Help, Opinions: RME Fireface 800 or Studiolive?

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Eddiebetancourt

New member
Hi all I am currently getting my first equipment so I can start recording.
I can see the Rme fireface 800 has very good reviews and it isn't so expensive.
Studiolive OTOH let me record not only at studio but at gigs, and I find it really useful.
Studiolive has built in preamps, but i'd like to have the decision to plug in my preamp at studio, I think it is not possible so, I am on a little confusion and I would like some help with opinions about ppl who have used the RME or studiolive.
Thanks!
 
I personally would go for the 800. I don't own one myself, but do use one regularly.
It's perfectly portable, does have some really crystal clean mic amps built into it, and the A to D's are famously good.
They are used all over the classical recording industry, purely because of their clarity.
RME supply you with a routing and mixing program, that basically interfaces between the fireface and your recording program of choice, which means you have a lot more control over what you send where, (eg headphone mixes etc)

The studiolive I have zero experience with, but can recommend the Mackie Onyx series firewire desks. They sound pretty good too.
It does of course have more mic amps than the fireface, so that's a bonus. It will let you record at gigs yes, but it would probably make sense to run the front of house mix off of it too. The RME you can just run off the back of any mixer that's already at the venue, so it's kind of swings and roundabouts really. I would find plugging and unplugging the complete mixer every time a hassle, and go with the fireface which I know very well to be excellent.
Presumably, you can always over-plug the built in preamps in the studiolive with your existing ones at the studio anyway.

You might find this series of articles useful. It's got an overview of a few differenct multitrack interfaces, and usb/firewire mixing desks. Plus other stuff you may or may not be considering like software etc.

Hope that's generally useful to you.
 
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