Hi Folks, my first post here :D

It's time to spend my hard-earned-money (about $4000) and buy some gear before we will start to record our album. Our music goes to nu-jazz/ worldmusic/ downtempo category (vocals, piano, saxophone/clarinet, acoustis bass, drums and some sampler stuff).

Now I have the following :

- Digi 002 Rack

- Sebatron VMP-2000eVu mic preamp (2ch)

- Sytek MPX-4Aii mic preamp (4ch)

- Pro-X AK112 monitors (great monitors, better than Genelec 1029 I think)

- Mics: ADK TC, MXL V69ME, 441, 421 (2), Oktava ML-19(2),Beyer M260, Beyer 201, RODE NT-1, AKG C1000, Studio Projects C4 pair,
I have access to borrow AKG 414 B-ULS pair and Oktava MC-012 pair

- Waves, Voxengo and Elemental Audio Systems Plugins

- Well-treated live recording space and mixing room

So what should I buy :

1. New converters (for example Mytek 8x96 ADC and Benchmark DAC-1)

2. Another 2ch mic preamp (Pendulum Audio, Phoenix Audio, Great River), Benchmark DAC-1 and some great mic (Soundelux U195, AEA R84 ...)

3. Focusrite ISA-428 and a/d card, d/a (DAC-1) and mic

We will record about half of our songs by overdubbing and half live, 8 channels at time is fine.

Here I am trying to decide what would be the biggest improvement to our sound quality. I think the weakest link in 002 is d/a. So I think buying good d/a converters (like DAC-1) makes a lot of sense: if I hear everything better, I will do better recordings and mixes. Please let me know what would You do in my situation.

Cheers,
Jomppa