Im a sucker for M-Audio

  • Thread starter Thread starter darkecho
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darkecho

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i just went to the local proaudio shop looking to spend about 300 on a mic preamp but long story short i ended up getting the M-Audio Octane for $580 which is just less than musicians friend at 599. Did i waste my cash? haha I got him to bring it down about 20 from what he wanted and its got 8 preamped channels so how could i resist?! anyways... if anyone can tell me that i didnt waste my money, please do so beforei open the package in a few hours haha...
 
I think those preamps are based on the dmp3, so I think you are good to go.
 
I have the Octane, and I think it's a great bang for buck. I mainly use it as a pre for my drums, but I've also used it for recording acoustic guitar using its M/S matrix and I'm really impressed with the clarity. I think you'll get good use out of it.
 
ive been using it all night and it seems to function very well.. i need to get some sort of box to mount it to since its well.. large and strange looking on my desk... i cant help but ask myself if i would have rather spent the money on a really nice 600$ preamp with 2 channels instead of spreading the quality over 8 of them... what do u guys think? someone said that the pres are as good as the DMP3, and for budget stuff that is great but for 600 dollars? *sigh* im beginning to think i made a mistake...
 
just curious

Where are you routing the adat output from this unit?
 
I'm still trying to figure out how this unit gets tracks into a DAW. Sorry if this seems like a dumb question, but I've just been using a 2 Ch USB Tascam and am beginning to look at options that permit more than 2 ch of simultaneous recording.

Where does the signal go?


JD
 
This unit gets sounds into a daw two ways. Either the "outs" which there are eight of them, one for each channel. You'd have to have 8 individual inputs to get the full capabilities of the unit. So thats 8 in and 8 out. Or with adat which transfers 8 channels thru one optical cable. People who have mixers with say 36 channels and only 24 preamps could use the octane line outs to the mixers line ins to get 8 more xlr preamps. People like me with interfaces that have lightpipe use the octane with adat optical and get 8 extra channels that way. Sorry its kinda confusing to explain but I hope I helped a little.
 
does using the optical line (light pipe/adat) give me better recording quality? Cause at the moment i only have the ability to record 4 simultaenous sources with my delta 44 soundcard. maybe i could just route it directly to my computers optical port? then icould all 8 into one signal (that would for for now when i record just 2-3 mics on something, but it would be best for me to get a Delta1010 in the future probably and keep that in the same rack with the octane so i can have patch cables from octane to all of the 1010s 1/4 inputs to take full advantage of my octane..

the lightpipe would be useful in some scenarios i would imagine.
 
darkecho said:
......as good as the DMP3, and for budget stuff that is great but for 600 dollars? *sigh* im beginning to think i made a mistake...
Click to expand...

600$..... for 8 pre's???????

what exactly is your deffinition of "budget" it that's not it?
 
hahah i just mean that i spent 600 on 8 pres, so thats 75 bucks a pre... where as if i had just bought a 2 channel pre for 600, it would have been 300 bucks per channel... maybe that doesnt make sense but thats kind of how im looking at my quality choice...

mostly im doubting because i currently have no use for all 8 pres. i can only use a max of 4 due to my sound card and i only have 3 mics at the moment lol...

but i bought this setup hoping that i wouldnt have to upgrade in the future due to lack of pre's and i think i did well in that category... but i still have to buy more mics and a new interface to make use of them all... i duno it sounds really good compared to my behringer UB502 mic preamp but i have no idea what better quality might have been attainable had i spent all of my money buying less channels/higher quality...

is there a 2 channel pre out there thats about 600 that is better than the octane? haha just tell me ther isnt so i can move on LOL but really... what would my choices be if say i returned this one (dont think htats really possible, the stores return policy is crap) thanks everyone
 
darkecho said:
is there a 2 channel pre out there thats about 600 that is better than the octane? haha just tell me ther isnt so i can move on LOL but really... what would my choices be if say i returned this one (dont think htats really possible, the stores return policy is crap) thanks everyone
Click to expand...

based on your inputs, yea..... you over bought.
the possible quality in your price range isn't smashingly better than what you have, so just look at it this way: you're ahead of the game with pre's, look to expand elsewhere for now.
 
You could allways get a 8ch mixer and Rout all 8 Mic Pre"s into the Mixer and then out to your Delta 44 in stereo, that way you get to use all 8 Pre"s at the Same Time and still have 2 Inputs left on the Delta 44 for other things....

Cheers
 
jonnyc said:
This unit gets sounds into a daw two ways. Either the "outs" which there are eight of them, one for each channel. You'd have to have 8 individual inputs to get the full capabilities of the unit. So thats 8 in and 8 out. Or with adat which transfers 8 channels thru one optical cable. People who have mixers with say 36 channels and only 24 preamps could use the octane line outs to the mixers line ins to get 8 more xlr preamps. People like me with interfaces that have lightpipe use the octane with adat optical and get 8 extra channels that way. Sorry its kinda confusing to explain but I hope I helped a little.
Click to expand...

Ok, I think I'm beginning to grasp. The first way that you describe just uses the preamps and leaves A/D conversion to a soundcard that has 8 inputs. The second way, using adat, uses the onboard A/D conversion and sends those inputs to another interface. Is that it? If yea, what kind of interface is used in scenario #2?

Thanks for the explanation,

JD

P.S. Why hasn't someone booted this thread to a different forum?
 
guttapercha said:
Ok, I think I'm beginning to grasp. The first way that you describe just uses the preamps and leaves A/D conversion to a soundcard that has 8 inputs. The second way, using adat, uses the onboard A/D conversion and sends those inputs to another interface. Is that it? If yea, what kind of interface is used in scenario #2?

Thanks for the explanation,

JD

P.S. Why hasn't someone booted this thread to a different forum?
Click to expand...


I use a digi002r for scenario number 2 while something like the delta 1010 would be great for scenario one. If you look around there are more than a few cards and firewire units that have the adat option.
 
jonnyc said:
I use a digi002r for scenario number 2 while something like the delta 1010 would be great for scenario one. If you look around there are more than a few cards and firewire units that have the adat option.
Click to expand...

Ok. I get it now. So, for example if I used this as the front end for an emu1212m , I would get:

The 8 channels from this unit
plus the 2 analog channels on the emu


Is this correct?
 
hmmm i didnt even think about that... a second delta44... HMM interesting idea. i wonder if i would have any issues with the drivers? latency from another card? might i be better off selling the 44 and getting a 1010.. i am still contemplating returning the octane and buying a 2/4 channel preamp that is better... you guys know of any?
 
guttapercha said:
Ok. I get it now. So, for example if I used this as the front end for an emu1212m , I would get:

The 8 channels from this unit
plus the 2 analog channels on the emu


Is this correct?
Click to expand...


Yes you are correct. With that unit you'd get 8 channels via adat lightpipe, 2 channels of analog I/O, and two channels of spdif which is sort of like a two channel version of an adat I/O only they have the rca style connectors.
 
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