Best way to add more mic pre's to audio interface?

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RJrules64

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Hi, I'm a beginner to this whole scene, so this is probably a really easy question... :-)

I have a Scarlett Focusrite 18i20, and it has 8 mic pre's - but I need 12. Is there anything I can buy that I can connect to the interface to add 4 more mic pre's? I'm on a tight budget, but I want similar quality pre's to what I already have. I don't need any other features.

Thanks!
 
+1.
The only extra available inputs are S/Pdif (2 channel) or adar 8 channel.
An ada8000 is probably your cheapest bet but the preamps don't get great rep.

There are other options. Focusrite octopre with digital add on card or presonus digimax d8 come to mind.
Have a google for "8 channel preamp adat".

I don't think you're likely to find a 4 channel unit.
 
There is a BLA Premium mod for the ADA 8000 that makes it sing! But the mod is $385 + the $180 for the unit puts the working unit in the $575 price range, more than the Octopre.
OTOH, the mod is supposed to put this cheap Behri in the $1000 preamp category. Might be worth an investigate or two.
 
you can buy preamps so you can use line inputs for mics as an extra. Is this what you want to do?
 
TimOBrien said:
The newer ada8200 is supposed to be much better.
Click to expand...

You have to love Behringer, doing the red faceplate (just like Focusrite Scarlett popular series).
I guess you cant copyright colors, lol, but its so obvious they just copy whatevers successful that month.....and they've done well following the trends and sales though, got to give old Behringer that. I've read the newer Behringer stuff stands up well in the blind shootouts too. Like the convertors and such.... so save some money, is always good in my opinion.
 

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Thanks :)

Thanks for the input guys, I really appreciate it. I'll have a look into all your suggestions!

One thing though- If I'm using ADAT, will I need to sync with a clock or anything like that?
I don't own an external clock.
If I do need a clock, how would I go about this?
 
Page 18 of the User Manual HERE.

The Behri's can be used as the master clock as well.

:D
 
A couple of things..

First, I have four of the ADA8000 units. Not the best pre amps I have but adequate for a lot of things. The main problem is noise when you crank them up to fairly high gain but I've rarely found a situation where I couldn't use the ADA8000s for high output condensers, line inputs like keyboards or whatever.

Second, with only a single ADA8000 you have a several word clock options. You can make the ADA8000 the master clock as described, you can take the optical out from the 18i20 to the input of the ADA8000 and slave the Behringer to the Focusrite that way or you can feed a short length of BNC-terminated coax from the 18i20 to the ADA8000 and sync that way. Given a choice, I'd go for the third option.
 
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