Mixer vs. controller and preamps

[keilson]

wow only 8 channels of control. i'd need more then that for mixing. i think i'll need a control surface either way

 

[Fela]

There are not alot of protools folks here. I really like it for editing intensive work. You can get a digi 002 and and expansion board and get the inputs you need. Those have focusrite gain stages but I don't know how good they are.

If you use a lot of plugins you can automate/use those from the console in real time while you work. Mute automation is the bomb of course. Having a control surface does not mean that you have to throw out your rack gear. It does however mean that you look at rack gear with aes ebu and spidif quite differently. The mackie hui also works with protools and if you do midi stuff they both work with logic too.

A set up with protools LE and a digi 002 is around 2k I think. It would cost more for the other expansion faders. Plus the faders are motorized which is nice.

I jones for the old days when you could run everything off of big boards with a zillion real aux busses. But, after learning quite a bit about ptools and working with good gear I can cruise faster and do better work with it than anything else. That includes a mackie hui connected to a mackie 24 track machine.

Being able to have a hardware interface for plugin efx and dynamics processing outweighs the console/control surface for me as does the onscreen editing in a good DAW like ptools.

Now if I could just afford a sony oxford.

 

[keilson]

the digi 002 only has like 4 preamps on its own. plus it costs $2200 without the expansion......also i haven't beeen able to find an expension. does anybody know where you could find it?

 

[Jerry W]

There is a 24 i/o now. That would work much better with a Ghost. The 24 i is, I believe, supposed to be an extension but, hey, to each his own.

By the way, if the choice was to go with the control surface, how many channels could record at the same time? That must be one of the considerations.

 

[Michael Jones]

...By the way, if the choice was to go with the control surface, how many channels could record at the same time? That must be one of the considerations.

Depends on how many pres you have, among other things.

 

[keilson]

Jerry W, the original 24i was a core system, not an expension. The purpose of only two outputs is keeping mixing within the computer to avoid degradation of audio by going out in analog. And usually control surfaces do not have inputs. You have an audio interface and the controller just controls the mixing environment within the computer.