as promised
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i have the same one in much worse condition lol, yours looks like new. so good for drums
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@marsen, 200 is a fair price on the cr 1604. there is one listed on Reverb for 300, and reverb tends to be high on everything. one on ebay for 100 but it looks pretty well beat. direct outs on all the channels, and people like to analog clip them, often for drums. Pretty recognizable sound.
I got offered a used 40 channel A+H yesterday, well used condition but no damage, v/u meter bridges, and external power supply box for 500. I really don’t have room for it. Used mixer prices are sort of strange when compared to other gear. Especially with the migration to digital not even close to over yet…
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ok folks, dilemma time and I’m wondering if anyone has suggestions:
I’m looking to get a new audio interface and I’ve been weighing my options. the main things I need are
- minimum 8 analog ins. no point in upgrading for less than that
-improved conversion would be great, my current interface is very much on the cheap end
-mic pres arent a big deal, a really nice spec pre or two would be great but kind of optional, which I will get to later
first thing I’ve been eyeing up is the Arturia Audiofuse Studio. 8 ins, adat for expansion in the future, great quality pres and good conversion, and a bunch of really cool extra shit (bluetooth recording into an input channel, turntable preamp, cv out, reamp out, cue mixes and 2 out monitor control, 3 slot usb hub built in, etc etc etc…) and for me would come to a little over $1k.
but then, @cyclopian pointed out to me the existence of the Motu 16a. and now the greedy little piggy in me is very intrigued by the idea of having 16 in and 16 out (!) on a 1u rack interface, with the option of still adding more later via adat OR other motu AVB interfaces. also by all accounts, really great audio quality.
the issue is:
- it’s nearly twice as much money
- there are NO mic pres, no headphone out, and no physical monitor out control on the front panel (
)
so, the question is… do I get the Motu and then invest in a monitor controller/headphone amp? if so, I would rather it be one unit, or that they can be somehow linked in a way that I don’t have to eat up more than 2 outputs to get my monitor control and headphone monitoring going. seems like a waste to get so many outputs and then use 2 of them just for listening with headphones on top of the 2 going to the monitors.
or, I could use my mackie mixer to route all my audio in and out, connect my monitors to the main outs and use the headphone out on the board. this would work pretty well potentially, but im worried if the board would potentially color the sound too much for it to be used directly in the path of the monitor output and everything? don’t want to drop a bunch of money on really nice converters and shit just to run everything through something that may compromise that. that said I’m not set against it if it’s gonna be a decent option and I’m just being overly precious. and regardless of which way I go, I can use the mic pres in the mixer for mic recording, maybe get a preamp down the line, so I dont really care about the lack of a mic pre on the motu
the other option, and potentially the “best” one, is to get another AVB interface like the Ultralite AVB and connect it wth the 16a. the only real downside here is the expense, which is now getting into territory that may be kind of ridiculous. I would also want to be sure that the 16a is the master unit doing the conversion because I suspect the Ultralite doesn’t have the same converters, as they don’t specifically mention it in the product info they way they do with the 16a and others. I don’t know if this is really an economically feasible option, but on the other hand I would probably be fully set for my interface needs for the foreseeable future.
the only thing is that with the nature of digital technology and things being adopted/made obsolete there is a sort of limited lifespan on anything so dependent on drivers/manufacturer updates/OS support etc
still tempted to just get the audiofuse and be done with it. but if I did want to add an external pre board later to get up to 16 ins, you’d be looking at close to the same price as the motu already is. 
just wondering if anyone has any ideas or thoughts
I might have a nice gl2400 for you if you can make the room anyway. It’s in Amersfoort.
You’re in NL iirc?
@MARSEN I bought a Fireface UC with a broken ADAT port for €250 a couple years back. I only have three synths though and I’m now using overbridge to get all the channels from my analog rytm into the daw. But yeah I’m very happy with RME. I think the UCX is your best bet but honestly I’ve been using the UC (usb) on Mojave and it works perfectly. It’s around €850 new I think.
