New Home Studio – Any suggestions?

[cubemaster27]

Hello, it's been a very long time since I've ever done anything with a home studio before and could use some advice/help.

I've played piano all my life and have a Korg Kronos 88 key workstation but no speakers for it.

I have a custom PC (I built it) and I want to be able to hook up a pair of monitors so I can still use them as PC speakers but I need to also hook up my Kronos to it and record what I play.
Here is what I was thinking:

KRK Rokit 8 Gen 3s
KRK K10S Sub
Focusrite Saffire Pro 24

I will expand it out as I need to in the future.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[JimmyS1969]

You will use the Focusrite ASIO driver for the input/output (soundcard) of your PC. You will select it as the default audio for everything.

Done.

 

[ecc83]

"Focusrite Saffire Pro 24" Nice! I strongly suspect that can run "stand alone" i.e. without the PC fired up for keyboard amplification, handy?

For expansion I also note it has ADAT in (but no out) and the Behringer ADA8200 is said to be much improved on the old model? It is certainly going to be easily good enough for inputs from synths, guitar amp feeds etc.

Dave.

 

[JimmyS1969]

"Focusrite Saffire Pro 24" Nice! I strongly suspect that can run "stand alone" i.e. without the PC fired up for keyboard amplification, handy?

For expansion I also note it has ADAT in (but no out) and the Behringer ADA8200 is said to be much improved on the old model? It is certainly going to be easily good enough for inputs from synths, guitar amp feeds etc.

Dave.

I just bought a ADA8000 to up my track inputs to 24. I am curious as to the new model being better sounding. May have to buy one just to compare.


@ OP, I assume you have a firewire card in your PC build. Keep in mind that the cheap ones tend to not work for every interface. The TI chipset ones are the most recommended.

 

[ecc83]

Morning Jim,
You can larn about the new one here...Behringer Ultragain ADA 8200

No one startling improvement but a lot of subtle upgrades? Most important perhaps is the new power supply. The old ones ran very hot I hear and he mains transformers would fail.

Had I an old 8k (and I am always looking for on at a nifty!) I would remove the toroid and put it in a diecast box and interconnect with XLR-5 (probably). I understand the regulators were hit with too high a voltage so a couple of Rs would be in order together with some serious heatsinking.

Re the TI chip point. I believe RME (MOTU?) have solved this one and their FW interfaces are no longer fussy? Not sure if this is due to another converter chip, firmware upgrade or clever software but it might be worth asking Focusrite about it?


Dave.

 

[cubemaster27]

I just bought a ADA8000 to up my track inputs to 24. I am curious as to the new model being better sounding. May have to buy one just to compare.


@ OP, I assume you have a firewire card in your PC build. Keep in mind that the cheap ones tend to not work for every interface. The TI chipset ones are the most recommended.

I do have 2 on board firewire I/O built into the motherboard but I noticed the Focusrite is Thunderbolt compatible. I was considering going with the ASUS ThunderboltEX II Expansion Card - I'm waiting until a few reviews hit the product to see if it's worth it, usually you can't go wrong with ASUS products.