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Hey everyone,

I'm moving my studio into a new house, this great place in van nuys, Ca w/ arched ceiling..and a walk in closet I'm going to convert into a vocal booth.

I'm a hip hop producer. but not exclusively.
I'm mixin some new flava together..

(a) I have an opportunity to buy a Mackie 32-8 mixer for DIRT Cheap, 900 bucks perfect condition, just serviced.

I've got a Tascam fw-1884 that i do my sh*t on, and ive always wanted to be able to breakout my outs to more than just the two mains.

(b) I saw this RME Octa Pre (8 channel ad/converter w/ built in mic preamps)
I was just wondering if you've heard about it...is the quailty different because they have these mic preamp's built in, rather than a strict ad/da converter...

do you think its worth the 2 grand which it will end up being, to be able to bust out 16 outs to this mackie...for my mixes? If I'm going to do it is it worth it on this mackie?

I want to get a UAD1 card too so then I can fatten up the 2-bus too w/ their precision limiter.
Would i be better off just geting a UAD-1, and doing everything in the box?

The most I'm going to record is an old vintage ludwig kit, vocals, and guitar but individually. or 2 at a time...and also, how are RME mic preamp's? I was thinking about building my own mock-neves from a wbsite i found online with all the parts for 1/4 of the price.

If you're still wit me, thanks ! Would love your opinion...

-jon

Comments

therecordingart Sat, 03/18/2006 - 05:48

The only way I could possible justify getting a mixer would be if you were getting a high end console to mix out of the box.

There are lots of people out there that will have their tracks recorded into PT and mix out of the box through an SSL, Trident, Neve...etc.

A Mackie won't provide what is it that these fellas use their high end consoles for. The are doing it for a few reasons:

-Add the consoles sonic signature to their digital tracks
-Use the plethora of outboard that they have
-Some still like the feel of the oldin' days of twisting knobs
-etc etc so on and so forth

Altough you can use the Mackie for the last two....It will fall very short in the adding on sonic signature department. Although Mackie gear is very usable, it is debated that good sounds going into a Mackie come out sounding like a stale donut.

Hold on to the FW1884(which has 8 1/4 inch outputs not 2) and get a few outboard pres or some quality compressors or EQ. Sht, buy some really nice mics.

therecordingart Sat, 03/18/2006 - 06:00

If you are doing hip hop.....your clients are going to want to see 3 things otherwise they'll think you suck.....

-Po' Toos
-Avalon pres (reffered to as Avalons)
-Nice pop screens (they like pop screens more than mics for some reason) If you don't believe me...put up a mic without pop screen.

Hahaha....there isn't a day that passes that I don't get a call saying:

"Yo man you gots some Po' Toos..what about Avalons cuz that shitz dope B...Snoop uses Po' Toos and Avalons."