Help me talk my friend out of the O2R

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kEVINk

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I've been posting here lately with questions about studio construction and acoustics. I'm helping some guys build a studio and am running into lots of grey areas.

Anyway, my question is, my friend has his heart set on the O2R, and I can't blame him. The problem is that he hasn't thought beyond this, for example what format he would be recording to, or pricing these. I think the O2R looks incredible but it seems to me that for a first time official studio this is getting in way too deep.

My pitch to him is this:
skip the O2R, buy it next time. Get a Mackie CR1604 vlz pro, two alesis adat lx-20, spend what's left on some good microphones. Learn this, then move on from there. Or spring for a 24 track mackie and another adat. (any recomendations on a studio-grade 24 track?)

It's just that we're going to be recording punk bands in a basement. A nice basement, but still a basement. No one in our group uses the computer for anything other than looking at stuff like this. Crimeny, the closest thing to keyboards is our moog and hammond.

I don't think we have the support to use the o2r to it's capability and it would be money better spent elsewhere.


Any thoughts?

k
 
Show him the new Yamaha AW4416. It's a 16 track digital hard disk DAW and it has automated faders and everything - much like the O2R, only it costs about $7,000 less. :D

Isaiah
 
The AW4416 is basically the 02R on Steroids. Don't let its small size deceive you, because it is more or less the same......But you get a bonus hard disk recorder. The preamps are all excellent, and if you get some outboard preamps and an expansion card.....You can record upi to 16 tracks at once. I like the 02R also, but its inflated price just doesn't justify it when the AW4416 is heaps less money.
 
Link said:
The AW4416 is basically the 02R on Steroids.
Click to expand...

say what????

i'll buy an AW4416 and trade it for an O2R anytime (i'm not even thinking about the price difference)

kevin k : maybe you should be talked out of your idea...

two adats??? and a mackie is okay but do you seriously think two adats with a mackie can compare to the O2R? sorry, but NO F*CKIN WAY!

and BTW the AW is 16 bit-> O2R 24.

now one little question: does your friend know what a O2R costs? if so; let him buy it you 'll hit yourself later for even suggesting the adat idea. if not; do better research.

greetz guhlenn;)

and uhm... one more thing; you talk abut a mackie 24 track and a adat, though you're only gonna record punk...
think about that...
 
guhlenn said:
two adats??? and a mackie is okay but do you seriously think two adats with a mackie can compare to the O2R? sorry, but NO F*CKIN WAY!
Click to expand...

YES F*CKIN WAY!

Are you quite sure about that opinion there G??? :eek:

My studio is centered around 3 XT20s and a Mackie 8-buss and it does RATHER WELL, thank you very much.........

Bruce
 
sorry bruce but i would rather get the O2R and a decent digital soundcard then 2 adat 's (well the mackie i would like anyway).

sorry if that offends you.;)

didn't say the adat 's are bad, but if i could spend so much cash i wouldn't buy adat's.

but uhm, i'm prejudiced by the lot here as my very first idea was to get an adat.

who the f*ck cares bout my opinion anyway????


;)
greetz guhlenn
 
guhlenn,

Believe me, nobody would like him to buy the O2R more than me (I mean, what's easier than spending someone else's money?) I guess my question stemmed from the fact that I asked him what medium he was going to record to and he had no idea. Which got me thinking... Few things more frustrating than someone that goes out and buys the biggest toy they can afford and doesn't have the money left to buy the apppropriate equipment to support it.

I was definitely not suggesting that my two options were equal.

Does he know what it costs? Yeah, he's got the cash. I'd just like to see it spread more evenly among all the equipment; for example, some nice tube pre-amps. I suppose this isn't a fair question for you all because I've never said "The total budget is xxxx", because I don't really know. I don't know how big a piece of the pie the O2R would be taking up. I think his budget is in the area of fifteen grand.

So, guhlenn, you'd prefer the aw4416? (Couldn't quite tell from your response) Any opinions on why? Would you skip the ADATS?

