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I'm about to purchase a pro tools le rig. i need to know a few things. i know le only works with Digidesign hardware. so i would get the rack version of the digi002. i would be ok with recording 8ins at first. however, eventually i want to go to 16. so...my question is...can i record more than 8 tracks at a time in pro tools le...if so, how would i do it and what would be some good affordable options to achieve more than 8. thanks for the help

Comments

anonymous Wed, 03/30/2005 - 08:43

i dont think so... you are limited to the hardware package that PT offers...

here is my take:
pt le is a starter system to attract new customers... once you have maxed out your options, you may feel the need to upgrade and go HD... this is how they get you :)

any reason why you are choosing pt le with the rack?

anonymous Wed, 03/30/2005 - 08:51

To get 8 more ins you can look at a Digimax LT or the Focusrite Octa pre which gives you 8 mic pre's that connect to the 002 with the light pipe in. The drag is that they have to be the clock master for the session and this can lead to some"pilot error" problems if your not really careful, i.e. starting up a 44.1 tracking session the 2nd day and the Digimax reverts to 48k and you don't notice. Been there.

The option I would recommend is to go with a 8 by 8 optical patchbay which gives you 8 ins and 8 outs which can be very handy in the studio. There are a few I have used, The Alesis AI 3 is a +4 balanced 8X8 that costs around 300 used US. It works great and the converters are just as good as the 002 R. Behringer also makes an 8X8 patchbay that in addition to the line level ins has 8 mic pre's for about 279 US. I have not used it but it gets fairly good reviews in this forum, espicially considering who makes it and its price.
I just recentely retired my AI3 (for sale! $300.00 U.S. email me from my website) for an Apogee Rosetta 800 which is basically the same except for far better converters and better clock. It is now the master in my system for wordclock, monitoring and input and the 002R inputs only get used on drum tracking day. It is pricey though. Also needs a easy to install factory mod to work at semi pro levels.
All these products mentioned only work at the 44.1/48 k sample rate. Good luck!!

ghellquist Thu, 03/31/2005 - 04:34

And if you are really clever (meaning that you may hit some problems there), you can actually go up to 18 concurrent channels. The two extra then from some equipment send SPDIF.

Careful though, you need to think through clocking carefully though.

So a lot of people are actually doing 16 channels concurrently. Of course the total limit of 32 still applies. (There are workarounds, but you will not get past that without work).

GU