More buying advice(896HD,1010,firepod etc?)

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wombar

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Hi All,

Well I've been contemplating upgrading my current setup from a Yamaha MG16/6fx going into a soundblaster live(please don't laugh) to something that is a bit more professional. I've looked at a lot of gear and hope you guys can offer some advice because I seem to be going round in circles at the moment. I need to be able to record 8 tracks at a time for drums, I already own cables and mics so I just need the guts of a system. I've had some good advice from you guys and I'd love to know what you think.

I've been looking at the following options:

1) Presonus Firepod: Doesn't work under Win2k(so say presonus) and it's so new I don't want to take the chance. I might consider updgrading to XP soon but the newness of the firepod still worries me, I've been burnt by new technology in the past.
Total Cost: ~£650.

2) An M-Audio Delta 1010. Really liked the look of this option but I'd still be limited by the quality of my yamaha preamps. Plus I'm also worried that I'll need to upgrade it in a year or two to something with more connections.
Total Cost: ~£370.

3) A Motu 828 MKII. Liked the look of this but I need more than 2 preamps and I'd be relying on my yamaha again, not a great option for the cost in my opinion(great unit on it's own tho). Would also need to buy a load of new cables to go from the mixer to the unit.
Total Cost: ~£700

4) A MOTU 896HD which has just dropped by £200 over in the UK to £800. This one looks pretty good because it's all in one(8 preamps and plenty of expandability), appears to have just about everything I'll need for the moment and can be expanded with other MOTU products fairly easily(if not cheaply).
Total Cost: ~£800

5) Tascam 1884. Looks like a good option but I don't really need that level of sophistication(I think). Quality of recordings is what I'm after and I question whether the 896HD is going to have better overall equipment in it to get the quality.
Total Cost: ~£1000

I'm leaning towards the 896HD to be honest, it's got plenty of connectivity, is portable and has everything I need (I think). I'd love some opinions from you guys because I don't want to make a bad decision based on my ignorance. Ideally I'd like this system to be something pretty good that I'm not ashamed of and can be upgraded gradually over the next few years as my needs increase.

The only thing that is missing on the 896HD is that it doesn't appear to have any MIDI capabilities, I could be wrong and please correct me if I am. I've not really ever used midi in the past and don't plan to for the moment, this setup is going to be first and foremost a band recorder(bass, vocals, drums, guitar etc) paired with Sonar I think.

Whew long post, if you've got all the way to bottom well done.
 
if your contemplating spending lots of money i would at least check out lynx and rme. ive not heard one bad thing about either of these solutions for pc.
i dont know if this might work for something cheaper you could ask tracertek.com if two maya sound cards would work. each one has 4 inputs.
each maya sound card is about 50 pounds and does 24 bit with 4 ins.
just an idea. but beware the maya is very new. no user feedback much.
 
Also check out the Aardvark Q10.
8 analog ins, 8 pres, phantom power, midi etc. Not sure what it is in pounds, but it's $700 USD
 
Thanks a lot for your replies guys.

I'll check out the aardvark, looks very similar to the firepod but I guess it's been around a bit longer and is PCI.

I've had a quick look at the Lynx and I think they're a bit out of my price range at the moment, I need an 8 in sound card and their 6 in model is £930 over here and thats before preamps(I think).

Basically I know what I need but just don't know what kind of stuff is out there, I've been hearing about the Q10 quite a lot recently so I'll see if I can track down a review somewhere. If anyone has anymore suggestions I'd love to hear them.

Would a 1010 with an M-Audio Octane preamp unit produce a better recording than say a MOTU 896HD or the Q10? Basically I'm concerned with overall sound quality and the ability to expand in the future. I don't want be limited by what I buy now in 2 years time.
 
As far as overall quality goes, the MOTU 896HD and RME Firepod are going to be your best options... I bet they have the most expandability as well but i dont have that much information on the other units you're looking at. I've herad that their units are easily stackable and I believe they both can have a digital mixer hooked up to for an additional 8 inputs, as well as s/pdif, etc.

Another nice thing is that they're firewire units so you dont have to install a PCI card in your computer. They will run you more money than the Aardvark Q10 and m-audio 1010, but if overall quality and future expandability are your main needs... I'd say its worth it.

btw, the aardvark q10, though it has 8 inputs... only has 4 pre-amps... keep that in mind. Also, does the 1010 have preamps? I think they're just line level inputs...
 
wombar said:
Hi All,

I'm leaning towards the 896HD to be honest, it's got plenty of connectivity, is portable and has everything I need (I think).
Click to expand...

You think the preamps in that unit are going to be any better than your Yamaha? I doubt it.

I would go with something like a 1010 and use your console pre's and save your nickels for a good quality pre to do Vocals, acoustic instruments etc...
 
photoresistor, thanks for the info on the q10.

I'd only read a couple of quick reviews and hadn't noticed to be honest. I need 8 preamps for my drum mics so whether they're built in or not I don't mind but I guess that I have two options concerning that area.

1) Buy a 1010 (or something without preamps) and then buy a dedicated preamp unit.

2) Buy something like a MOTU 896 or Tascam 1884 which has everything in one box.

