Looking for the right product

[slinkz77]

I just bought a powerbook G4 15inch labtop and im looking for some easy but almost professional recording equipment. I have been looking at the Digi 002 Rack system, i was wondering if there is anyone who has pros and cons on this system and if what its basically used for.

What im looking for:
1 a system that will run through my powerbook
2 Almost pro Quality recordings
3 able to record bands and solo artist
4 easy portable setup
5 $2000 price range

Also if i bought this system what would i need to buy?
what mics?
cables?
poweramp?
mixer?

i hoping as a finished project with my system i can have something i can take a record a band or sit at home and record solo stuff and produce a well mastered recording on a CD.

 

[Markaholic]

well you will need to figure probally about 1000 bucks for mics,stands cables ect...so then you would have roughly 1000 left for a sweet unit which shouldnt be a problem!
I know that really was no help..but..i gave my 2 cents anyways!

 

[Nakatira]

Just a suggestion;;
Look into Presonus firepod, I`ve used it for some time now.
and I`m very pleased.
It has 8 mic preamps, with good quality. at least to my ears.

get some decent monitors like: alesis mk2, maudio bx5, or my favorite Yamaha msp5. theyre fairly cheap.

and then some mics; shure sm57 a must have, get as many as you can. shure sm58 a very nice mic. shure b52, or akg d112.
Mxl 603 pair, cheap but damn good .imho.
and one or two large lcd`s.
I can only suggest what I`ve tried of these; Stduio project B1 and mxl v67, both different but very good for the price.

most of these things should fit your price range.

hope this helps.

 

[slinkz77]

have either oh you used the digi 002 rack and/or know anything about it?

 

[ssscientist]

I have used a Digi 002 rack, and the main problem that I've had with it is it's lack of microphone inputs. It only has four XLR inputs and that's a serious problem when trying to track a band. I think very little of Digidesign and their marketing philosophies to start with and confronting this little roadblock did not help my estimation of the user-friendliness of their hardware.

 

[slinkz77]

Nakatira thanks for the help i really like the firepod but was wondering do you still use the cubase le software that came free? Also can you upgrade to protools or connect different brad racks via the firewire?

 

[ssscientist]

Also can you upgrade to protools or connect different brad racks via the firewire?

You must have meant to type 'downgrade' to protools. Don't get the wrong idea that just because the software has that name it will make you or your recordings more 'pro'.

And I dunno what 'brad racks' are...

 

[AlexW]

I have and like the 002R. Its biggest limitation as a standalone unit is that it only has four built-in mic preamps. But it does have four additional analog line inputs, 8 analog line outputs, as well 8 channels of ADAT input/output and 2-channels of S/PDIF I/O; meaning with external devices you can expand the unit's capabilities to 18-channels of input and output. I use mine with a 12-channel mixer so I don't very often use the onboard preamps anyway.

 

[jonnyc]

hey ssscientist why the hell did you buy the 002r did you not research it at all. About 3 minutes online would tell you it only has 4 xlr's. And what about the hardware isn't user friendly. I plugged it into my mac, put the software in the mac and it was done. If you were meaning it wasn't user friendly because of its inputs it has 18 of them. At first I added a behringer ada8000 so for about 1600 bucks I got the 002r factory bundle, pro tools le, and 8 extra xlr's for a total of 12. And don't get the idea from ssscientist that pro tools is a downgrade, the audio quality of all the softwares is pretty much the same its your ears that are the important part. Some people on here are just over opinionated and like to say dumb shit like "You must have meant to type "downgrade" to protools".

 

[ssscientist]

hey ssscientist why the hell did you buy the 002r did you not research it at all. Some people on here are just over opinionated and like to say dumb shit like "You must have meant to type "downgrade" to protools".

Some of us work in other peoples studios in addition to our own.

And that's not dumb shit. Dumb implies I don't have the standing or the verbage to make a statement like that and shit implies that it's somehow untrue. Wrong on both counts, Mr. Smartypants.