Hello to all, I have never posted, but have always found the advice from recording.org to be top notch!
I currently have a Digi 001 with a Digimax 8 ch mic preamp. The pre's for the Digimax are decent enough for my purposes and also give me 8 more channels of input and has worked great for me in tracking in the past. My set up also includes some gates and compressors from Behringer a 2442 16 channel Behringer UB board, BBE, and a Yamaha 32 channel dual band EQ. I mainly use the board for rehearsing with my band and as a control room section for my monitors and headphone mixes (the Digi 001 has a minimum 128ms latency issue). I was thinking of buying a Mackie HUI for a control surface, but then I thought maybe a digital mixer would be in order and then I could sell all my outboard gear. The only problem I am having is there are no comparisons to the Digimax pres and the pres on the Tascam and Yamaha digital boards. I like the idea of a digital mixer as it would work great for rehearsal and port to recording much easier than running everything from scratch for each to avoid latency issues when rehearsing. I have spoken with PreSonus and they say that the pres in the Digimax are class A mic preamps and I want to make sure if I do this that I can get the same quality pres in a digital mixer with HUI emulation for pro tools control, any ideas and has anyone else ever faced this same dilemma? Thanks for the help.
Comments
I understand your feelings, however, considering that originally
I understand your feelings, however, considering that originally I was using the pre's in the digi001, the Digimax was a huge increase in sound quality. I know it's not as good as an MCI or Neve board, but it's the best I could afford. Am I took take it that the pre's in the digimax and the digital boards are pretty close as far as quality goes?
three years back, I was in your position. I was looking for affo
three years back, I was in your position. I was looking for affordable class A gear. I was in the market for a digi mixer and a
set of good outboard pres, cause I found nothing ONboard any
mixer came close. I have been told the Yamaha pres (on the DM series) are class A, big sound but sterile. I have also been told the Tascam pres on their DM series are passable but not as good as those on Yamaha gear.
Soooo, I bought the Digimax (first version). I thought they were really good (and they really do alot, with the lightpipe and the limiter on each channel) UNTIL I just bit the bullet and bought an
API 3124. From there, I bought some 512s, a TG2, a GTQ2, and a Demeter dual pre. (Hey, I came into some $$)
I still have the Digimax, as it is handy for drums. However, the caveat is that they dont have nearly the headroom you will need
compared to a pres as listed above.
LOL
do you even know what class a means? it has nothing to do with s
do you even know what class a means? it has nothing to do with sound quality it means when the circuit is on it stays on its non switching power supply thats it nothing else to brag about btw if your looking for a control surface ditch the hui and get a motor mix or a mackie control the mackie at least has penny and giles faders and its in a metal box its also about 500 less new over a used hui
the digimax sucks it has more headroom then the 001 but does not sound anywhere near better id rather run a track through an art tube mp then a digimax and i dont know if you ever compared the pres in the dm24 vs the yamaha but the dm24 pres are a lot warmer then the yamaha pres much more then the digital chill from a digimax or a yamah o1v96k board
Thank you for the well explained reply. On the other hand I don'
Thank you for the well explained reply. On the other hand I don't see why it is necessary to imply the 'bragging'. I wasn't, I was just relaying what I had been told by the people at Presonus regarding the Digimax. Let me make sure I understand correclty, you are saying that the pre's in the D24 are better than my digimax pre's correct? I want the best sound and a decent control surface and if I can get it in one than great. If not I am just going to buy the Mackie Universal Control. If I get a combined surface I can see my Digimax and get better quality gear. Also the digital mixer would be great for live gigs. I am trying to find some honest opinions about what would be the best way to go for the best sound and bang for my bucks. If buying a digital mixer / control surface I will only be spending around $2000 - $2500. Can anyone help me get this figured out, thanks.
You are dancing around a really obvious piece of gear. The Tasc
You are dancing around a really obvious piece of gear. The Tascam FW1884 - 8 mic pre's, Mackie Control Emulation, digital i/o all in one. Granted, they're not the best pres, but they are on par with the pre's in any digital console under 15k (except maybe the Soundcraft), certainly better than any Yamaha pre. The control surface is nice too. The pre's will never substitute for a good outboard pre, but in more than one case, I have found myself needing 1 or 2 extra channels of pre and patched in the pre's from the Tascam and not been disappointed.
I'm not trying to "sell" the Tascam, I think there are far better products out there. However, no product that I know of has all of the features and decent quality for anywhere near the price. BTW...the FW1884 will act as a stand-alone digi-mixer and the a/d converters in it aren't half bad. I actually prefer them to my Apogees - they are warmer and don't exhibit any of the shrillness on high-frequency acoustic music.
Just a thought...
J...
I for one don't think that the mic pre's on any affordable digit
I for one don't think that the mic pre's on any affordable digital mixers are anything to brag about or much better, if at all, than the mediocore mic pre's and outboard gear that most people end up buying.