Winspear
Winspear/Noisemother
Focusrite is firewire but good call on the others!
Interfaces, DAW, USB/FireWire??? Need help on all the above.
- Thread starter ShadowFactoryX
- Start date
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^d'oh, my bad! Firewire brings in a few more options such as the Focusrite, Echo, MOTU. and a few mixers with interfaces (Allen and heath, Mackie etc). or he could go behreinger ada8000 and an ADAT-equipped soundcard....
for what he wants, i'd go m=audio fast track ultra 8r all the way, super-solid, low-latency drivers, decent preamps, cheap.
for what he wants, i'd go m=audio fast track ultra 8r all the way, super-solid, low-latency drivers, decent preamps, cheap.
I would go for firewire. I have firewire interface on PC and its working great. You cant hot swap it like USB but it has better speed and less latency. Also USB is sometimes buggy.
You will need desktop too...or very powerful laptop.
DAW: i can recommend ableton live but you can try other daw too. Almost every daw soft have some trial/demo thing.
You will need desktop too...or very powerful laptop.
DAW: i can recommend ableton live but you can try other daw too. Almost every daw soft have some trial/demo thing.
IbanezFred
Well-Known Member
Mixcraft is extremely easy to use. It will get you to understand alot of the terms associated with DAWs such as VSTs VSTi, Impulses, MIDI, etc. and will enable you to get better so when you buy protools or cubase or logic.. you'll know how to use all these things. Then you can be a badass like say nolly or misha mansoor, Ola englund..etc
The unfortunate truth is that soundcard tech hasn't developed much in recent years. USB 3 has been around for some time, yet I'm not aware of a single device that uses it 
(soundcard)
Thunderbolt shows some possible promise.......but the only one on the table is in the UAD and it's going to be giga-cash.
So if you can't go FW, you are stuck with usb 2.0. So this is rough if you need allot of ins/outs.
It's not an easy thing currently because developers are not constantly working on drivers it seems.
(soundcard)Thunderbolt shows some possible promise.......but the only one on the table is in the UAD and it's going to be giga-cash.
So if you can't go FW, you are stuck with usb 2.0. So this is rough if you need allot of ins/outs.
It's not an easy thing currently because developers are not constantly working on drivers it seems.
Reaper is probably a good go. Now, it's pretty deep and there is allot to learn, but I ditched all the sonar stuff a while back and stick with reap despite it's downfalls. (so stable, actually works, very efficient, not bloated) Demo it!
ShadowFactoryX
OMNIHILITY
preamps is definitely a huge plus, and essentially are required.
I dont want to have to get another unit or two then run it into my interface.
VST's and VSTi as well as impulses are known to me. I've been making electronic music for 10 yeas
, so thats helped in that department. Impulses I mess with here and there.I'm not too familiar with MIDI, but I dont see that as too important right now.
Im lookin into the M-Audio one right now
Thanks again people!
Winspear
Winspear/Noisemother
I've heard good things about the M-Audios, I don't know anybody with one but I'm sure it'll be a good choice
ShadowFactoryX
OMNIHILITY
laugh it up
i dont use no keyboard son!!!
i dont use no keyboard son!!!
ShadowFactoryX
OMNIHILITY
someone earlier mentioned the ADAT SPDIF thing
i have no clue what either of those are, is that another route to consider?
i have no clue what either of those are, is that another route to consider?
Winspear
Winspear/Noisemother
"preamps is definitely a huge plus, and essentially are required.
I dont want to have to get another unit or two then run it into my interface."
Said preamps could be connected via digital connections.
You'd have an 8 channel preamp like the Octopre, connected via 8 line outs to an 8 line in USB interface. I.e. an interface that has 8 input connectors but not all of them being XLRs/preamps (note you can use line-in on XLR connectors too by plugging a jack cable into the middle of it bypassing the preamp stage)
That's the analogue route - but you can use the digital too if the preamp unit has A/D conversion. So the signal is digital before it even gets to the interface, using a digital out on the preamp into a digital in on the interface. There are several formats, I think SPDIF is 2 channel only. Can't remember ADAT. There are more and better.
So yes, if you can find an 8 XLR preamp with a good enough digital, and a USB interface with digital (I'm not sure how the input #s of the USB interface affects it! Do some research!) then you are good to go. But like you said, you don't want to get yet another unit!
I dont want to have to get another unit or two then run it into my interface."
Said preamps could be connected via digital connections.
