Toying around with two options...

  • Thread starter Thread starter wheelema
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wheelema

wheelema

Boner-obo
Pretend you have approx. $1,500 to drop on a soundcard/preamp combo. The preamps can be part of the soundcard, or not. Both of these options will include a Soundcraft Spirt M8 mixer as part of the signal chain to a greater or lesser degree, so keep that in mind. Which of these two (or if you have a third feel free to suggest it), would you personally drop your money on...

Option 1... a M-Audio 1010LT and Toft ATC-2
  • Two 'best' vocal channels via the ATC-2 to balanced ins 1 & 2 on the 1010LT, eight additional channels (w/preamp if desired) via the Soundcraft Spirt M8 to unbalanced ins 3 through 10 on the 1010LT. The S/PDIF summing of the Soundcraft would not be used.

or

Option 2... a RME FireFace 800
  • Four 'best' vocal channels via the FireFace 800, eight additional channels (w/preamp if desired) via the Soundcraft Spirt M8 to the FireFace 800. Once again, no S/PDIF summing from the Soundcraft.

MIDI would be used with both devices, ADAT, S/PDIF, etc. would not, at least for the foreseeable future.

Note that both options include VST plugins for EQ and compression, so having the Toft EQ and compression functionality is not strickly necessary.
 
heh decisions decisions, I'd go with option 1... no 2...... wait a minute..... :D

Really though I'd take the Fireface simply cuz its one box and i dont have much space around here but thats just me.
 
Hmmm,

I appreciate that the FireFace 800 preamps may not be equal to the Toft, and I appreciate that the VST plugin for EQ and compression may not be equal to the Toft, but on the other hand, the RME converters are (FLAME BAIT ALERT) close if not the equal of Apogee and Lucid, certainly better than the 1010LT, and that it packs a heck of lot of functionality for it's price point.

Of course, it's 'bleeding edge', so that has to be considered. Still and all....
 
For $1500 wouldn't you be looking more along the lines of Lynx, Motu, RME, Digi etc?
 
Well, I AM looking at RME. The RME FireFace. I looked at the MOTU Traveler, but I just don't have a warm fuzzy when it comes to MOTU. Still thinking about it though.

I am looking for a minimum of ten channels, two primary vocal, two backup vocal, and the remainder instruments. I have not seen ten channels at my price point in anything from Apogee or Lucid. I refuse to get locked into DigiDesign... I am an open source kind of guy.
 
wheel. i'm going rme this year.
i'm going all native daw. the set up will be my own self made mic pre's
into the rme solution running on a amd 64 , with the multitrack software i use. you might think about building some of your own mic pre's longer term for a couple of reasons. you have precise control of using very high quality
parts like op amps, and caps and low noise resistors. then just get a couple of SPECIAL HIGH END PRE's like fmr or rane or higher end like hardy or great river for special up front tracks like lead vocals, lead guitar, grand piano etc.
just an idea. if you want schematic leads ...i'll be happy to share.peace.
 
Manning,

I am not scared of soldering, but if it is not a kit it is not going to happen. I have looked at Seventh Circle preamps, but frankly, the price point for what you get is WAY too high. At least if I bought the John Hardy label I could get a fair percentage of my money back! I know you are not suggesting Seventh Circle, I am just using them as an example.

And, you know, the Soundcraft Spirit M series uses the same preamps as the Ghost... now... learning how to upgrade THOSE preamps with Burr-Brown ICs would be damn interesting...
 
cant disagree with you. soundcraft certainly make a nice product.
i just sent the wife shopping - heh - so cant afford one right now !!!.
actually wheel. my diy preamp costs about 20 bucks in parts.
it was just an idea. i'll tell you a nice site to check out. jlmaudio.com.
you can drool over some nice preamps there from what i'm told. they have a nice neve ic pre schematic you might want to check out.
on the burr brown ina series, i got another op amp part.
if you get into SERIOUS mic pre diy - try the BB op37 as a mic pre front end. damn fine part !!!! peace.
 
I have the Fireface and while it's a great unit as a whole, the preamps aren't what I expected. You don't get much gain while turning the gain knob until like 9 on the scale from where the gain jumps dramatically when you turn it further to 10. That makes them fairly useless for mics that require a lot of gain like (some of) my dynamics. It's impossible to accurately set the gain. You'll probably get by when using hot condensers.

The converters sound great though. Just listening to a cd through a good pair of headphones is sometimes mouthwatering.
 
christiaan. try a fmraudio.com mic pre or a rane ms1b sometime.
i'm going rme this year but wont be using the mic pre's.
i just need the a to d to a.
 
christiaan said:
I have the Fireface and while it's a great unit as a whole, the preamps aren't what I expected. You don't get much gain while turning the gain knob until like 9 on the scale from where the gain jumps dramatically when you turn it further to 10. That makes them fairly useless for mics that require a lot of gain like (some of) my dynamics...
Click to expand...
Damn, damn, and damn. I am using a SM-7 and it wants gain like I want oxygen. I guess I am going to have to haul my arse to the Hollywood Guitar Center to demo it. Thank the good lord that I can. It's great to live in S. Cal. occasionally.
 
wheelama. sometimes on ebay you can see a used symetrix or rane ms1b . often the former. symetrix are quite unknown by some people.
should handle your sm7. also ive never tried a sm7 with this. but used
soundcraft folio mixers (they look silly !!) have pretty good pre's if you can find one.
 
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