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anonymous 24 September 2009

Hello Forum,

I'm considering purchasing the Black Lion Sparrow A/D Converter. I'm wondering what would be the most effective and efficient way to incorporate this unit into my setup. 99% of my productions are made with Reason and/or DP 6/7. I do not record any instruments live except vocals. (I believe the human voice box is an instrument). My main purpose for this A/D is to enhance quality of recordings. I would make entire song in Reason/DP 6/7, once song is complete, transfer each individual track from song as follows: MOTU 828 ANALOG OUT (1-2, 3-4, ETC.) > dbx 386 ANALOG IN, dbx 386 ANALOG OUTS > BLA SPARROW ANALOG INS, BLA DIGITAL OUTS (SPDIF) > MOTU 828 SPDIF IN to DP 6/7, MIX DOWN TO 2 TRACK IN DP 6/7 AND BOUNCE TO DISK, BURN DISK. Thoughts?

My gear consists of:

Apple Dual 2.8, 10 Gigs RAM, 500 HD
Black Lion Modded MOTU 828 MK 1
dbx 386 Vacuum Preamp w/ digital outs
dbx 266 Compressor
Symetrix 528 Compressor
Rane PE 15 Parametric EQ
Aphex aural exciter type C
ASR 10
DP 7
Reason 4.01
KRK V8 Series 1
KRK V12 Sub Series 2
Tons of plugins/sound library
Room is 14' x 13' x 8' w/ 28 bass traps/mid-hi frequency absorbers

Can someone or everyone please provide feedback on incorporating this A/D into my setup. I know there's more ways than one so please feel free to name all ways you may know possible. Any and all feedback is highly appreciated.

Thank You, Signed
Seeking the knowledge. PlayItByEar Music

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Comments

hueseph Thu, 09/24/2009 - 15:53

TheJackAttack wrote: If your MOTU unit is already moded by Black Lion then I don't see how the Sparrow helps you out. In theory it should be equal and hence redundant.

Maybe it's just my perspective. YMMV

+1

And, on top of that I don't think the 828 has AES/EBU via xlr.....or does it? If not, you're hooped anyway.

anonymous Thu, 09/24/2009 - 20:36

Cucco wrote: Not only that - Boswell already answered this question.

828 has SPDIF in/outs and also, only analog stage (in/outs) have been modded in 828. I'm just wondering if I bypassed the internal stock a/d of the 828 (which has not been modded) with Sparrow, would quality of recordings improve.

Thanks for responses,
Seeking the knowledge.

anonymous Thu, 09/24/2009 - 20:38

TheJackAttack wrote: If your MOTU unit is already moded by Black Lion then I don't see how the Sparrow helps you out. In theory it should be equal and hence redundant.

Maybe it's just my perspective. YMMV

The a/d in MOTU 828 has NOT been modded. The A/D is the stock that came with the 828 unit when purchased. ONLY the analog stages have been modded in the 828.

anonymous Thu, 09/24/2009 - 20:39

hueseph wrote: [quote=TheJackAttack]If your MOTU unit is already moded by Black Lion then I don't see how the Sparrow helps you out. In theory it should be equal and hence redundant.

Maybe it's just my perspective. YMMV

+1

And, on top of that I don't think the 828 has AES/EBU via xlr.....or does it? If not, you're hooped anyway.

828 has SPDIF in/outs.

Cucco Thu, 09/24/2009 - 21:08

playitbyear wrote: [quote=TheJackAttack]If your MOTU unit is already moded by Black Lion then I don't see how the Sparrow helps you out. In theory it should be equal and hence redundant.

Maybe it's just my perspective. YMMV

The a/d in MOTU 828 has NOT been modded. The A/D is the stock that came with the 828 unit when purchased. ONLY the analog stages have been modded in the 828.

Dude...
If the analog stages have been upgraded, then by default, the A/D was upgraded. Granted the AD chip may not have been upgraded, but if I recall correctly, the MOTU uses the AKM chip which is a damn nice A/D chip.

In any case, as I already said - you asked this question and Boswell gave you a perfectly good answer. In fact, his answer was not only perfectly good - it was perfect.

It makes no sense to pipe out of your 828 and then into a mic preamp (?!?!?!?) and back into another step in conversion.

First, while the dbx 386 is a decent (at best) preamp, it's nothing to write home about. The coloration added by sending your signal through this phase (presumably to add 2nd order harmonics?) would have a degrading effect. Not to mention the D/A then A/D conversion. You'd be better off finding a good analog saturation emulation plug-in and having a good time with that.

Cheers-
J.

anonymous Fri, 09/25/2009 - 03:37

Cucco wrote: [quote=playitbyear][quote=TheJackAttack]If your MOTU unit is already moded by Black Lion then I don't see how the Sparrow helps you out. In theory it should be equal and hence redundant.

Maybe it's just my perspective. YMMV

The a/d in MOTU 828 has NOT been modded. The A/D is the stock that came with the 828 unit when purchased. ONLY the analog stages have been modded in the 828.

Dude...
If the analog stages have been upgraded, then by default, the A/D was upgraded. Granted the AD chip may not have been upgraded, but if I recall correctly, the MOTU uses the AKM chip which is a damn nice A/D chip.

In any case, as I already said - you asked this question and Boswell gave you a perfectly good answer. In fact, his answer was not only perfectly good - it was perfect.

It makes no sense to pipe out of your 828 and then into a mic preamp (?!?!?!?) and back into another step in conversion.

First, while the dbx 386 is a decent (at best) preamp, it's nothing to write home about. The coloration added by sending your signal through this phase (presumably to add 2nd order harmonics?) would have a degrading effect. Not to mention the D/A then A/D conversion. You'd be better off finding a good analog saturation emulation plug-in and having a good time with that.

Cheers-
J.
Thanks alot J and Boswell. You learn something new everyday. I guess for now I'm straight with what I have. I'll play with some of the many plug ins I have. I guess I'll continue saving for a pair of Dynaudio BM15A's, 2 Euphonix MC MIXES and an MC CONTROL.

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