1 BigUp
+1 on RME
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yeah, have heard very good things about RME also. only trick is it would be about the same price for a UC with only 8 ins and 6 outs (iirc) as the 16a, and anything bigger in RME is even more. of course if I found a good deal on something used that would be a different story. regardless I’m not really worried the MOTU will be lacking in quality or performance by comparison. on reflection I’m thinking that the 16a paired with a basic passive monitor controller with a headphone amp in it actually might be my best option. still open to alternatives though, not gonna pull the trigger this weekend or anything haha
thinking the answer might be the motu 16a and one of these
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Def check some user reviews on the drawmer controllers, I seem to remember people having issues with them when I was researching controllers. (But I’m not certain I’m remembering correctly)
My current set up is a motu 828 going into a dangerous source, the source goes into a Jackie big knob so I have a desktop volume knob. I love it. I know that’s a lot of stuff in the chain but I didn’t notice anything funky a/bing stuff solo in the chain
I know you can find spl crimsons for cheap once in a while on reverb
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yeah seems like some people find the volume knob gets crackly after a while of use. doesnt seem like theres a lot in the price range for active controllers that have similar audio quality/transparency. could go with the Radial MC3 as well since its a passive one with a headphone amp. the small knob doesnt seem super ideal but having a dim control at least kinda helps there
@marsen, I am in the same boat. I have the 828ES right now, but I may send it back too. 30 days is almost up, or I’m stuck with it. I can’t say that would be all bad…
I have been looking at the same i/o as you, the 16a. Something I have noticed though, when you get into units that have way more analog i/o they often get the cheapest convertors. to me if it does not sound better than the 828, I don’t need the extra i/o for 500$.
with the 16A though, you also lose 1x1 midi i/o. for sync purposes, isn’t it better to have clock source internal for locking adat and spdif connections?
i usually use an i/o for years…
1 BigUp
yeah damn i forgot to think about the midi aspect too. i believe the 16a has quite good converters at least, same as the 828es. could get a microlite as well for the midi connections. still uncertain which way I’ll go
yeah I have a microlite 5x5 and then a midi Express 128. losing 1x1 midi is no big deal. but “digital lock” between ADAT optical, SPDIF coaxial connections is often better, or at least easier; if the clock source for the digital audio is the same as the midi clock source for the DAW software. which makes having the 1x1 midi io for sync coming from the same unit as the audio a bit more of a loss than just 1x1 i/o. Plus, once you decide you will be running any MIDI at all; that 1x1 io really just cost you a USB port. in situations where sync is important, that USB port may very well not be desirable to have connect via a hub.
lol. ugh. it may not be as important to you, but I just added the old Mac Pro to my setup. It’s on Sierra, so I was able to get Logic 10.4 running on it. I need to keep at least one Mac at Mojave or older to continue using the Virus Control AU plugin for the Ti2. So I plan to load it up with the Virus, Nexus3, Bitwig 3, and sync it to the macbook. I’m going to stick Recycle 2.0 on it when I get a SCSI card installed, but my E6400 has ADAT i/o going to the macbook (where the 828 lives). i forsee the digital connections all over the place being the lynch pin in wether it works or not; without a major headache.
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yeahhhh just for the convenience, not completely using up all my various computer ports, and not needing to add a bunch of extraneous stuff to my setup, I’m kind of leaning back toward the audiofuse again and thinking i can just get an outboard adat preamp for more i/o down the line if I decide to. it really ticks all the boxes for what I need other than having more ins and outs would be nice. not exactly a necessity tho, 8 is fine rly
Why not go for the 828es?
yeah that one sounds nice too… i do like some of the features on the arturia though
Was flipping through a sweetwater catalogue. Can someone tell me how analogue gear specifically works with DAWs in layman’s terms? Like, if you apply an analogue compressor to a kick drum, does it record it like bouncing it again? I really don’t know what to say lol
yeah you have to bounce it in real time. you take an audio send out of your interface for example, go to the input of the compressor, then take the out of the comp and go to a different in back into the interface. patch bays make that stuff much more convenient. if you’re recording from external hardware you can run it straight through the comp as you record it into the daw also. only downside if then its locked in and you have no “dry” version so you have to do it the way you want. you can also use them as inserts if you have an interface or other gear that does that. for example the mackie mixer I just got has a stereo main bus insert. so if I hooked up a stereo compressor to it I could use compression on the whole main mixer output outside the box
various angles depending on how you work
whats really sick imo as far as high end analog comps go is the Bettermaker gear. all analog signal path but total digital control over usb with an integrated plugin. so you get instant settings recall and automation, etc. directly inside your daw project. still need to bounce in real time tho cuz physics. anyways never used em myself far outside my budget but they make a mastering limiter, eq and comp, and an SSL style buss comp all in that format. kind of makes a lot of the other high end stuff look archaic for modern workflows. but Neve and Manley and UA and SSL will always sell regardless of how “innovative” they are because quality & existing reputation
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