You'd have an 8 channel preamp like the Octopre, connected via 8 line outs to an 8 line in USB interface. I.e. an interface that has 8 input connectors but not all of them being XLRs/preamps (note you can use line-in on XLR connectors too by plugging a jack cable into the middle of it bypassing the preamp stage)
That's the analogue route - but you can use the digital too if the preamp unit has A/D conversion. So the signal is digital before it even gets to the interface, using a digital out on the preamp into a digital in on the interface. There are several formats, I think SPDIF is 2 channel only. Can't remember ADAT. There are more and better.
So yes, if you can find an 8 XLR preamp with a good enough digital, and a USB interface with digital (I'm not sure how the input #s of the USB interface affects it! Do some research!) then you are good to go. But like you said, you don't want to get yet another unit!
Floppystrings
banned
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I would suggest you stick with something well known and popular, so it has good drivers.
My EMU 0404 USB never had it's original drivers updated, so after a few years they just disabled all sample rates, and now it is 44.1 kHz 16-bit. The box says 192 kHz, 24-bit, but they never actually provided that service.
Right now, I want a Presonus Firestudio. Lots of channels, lots of features, and well known.
My EMU 0404 USB never had it's original drivers updated, so after a few years they just disabled all sample rates, and now it is 44.1 kHz 16-bit. The box says 192 kHz, 24-bit, but they never actually provided that service.
Right now, I want a Presonus Firestudio. Lots of channels, lots of features, and well known.
Winspear
Winspear/Noisemother
KingAenarion
Resident Studio Nerd
Focusrite perhaps
We really need to start an anti-presonus drivers club. Like the Mesa owners club and whatnot.
Like "Musicians, Engineers and Producers against Presonus Drivers"
ShadowFactoryX
OMNIHILITY
well its seems for now that i should sell off a decent amount of gear, save up for a decently equipped desktop or laptop WITH firewire, and look into the previously mentioned focusrite or a Fast Track 8R.
I'll look some more into ADAT stuff and find some preamps that i might want to keep and eye out for..
this whole thing makes my head want to explode though
are presonus drivers really that bad?
i've always heard tascam drivers were the worst of them all
Khesahn
Well-Known Member
About the presonus drivers.
I had both the fp10 and fire studio project (They died from old power installation in a thunderstorm)
Got a power conditioner now!! But anyways.
I had loads of trouble with them in windows (xp & 7) I was gonna get rid of them, but then I stumbled across the hackintosh scene,and thought I'd give it a go!
On OSX there were no problems at all, ever. They just worked perfectly until they died. I was gonna get a new firestudio project, but got a sweet deal on the m-audio profire 2626.
The guy I bought it from, sold it because he had so many problems with it. Turned out to be windows again. I took a chance and got it, and never had a problem what so ever under OSX.
I know I sound like a salesman for OSX. I might have been very unlucky with my pc config and windows or something, but it just never seemed to work.
One of my band mates though, uses the focusrite saffire pro 40 with windows 7 and it's rock solid!
About computer, i still use a now pretty old system. Core 2 duo 3ghz, 4gb 800mhz ram and a WD 500gb 7200rpm hdd.. For around 4-6 guitar tracks (with poulin or podfarm vst) 2 bass tracks (with vst's) 2-4 vocal tracks, Superior drummer 2, some synth vst's and symphobia. It runs smoothly.
I use presonus studio one 2. Best and easiest DAW I've ever used!
But thinking of cost, Reaper is a good choice! Very solid DAW, just not for me :]
Hope my rambling is just a tiny bit useful :]
I had both the fp10 and fire studio project (They died from old power installation in a thunderstorm)
Got a power conditioner now!! But anyways.
I had loads of trouble with them in windows (xp & 7) I was gonna get rid of them, but then I stumbled across the hackintosh scene,and thought I'd give it a go!
On OSX there were no problems at all, ever. They just worked perfectly until they died. I was gonna get a new firestudio project, but got a sweet deal on the m-audio profire 2626.
The guy I bought it from, sold it because he had so many problems with it. Turned out to be windows again. I took a chance and got it, and never had a problem what so ever under OSX.
I know I sound like a salesman for OSX. I might have been very unlucky with my pc config and windows or something, but it just never seemed to work.
One of my band mates though, uses the focusrite saffire pro 40 with windows 7 and it's rock solid!
About computer, i still use a now pretty old system. Core 2 duo 3ghz, 4gb 800mhz ram and a WD 500gb 7200rpm hdd.. For around 4-6 guitar tracks (with poulin or podfarm vst) 2 bass tracks (with vst's) 2-4 vocal tracks, Superior drummer 2, some synth vst's and symphobia. It runs smoothly.
I use presonus studio one 2. Best and easiest DAW I've ever used!
But thinking of cost, Reaper is a good choice! Very solid DAW, just not for me :]
Hope my rambling is just a tiny bit useful :]
