d probably mic their cabinet. I wouldn’t be recording more than two channels at a time, but I want the RayDat not only because it is the only card I know of that fully utilizes PCIe bandwidth but because I’ll expand the channels I can record when I eventually move into a house and can record acoustic drums (which will be handled by Drumkit From Hell right now). Also, if you have better suggestion for an AD converter.

I’m also open to the suggestion of all-in-one interfaces if someone has one to suggest. I’ve been out of the gear game for a while (probably over a year) due to school but it seems like just about every interface had so-so reviews. Either the pres were good and the converters sucked, or vice-versa. I’m also not aware of any interfaces that utilize PCIe architecture which seems necessary for me as I’ll be running DFH, GR, and other things at the same time. What I mean by “utilize PCIe architecture” is that it uses the bandwidth. Some companies like UA re-released their PCI cards as PCIe but they only utilized the bandwidth of PCI. This was meant to accommodate newer motherboards, but it is pretty deceiving. You expect to get a card that performs better and transfers around 3GB/s only to find it is no different than your antiquated <1GB/s PCI.

The music I write? I’m a classical guitarist and also write string quarter compositions. I’d love to get into doing scores for films. The band I am in is probably most comparable to something like Secret Chiefs 3, Mr. Bungle, Estradapshere, I guess you could say Zappa too—basically a wide variety of styles from classical to death metal and almost everything in between.

So all that being said (lol) I guess I'm just looking for suggestions for: a micpre for vocals, a micpre for recording acousting instruments, and a DI or pre for recording direct. Or, the alternative of buying a unit that will handle these applications excellently. Or, the last alterantive: an all encompassing unit such as a MOTU or something that will handle my needs just as well as buying the individual components.

Thanks for the advice in advance! I hope I am not asking too much. Sorry for being snappy in one of my earlier posts. ;)

Thanks,

Uro
 
The conversion in ANY Motu interface is going to be a huge
step down from Lavry DA10.

Curious to how many pieces your willing to purhase at
$1000 per piece?

Well $1000 should get you a pretty nice pre amp.
I paid that for a UA LA610 I think you may still be
able to find a few of the older style siver face ones
for that.

Interface wise I would look at some of the Lynx products
a two channel interface is not going to allow much expansion
is it?

Like the A7's their next on my list too!
 
Yea, I just decided to address the questions people were posing in one big post, against my better judgement...

Curious to how many pieces your willing to purhase at $1000 per piece?
Click to expand...

I guess what it would take to meet my goals. (Outlined above, sorry it is a lot to read).

Well $1000 should get you a pretty nice pre amp. I paid that for a UA LA610 I think you may still be able to find a few of the older style siver face ones for that.
Click to expand...

I'll start reading up on the LA610. What application(s) would you say it is best suited for? Vocals? DI? Acoustic instruments?

Interface wise I would look at some of the Lynx products a two channel interface is not going to allow much expansion is it?
Click to expand...

I guess I kind of contradicted myself by saying I want something that I won't have to replace in a few years, and then by saying I just want a 2-channel AD converter. By that logic, I should be trying to get an 8 or 16-channel AD converter. Besides only wanting 2-channels because that is all I'll need for now, I'm also sticking with that because there is a huge jump in price from 2 channels up to 8 channels. Its a little out of my price range for one piece of gear. I'm leaning towards the Lavry AD-10 unless there are better suggestions.

Thanks for the feedback!

Uro
 
Also, I know there are websites out there that you can listen to audio recorded or processed through different pieces of equipment: what are some good ones? I realize this should only be trusted with caution because ones own equipment is going to color it even more, but I'm just curious.

Thanks,

Uro
 
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