DAW advice for a Luddite drummer !

[Captain Beardy]

Hello, Folks,...

This is my first post on this excellent forum,...

OK,..I'm putting together a home studio for the main purpose of tracking my large kit set-up, with 16 simultaneous tracks / mics !

I've been asking around to gain some knowledge, and I've almost settled on the Mac Quad G5 with Pro Tools.
I'd ideally like a hardware mixer / control surface, but I might give the software mixer a go first .

Preamps / A/D convertors :- I've had a look at what's about, and I kinda like what I've read about the Mackie Onyx 800r's, and I was thinking of buying two of these to give me the required 16 channels for my mics.

Would all this stuff fit and work together ?,( would I need a supa-dupa sound card ? ).

I'm close to the time when I'll be splashing-the cash, so any advice would be greatly appreciated,....

Cheers people,.....

Dan

 

[dgatwood]

I've been asking around to gain some knowledge, and I've almost settled on the Mac Quad G5 with Pro Tools.
I'd ideally like a hardware mixer / control surface, but I might give the software mixer a go first .

Wouldn't wish PT on my worst enemy, but you'll probably like the quad. Buy the bottom graphics card. It's the only one without a GPU fan.

Preamps / A/D convertors :- I've had a look at what's about, and I kinda like what I've read about the Mackie Onyx 800r's, and I was thinking of buying two of these to give me the required 16 channels for my mics.

Not with Pro Tools, you won't. PT only works with Digi's hardware (and the low end Pro Tools M-Powered version works with M-Audio's hardware).

Would all this stuff fit and work together ?,( would I need a supa-dupa sound card ? ).

If I were going to point you in a general direction, it would be to get either Digital Performer or Logic for the DAW, and a pair of FirePods for pres/ADs, but I have no opinion on the Onyx pro or con. It might be just as good a choice or better. The pres on the Onyx have slightly better specs, but not so dramatically much better that it would be worth twice the price per channel to me, but that's coming from someone who hasn't heard them; someone who has might very well disagree.

 

[Tizzo]

I've heard not so good things about the FirePods, and many a good thing about the Onyx. From what I've read you can get 16 channels from a single Onyx Firewire board, that way you could also have latency free headphone mixes. How the pres on from the 800r compare I don't know. I would also go with Logic because of all the wonderous midi tools, softsynths, and the cost! ($500 from the apple store with student discount -- THEY GIVE IT TO EVERYONE ONLINE)

 

[Bulls Hit]

Maybe your hearing's not too good Tizzo. Have you actually heard a firepod?
I use a firepod for recording my kit, and it's a really good unit.
Haven't heard the pres on the Onyx, so I can't compare the 2. All I know is the pres sound better than those on the Yamaha mixer I had previously.

As was pointed out above, you can only run PT with the Digi hardware, so you have to make a choice.

If you decide not to go with PT, have a look at the firepod, or other firewire units like the Motu 896. I'd start off with just one, & if you like it, get a second and daisy chain them. The problem with the 800F is that they're adat only, so you'll also need to buy an adat interface like the M-Audio 1814

 

[Tizzo]

Maybe your hearing's not too good Tizzo. Have you actually heard a firepod?
1814

Yes I have heard the firepod and it doesn't wow me. You should check your eyes because I had posted that I've heard bad things "about" the firepod, i.e. poor quality, reliability. But maybe yours is one those that just works well, each line has one.