Audio Interface Upgrade

  • Thread starter Thread starter jtomme65
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jtomme65

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Ok,

I have some decent gear
Rolls Mic Preamp
Joemeek Three-Q
High End Guitars, Basses, Keyboards
AT - 4040 Mic, AT - 4047 , pair RODE NT5, SM57s etc
PODxt
PODxt Bass
and an adaquate sound card (M-AUDIO Audiophile 24/96) running on good PC
2.4Ghz 1.5GB Ram Windows XP Pro Sonar 3 (Until I upgrade)

I have cheap Mixer(Behringer in between these two stages) to get all these inputs down to one for recording.

I would like to take the mixer out of the chain.

What has been everyone's experience with firewire units M-AUDIO 1814 or PCI solutions like the M-AUDIO 1010. Another Option would be to have a solution that had S/PDIF out where I could still use the Audiophile. I even looked at the ONYX Mixers from Mackie but thats overkill. I am looking to spend $800 or less to make an improvement. Any ideas?

Thanks
 
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Is the point of the upgrade solely to get the mixer out of your signal chain? Or are you trying to get a better interface to improve AD conversion? If it's the latter, I would look at a stand-alone converter. A few months ago I added a Lucid 9624 to my MOTU 828 and the results were pretty dramatic.
 
The answer to that is both. I was thinking of an all-in-one upgrade but it sounds like maybe I ought to look at a good quality mixer and separately a good quality converter. At that point the system entry point can remain the audiophile 2496 through the S/PDIF port. I think the mixer change should be first. Any ideas for that? And then besides the LUCID Any ideas for AD Converters?
 
Ok,

I am starting to get this from reading other posts. I can go out and get an interface with all the inputs I need and then get something like the LUCID or the Apogee mini me and use it as converter if I want but the more important thing is to use the clock via S/PDIF or BNC (if available) from the high quality converter. I have liked my M-AUDIO card. Anyone have issues with the 1010 not the LT?

Thanks Again
 
jtomme65 said:
I think the mixer change should be first. Any ideas for that? And then besides the LUCID Any ideas for AD Converters?
Click to expand...

I don't use a mixer for recording but the budget mixers usually quoted around here include Soundcraft, Allen & Heath, and Yamaha. Mackie gets a lot of poor comments especially when it comes to preamps. I would do a search. As far as expensive mixers, it's really a question of your budget. There are some good quality mixers begining in the 4-5K range including the Soundcraft Ghost and the Midas Venice. After that it gets very expensive.

AD converters are tricky because it looks like you are trying to record more than two inputs at a time. Good eight channel converters begin in the 2k range and include Apogee, Lucid, Mytek, Lynx, etc.

Have you thought about a stand-alone firewire interface like the MOTU 828mk2 or the Presonsus Firepod?
 
Yep,

I think that is the way I am going to go. I just have to decide which Interface to go with. I would like to get one that has an S/PDIF input ot BNC connector so I could upgrade the clock in the future.

Thanks
 
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