Interfaces....and more interfaces

[stranger0]

So, after reading waaaaaay too many posts in the forums I'm looking for some more direct answers.

Specifically I'm looking for an interface that has at least 10 inputs.

If you know of the prices etc...that'd be appreciated too.

Purpose
-------
I want to put together a small portable little studio but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible and still mic everyone. So I was going to get myself a laptop (mac or PC, still undecided) an interface with at least 10 (xlr) inputs and then bob's your uncle, set up, record and hey I can do some minor mixing.

The problem is I really can't find many interfaces with more than 8 inputs.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Also if there is an easier way to go about this, let me know.

[ManuelJG]

I think you won't find one with 10 xlr inputs (I may be wrong).
I'd go for a presonus firestudio and a FSdigimax, together will be 16 xlr inputs + midi and spdif inputs.

[stranger0]

Would you or could you go to a Mixer and then run that with full control of all the channels over to a laptop?

[Munjibunga]

I just bought a PreSonus Fire Pod for $317 at GC. For some reason, PreSonus changed the name to the FP10 (I suspect the folks at Line 6 had something to do with this). So the unit sells for $499 on line as the FP10, and $399 as the Fire Pod just to blow out the stock. According to their website, the units are identical. So GC has room to move on these, if they've got any left.

Anyway, it has 8 XLRs with reportededly good mic preamps on the front, and a couple line ins on the back. It gets good reviews at HC and Sweetwater, so I'm real anxious to try mine out. I don't think you're going to find anything close for the money. Most of the multi ones come with 8 inputs max. You can use two of them to get 16 channels.

[stranger0]

So you would be running 2 of those into a laptop?

[dalley]

Echo Audiofire 12 has 12 analog I/O with great AD/DA converters assuming you do not need preamps. I think it retails for ~600

[T-zone]

I had the same dilemma once upon a time. I decided to go analog.

My setup works like this: I have a mixer, a recorder with 8 tracks, a "regular" tape deck (for mixing down, in case I want the final copy on a tape for whatever reason), and then all the rest of my gear (mics, PC's, instruments, blah blah blah not important). I record everything with the recorder - it records 8 tracks to a cassette at high-speed, so I get all the analog warmth without any noticeable loss of quality (the downside is that 8 tracks take up the whole physical width of the tape, so the advertised time is 4x what I get, e.g., a C60 only holds 15 minutes, since it is one-sided at double speed). I play all the tracks back through the mixer to set levels, put stuff where it "belongs" in the mix, yadda yadda yadda, basically, all that mixing stuff you do. If I want to process any of the tracks, I use an ASIO interface with the mixer's effects loop so that my computer is basically functioning as a DSP - then I just "bounce" that track to an unused track on the tape and continue getting everything "just right" the analog way. The only other time I use the computer is when the track is ready to be mixed down - I always mix down to my computer, but I have a "regular" tape deck just in case I get that urge.

Looking back on all that, it DOES look a little confusing (I was not very articulate there, but in my defense, it's kinda complicated); PM me with questions.

One thing you should know about recording interfaces is that if they are digital, they should be ASIO. This way you won't have to deal with any nasty latency issues. The M-Audio JamLab is a good one; it's designed so that you can plug in your guitar and play it through your PC in real time... really great, especially for recording all by your lonesome.

Bottom line: the only reason you REALLY need to have that many interfaces connected straight to your PC is if you want to do all the mixing on the PC. From what it looks like you are trying to accomplish, you really just need a mixer and an ASIO interface. It would probably save you a lot of money.

Behringer makes good mixers pretty cheap... finally, they're good for something besides crappy combo amps, huh? :-p

Also, I've seen a lot of these "porta-studio" things floating around... some of them are just mixers with built-in tape decks or SD/CompactFlash slots, but the high-end ones are really nice... check this out:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...CDR?sku=241086

[hunta]

I want to put together a small portable little studio but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible and still mic everyone. So I was going to get myself a laptop (mac or PC, still undecided) an interface with at least 10 (xlr) inputs and then bob's your uncle, set up, record and hey I can do some minor mixing.

If you decide on a PC, be careful when selecting your laptop. Probably around 99% of the commercial laptops out there use cruddy firewire chips like Ricoh or Orange Micro which cause huge problems for audio interfaces. You want a laptop with Texas Instruments firewire, and they are tough to find. Some HP business laptops and Sony VAIO laptops have TI but not all of them, and sometimes it's hard to find out what chip is in there. It most likely is not listed on the vendor websites (they'll just say 1x IEEE1394 port), and if you call customer service they will likely have no idea (I was given completely incorrect info by Dell, ordered a laptop, and ended up sending it back).