I'll get better quality preamps with option 1 because I'll be paying specifically for the preamps but the main interface on option 1 is likely to be less expandable. The q10 isn't going to be portable as it's on a PCI card, not necessarily a problem but something to consider.

I've got no problems opening up my PC to put cards in because I build all my PCs so I'm not bothered about doing any work on my machine.

therage!: This is my problem :) , I've got very little practical experience so I just don't know what is going to be better quality. I just assumed that as the MOTU is £800 and my mixer was £240, the preamps in the MOTU would be better than the Yamaha.

Do you think that there will be very little difference between the 1010 + MG16/6fx Vs the MOTU 896/Firepod etc? Am I just paying for future expandability/connectivity?

Cheers for help so far to everyone.
 
Well I've always heard that MOTU's pres were pretty good... but I dont have any experience with yamaha mixers so...
 
I'm a Pro Tools guy, so I'm just gonna give you my setup: I am really satisfied with it:

Digi 002rack with 8 additional preamps through ADAT (ADA8000).

You get Pro Tools Le: great software that givs you compatibility with every major studio, 16 in/out SPDIF I/O,... well just go to www.digidesign.com for all the specs.

Don't underestimate the power of the industry standard!
 
Thanks for the replies.

I'm still in the process of doing plenty of reading etc and I'm still undecided.

BrettB. To be honest, I've not really considered the pro tools stuff because it's pretty expensive for my budget and I thought I would get better value with the MOTU or Tascam. If I could afford the 002 control surface I'd probably buy that and a decent set of preamps, but with a budget of $1400(£1000, I'm in the UK btw) that's just not an option.

A Digi 002 rack over here is £800 and then I need to buy the behringer ada8000(I think that's the model number) to add the extra number of pre's that I need(I need 8 to record drums). All of this would cost me £970 but I worry that the behringer pre's aren't going to be as good as the MOTUs.

As I've not got a lot of experience with a wide range of hardware I have little idea how things stack up against one another but I would guess that the behringer preamps aren't going to give me as good a quality as either the MOTU or the Tascam. If I go for the two piece route(separate preamp and sound card) I'd like to avoid a "weak link" in the system, I'm not saying that the Behringer preamps are bad because I've never heard them but I would assume that the MOTU ones would be better.

For the moment the MOTU 896HD and the Tascam 1884 are top of my list with not much between them. The 896HD is probably a bit tougher(for taking on the road) and might have better preamps while the Tascam 1884 has the advantage of hands on mixing.

At the end of the day I think that my best bet is to go into a shop and have a good look at all of these units side by side. Any more opinions advice are more than welcome.
 
photoresistor said:
btw, the aardvark q10, though it has 8 inputs... only has 4 pre-amps... keep that in mind. Also, does the 1010 have preamps? I think they're just line level inputs...
Click to expand...


Actually, the Q10 does have 8 preamps. Only 4 have phantom power, but there are pre's on all 8 inputs. Two of the 1/4" line ins are also switchable to use their EFR extended frequency response circuitry for direct guitars and basses. I've used one my uncle has, and basically is sounds like the guitar inputs bring out more of the brightness and midrange that gets lost when you plug into a regular non hi-z input... Could be usefull for bass, and maybe guitar with an amp sim plugin, but I've only tried it on my crappy bass and it sounded ok.

I'm planning on upgrading to a unit like that in the near future, and the Q10 so far is my top choice, suits my needs pretty well.

And yeah, the 1010 has no pre's.
 
Right the field seems to be narrowing as I've made a couple of decisions over the past couple of days.

I'm pretty sure that I'm not going with a PCI option which rules out the 1010 and Aardvark Q10. The reason for this is that I've decided that in the next year or two I want to start doing some solo/duo acoustic gigs and having a portable solution would be ideal.

The 828 MKII is also out because it's just not the right product for my needs, I need more preamps than it has to offer. Firepod is too new so thats been crossed off as well.

Therefore it's between the 1884 and the 896HD. I got a reply from MOTU today saying that there were no obvious problems with my PC configuration which is a promising start although I know there are no guarantees.

The 1884 still looks like an incredible machine but I'm still not convinced that I need everything it has to offer.

The 896HD is probably going to take more abuse when I start gigging but the 1884 gives me a hands on interface which I think I'd quite like. It's going to be a tough decision and I've decided to actually go and see them in a shop now that I've got it narrowed down to a couple of products.

Chime in with your opinions if you like, thanks for your help so far guys :)
 
"Actually, the Q10 does have 8 preamps. Only 4 have phantom power, but there are pre's on all 8 inputs. Two of the 1/4" line ins are also switchable to use their EFR extended frequency response circuitry for direct guitars and basses. I've used one my uncle has, and basically is sounds like the guitar inputs bring out more of the brightness and midrange that gets lost when you plug into a regular non hi-z input... Could be usefull for bass, and maybe guitar with an amp sim plugin, but I've only tried it on my crappy bass and it sounded ok.

I'm planning on upgrading to a unit like that in the near future, and the Q10 so far is my top choice, suits my needs pretty well.

And yeah, the 1010 has no pre's."

doh. guess i was wrong. i knew there was only 4 of something haha.
 
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