a new setup...

[punkrawkn]

i need a new studio setup (i think). my wife and i are moving and buying a new (detached) house which, moving from a townhouse, opens alot of new doors. i will be able to setup and play my drums right and record out of my marshall halfstack without bugging the neighbors (too much). that said, i have been thinking of the best setup to put into the new place. i currently have a Pentium-III/1-Gig with 384MHg RAM which has been a workhorse over the last three and a half years, but needs to be put out to pasture. i use a M-Audio Delta-66 as a soundcard (which has also been good to me) and run Sonar3 Pro and Reason as platforms. a Behringer MX802A gets my sound into the 66 and new KRK Rokit5s are great for monitoring. while everything works great, its a bit dated (except the speakers) and new technology being what it is, i am thinking of something along the lines of a Pentium-4 (laptop or desktop?) with at least 2.8 Gig speed and at least a Gig of RAM. i am looking at the MOTU 828mkII (or 896HD?) or the Tascam FW-1884 for audio I/O via Firewire and a M-Audio Keystation Pro 88 as a master controller for all my synths and VST instuments. are there any thoughts on any of this? i want to get at least 4 tracks of drums, if not more, so eight ins would be great. also, what else should i get. i have "OK" hardware effects, but can do better (MicroverbIII, Zoom 1201, AudioLogic 660 comp). if i go with the MOTUs, do i need better mic-pres (for vox and drums?). if so, whats quality and not super expensive? should i get an analog desk to feed the MOTUs (even though i dont need one if i go that route)?

i am sorry this is so long, but i have about $5,000 (after i get the PC) to spend and would like to buy what i NEED and not what i WANT. i want to keep things simple and still sound quality. this is not something i do for a living, but am looking into changing that. any thoughts as to what i should keep and what do i should ditch? any feedback would be great. thanks...

 

[sile2001]

Well, I can comment on the Motu units a little...

I've been using an 828mkII for a few months and have been quite happy with it. You mentioned getting better preamps and the like. With the 896, that's up to you. I've heard their preamps and they aren't too bad at all. With the 828, you have no choice. It only has 2 mic pre's onboard, but has 8 line in channels, 8 ADAT in channels and some more SPDIF stuff. I'm using a Presonus DigiMax LT 8 channel preamp going into my 828's ADAT input. That gives me 8 preamped channels right there and I still have 8 more line ins on which I can use preamps of my choice.

One thing I liked about the 828 is the ability to change every single setting on the device from the front panel, something the 896 can't do. For a lot of changes I'll use the software, but if it is just a quick change of reassigning a channel to a different bus mix or changing the input level, the front panel is by far the fastest way.

Just some examples from my config there...yours will end up different. But if you have any questions about the 828, I'll be happy to help out.

 

[punkrawkn]

thanks sile...

i have been looking at alot of firewire stuff and the 828 seems like one of the better bets. others, like the Firepod and the 896 just seem a little limited. and with the two mic pres up front and the MIDI I/O (something the original did not have) the mkII looks like what i need. thanks for your input...

 

[crosstudio]

i just bought the tascam fw-1884. i'm using it with a dell inspiron 9100 running at 3.0ghz with 512mb ram.

the HD is 7200rpm but there is only one. on my old desktop i had an app drive and an audio drive. we'll see how much of a difference that makes.

once i've had a few weeks to see what the fw-1884 is good at, i'll post a review in the tascam forum.

 

[manning1]

rawk. i think personally you could save a bunch of money by getting a high end amd athlon and putting your delta from your existing system into it.
then just adding a decent mixer with 8 group or direct outs.
maybe even consider some nice standalone mic pre's like rane ms1b
which are highly praised by a lot of folks.

 

[BJW]

I would also recommend upgrading your mic pre's (which I think has been mentioned a few times). I run a delta44, which is basically the same as your 66 and I used to use a berry MX2004A for mic pre's, which is basically the same as your mx802 - so we had essentially the same set-up. I bought an M-audio DMP-3 to upgrade the pre's, and wow - the difference is definately there. You can tell a bit of a difference just by comparing one channel, but when you start stacking tracks up together the dmp3 is so much clearer and, maybe this is the right word. . .warmer - or perhaps smoother, than the berry pre's. At any rate, it was a well spent $150.

If you've got a budget of 5K, I'd probably go with the advice of getting a card that supports ADAT and getting a good strip of pre's (like the presonus digimax). Those would probably be a step up from my dmp3. Then, since you would have additional channels open, I'd get maybe a higher end pre for a vocal channel or something - your options would be endless.

All I know is that upgrading from my berry mx-series pre's to a better budget pre (the dmp3) was a big improvement, so I'm sure you'll be blown away by what you get, especially once you track a whole song and listen to the difference.

If you'd like, you can hear a song done with the dmp3 by clicking the link in my signature - the song would be "Something Better". The vox were done with an SP C1 (which i like as well). The electrics all done with a 57 (and they need work - I think I'll re-track them). The acoustics were done with a pair of mxl 603s's (which I also like). Bass and drums are midi, which is why they suck. It's a work in progress, but it could give you an idea. Any of the other stuff that's no live (except for "The Way it Has To Be" is done through the berry, to give you a comparison.