Also, you don't necessarily need 1 interface with 10 inputs, you can daisy chain. For example, I have a Focusrite Saffire Pro/26 which has 8 xlr inputs. If I need more, I can get another Saffire Pro and hook them together for 16 inputs. Just make sure you verify this can be done with the interface you buy.

[ManuelJG]

Originally Posted by stranger0

Would you or could you go to a Mixer and then run that with full control of all the channels over to a laptop?

Yes, you can send everything to the mixer, then all the mixer outputs to the firestudio (or firepod) and record everything to a laptop.
I agree with Munji, you wont get something as close as a firepod for $399 but maybe for a couple of bucks more you can have something better (Firestudio).
Go to their website, they have demostration videos:
http://www.presonus.com/firestudio.html
http://www.presonus.com/fp10.html

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Another +1 for the Firepod (FP10) here.

[stranger0]

Is the general consensous a mac is a better way to go than a PC for this type of thing?

[ManuelJG]

It depends, do you like macs? I work with a PC and I have no complains, everything is easy to use and works perfect. I'm not used to macs, so thats why I never changed from PC to mac, I dont mind if someone says its better for this or not.

[fokof]

You can go with a MOTU 8pre ; http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/8pre/
8 very good preamp + an ADAT I\O and you can use a Focusrite Octopre or Octopre LE
http://www.focusrite.com/product/octopre_le/
and use the ADAT in , so you'll have 16 "preamped" input.
I've never seen a firewire unit with 16 preamp on it

I use A MOTU Traveler, an Octopre , and a couple of external pres as a mobile setup , the external pres offers a little flexibility me thinks.

The big advantage with MOTU products is the CUEMIX.
A mixer with 0 latency , you'll find this very helpfull in plenty of situations.

BTW , go for a Mac , you could always boot Windoze with it.

[stranger0]

Well, it seems like the FP10 is the slimmed down version of the Fire Studio but according to the MSRP why NOT spend the extra $100 to get all those extra features.

I wonder what they retail for in stores around here. These seem to be the 2 best so far. I'll have to look into that next week.

Jury is still out on the laptop but Fokof you said it best, you can always boot windows on a mac.

What software do people prefer with the Presonus units?


I'm not too concerned with the # of inputs now that I realize you can daisy chain the units, also I think just jumbling around the band would work, i.e. 2 area drum mic's, 1 bass, 3 guitar, 2 vocals (cut down on the amount of mic's, I've got a 3 guitar band and all 3 sing...I figure the 2 back up singers can share the mic lol)

[fokof]

I use Digital Performer and am a very happy camper.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by stranger0

Well, it seems like the FP10 is the slimmed down version of the Fire Studio but according to the MSRP why NOT spend the extra $100 to get all those extra features.

I wonder what they retail for in stores around here. These seem to be the 2 best so far. I'll have to look into that next week.

Jury is still out on the laptop but Fokof you said it best, you can always boot windows on a mac.

What software do people prefer with the Presonus units?


I'm not too concerned with the # of inputs now that I realize you can daisy chain the units, also I think just jumbling around the band would work, i.e. 2 area drum mic's, 1 bass, 3 guitar, 2 vocals (cut down on the amount of mic's, I've got a 3 guitar band and all 3 sing...I figure the 2 back up singers can share the mic lol)

Ive never used the FireStudio, and I did think about it when I was looking at the presonus website, but over here, the FireStudio is more than double the price of the Firepod

And i use cubase for recording

[ManuelJG]

I use cubaseSX

[stranger0]

So a bit of an update

Had a lovely little flyer come in the mail today from Loan & Persuade (Long & McQuade), it had some prices with all this stuff...actually I was shocked L&M sent out something detailed

DigiMax FS-$685
FP10-$575
Firestudio-$789

I'm heavily leaning towards the Firestudio...it has more, eventually I'll probably want to do more and the fact that they used it on that video to record the jars of clay stuff was cool (Then again I never heard the final mix, I just liked how it was used and the fact that you could use it that way)

Wondering if anyone is able to talk me out of that idea.

The other application I didn't realize until today was to take all those inputs and mix them onto (for example) a tape deck...or something 1 off like a laptop. (I guess really all these devices allow you to do that-If I'm wrong, please correct me)

And at this point it's probably going to be a mac.

[stranger0]

So it's come down to this

Firestudio vs Motu 8Pre

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Id also point out the new Firestudio Projects, it looks pretty cool