Which Interface?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guyver
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Guyver

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Hello All and thank you for allowing me to post on this board :cool:

I have an I5 quad core with a Soundblaster audigy zs2 card running a midi keyboard and an edirol usb to midi interface running v drums and running all my sound (including vocals guitar and bass) through a 12 channel analogue mixer back into the card and Sonar 8. The weakest link in the chain has been the soundcard and i have managed to scrape up a budget of between $750 and $1200AUD and have I think narrowed down the field to two that will fit the bill for me I believe.

Firstly I found this http://www.turramusic.com.au/Pages/CatalogueItem.aspx?CIID=384 which is a million times better than what I got, with cool routing features and such but then I found this http://bavasmusic.com.au/store/edirol-m16dx-16channel-digital-mixer-p-3069.html which is a bit more pricey but has more inputs and digital to boot.

I have a few questions about what are the ups and downs for both but mainly want to know which one is better integratable with what im working with now. If you have any ideas about other products that I should look at please let me know.

PS I know the edirol has no midi :) and thank you for your time.
 
I had an EMU 1820M which was a predecessor to the 1616 you are looking at. The only concern I would have with the EMU was that they took a long time to update drivers (they still may not have specific WIN 7 drivers) so I would definately check into that.

I haven't used the Edirol you noted, but since Cakewalk/Roland/Edirol are all the same company now, I think you will find that the unit would work very seemlessly with Sonar. Also, you get a control surface as well and once you use one, it's hard to go back to just a mouse!
 
Washburn100 said:
I had an EMU 1820M which was a predecessor to the 1616 you are looking at. The only concern I would have with the EMU was that they took a long time to update drivers (they still may not have specific WIN 7 drivers) so I would definately check into that.
Click to expand...

Im Running XP sp3 so no driver issues to speak of. I read the downloaded manual and im all in spec

Washburn100 said:
I haven't used the Edirol you noted, but since Cakewalk/Roland/Edirol are all the same company now, I think you will find that the unit would work very seemlessly with Sonar. Also, you get a control surface as well and once you use one, it's hard to go back to just a mouse!
Click to expand...

Thats what I was thinking and just get a 2 input midi module for drums and keyboard. I was just wondering where that puts my analogue mixer? could it be used for mixdown or monitoring with either interface? which option would allow me to use it effectively? or should it be reserved for live gigs?
 
You probably won't use the analoque mixer for recording unless, you specifically wanted the preamp, or channel strip for some reason. You can't multi-track with it, and either of those interfaces is going to give you lots of inputs for true multi-tracking.

Back to the EMU, it uses a software program called patchmix to set everything up as far as ins/outs/ routing etc. It has lots of power but took me a while to wrap my head around it. It works like a virtual mixer between the interface and your DAW and was confusing at first.

Good luck with the decision. Either way, I think they are both good choices.
 
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