Blue Bear Sound, what Mackie board are you using? Very dumb question, but could you tell me what 8-buss refers to? It seems to differentiate between live boards and studio boards, but I don't really know what it means. Can I ask how you like the xt20s? For three of them, the price approaches a hard disk recorder, wondering on pros/cons with that. but that's another question......

Thanks
 
I record to LX and XT's also. Why? I like the idea the I'm
recording in the digital forum at 20 bits while at the same time I get the analog "taste" I want recording to tape.
There's not a d@mn thing wrong with using ADATS!!!!
Besides, I'm old-school! :)
 
Originally posted by guhlenn
and BTW the AW is 16 bit-> O2R 24.

The AW4416 does 24 bits too. In fact the O2R has 20 bit A/D converters, but the AW has 24 bit... The AW is really an O2R with an built in HD-recorder.

If the guy wants an O2R, but has no idea what he is going to use as a recording medium, then an AW4416 does make a LOT of sense. I assume there must be some features of the O2R that the AW4416 doesn't have, since it's more expensive, but I don't know what. More buttons?
It does have 4 expansion slots where the AW only has two...

http://www.aw4416.com/e/products/02r_inside.html
 
LITERALLY......the AW4416 is an absolute beast. You won't beat it for the price. All you need is a few outboard preamps (such as the presonus) to go with it to let you record more than the 8 tracks at once. Do not dismiss this peice of gear as a toy. It basically has all the 02R has (as mentioned by regebro) but has a HD recorder and sampling pads. For what you guys will be recording this would be all you'd ever need as the heart of your studio.
 
If you're gonna use an analog mixer ... upgrade to XT20's for sure. The Mackie is a pretty decent board, but you both will regret dealing with the unbalanced I/O of the LX20 at some point, I'm sure.

Say ... why is he considering an 02R in the first place? What are the compelling reasons? And why not other digital consoles near the same price range (ie. Mackie D8B, Tascam TD4000, DA7, etc.)?
Don't just say because he thinks it looks cool :eek:

Seriously, it is a cool board ... but if he's not exactly sure why he wants it, I wonder if he'll be happy with it later on. And if that's the case, maybe you're right ... get something less costly and grow from there when he can better identify the reasons for forking over the cash for better gear.
Digital consoles really aren't that much more difficult to use, IMHO ... it's just that a lot of the settings are displayed only on a little screen, which can be a little cumbersome sometimes. I think the learning curve for a digital board is pretty comparable to any other piece of audio gear ... with the exception of monitors and power strips and stuff. :)
In my opinion, it's still a pretty huge chunk of change to throw at something on a whim. The console is the heart of any studio and not really knowing how it may fit in could become a huge problem. No offense, but I'd be more cautious with my money.

Good luck.
 
Last time I visited a real studio, they had an analog Mackie board (for the "warm" analog sound) which ran into two O2R mixers and then into three ADATs and a DARWIN. It sounded pretty darn sweet.

Isaiah
 
btw ... I have to come to the defense of ADAT as well ...
I don't multitrack on my PC because I run down way too many computer problems as it is (at work). That's not to say all computer DAWs are problematic ... but I guess I'm old school like MrQ and just want to turn it on, throw in a tape and hit record, have a beer and not worry about anything else. I usually mix to my PC, though, and my board is the perfect link to my PC.
I think I'll keep ADAT as my medium until you can't get tapes anymore ... I'm thinking that'll be around 2030 or so when we all record directly to our cerebral cortex. :)
 
i'm sorry i offended all the ADAT lovers, didn't mean to implicate adat is bad or anything... and i'm gonna check on that AW 4416 ASAP.
Kevin , it's kinda strange to hear people say that they're gonna buy "like two adat's OR an O2R" when most here have very little cash.

again : Adat is fine but i would prefer a mackie D8b. Which is way to expensive for me...

greetz guhlenn;)
 
sorry, my fault i was totally believing that the AW thingy was the dsp factory

sorry, i should have kept my mouth!

greetz guhlenn;)
 
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