What kind of preamp? Clean, warm, clean-warm, dirty.

How good a set of converters?

As in, what's your budget.

Well if you like your Presonus? Then you should just purchase yourself one of their 8 input devices. That in concert with your other device, will provide you with 10 analog input's. Why change horses in midstream?? That doesn't make sense. OK, so I might change from tracking on a API to a Neve but not to an unknown quantity.

Stay with what you know is good. That's smart.
Ms. Remy Ann David

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate what u are suggesting Remy and i have considered buying the presonus digimax to increase my amount of inputs. however it is really the quality of the signal path i want to improve. I will use the presonus firestudio for mobile live recordings in the future.
I am considering Universal Audio 8110 Precision 8-Channel Mic Preamp
and Apogee Rosetta 800 192K 24 bit 8ch AD/DA Converter. The UA preamp is very expensive and i am not sure if can justify this amount of money on preamps. Here in ireland we don't have audio shops where you can go and try out such equipment before u buy just to make sure u are going to be blown away by its quality, i suspect i would be.

I come from the same school as Remy ( i arrived at this conclusion from reading ur posts) I tend to make the most out of the available equipment and my results don't depend on gear but rather on my creativity... But, for the first time in my life i have a decent budget to spend on constructing and equiping my studio so i'd like to buy as good as i can afford. €2500 on preamps is more in my budget range, any thoughts are very welcome...

I have extra mics to get and a few other bits and bobs so money saved on overkill on preamps is welcome...

However, alot of my work is with solo singer songwriters with single track recording and overdubbing so one really nice preamp would be a consideration...

Look forward to hearing your thought
regards
hally

I drool when I think of that Rosetta...

I'm keen to listen to a Brick in front of one.

Hi, I think settled on back end new set up, here goes

8 channel pre-amp (still to be decided)

Lucid 88192 8-Channel A/D D/A Converter

RME HDSP-9652 52 Channel 96kHz/24 bit Sound card

Will post my ideas for pre amp later, any thoughts very welcome

regards hally

Lynx?

The Lucid has "8 channels of single-wire AES/EBU I/O up to 192kHz" which is unsupported by the RME HDSP-9652.

Why overkill/bottleneck the system if you're on a budget.

Thanks Greener, I don't plan to record @ 192khz, I work with 32bit floating @ 44.1khz when recording but maybe I am missing something here.

"Why overkill/bottleneck the system if you're on a budget."

What do you mean by this, the RME is creating a bottle neck.

Thanks also Link555, what Lynx product would u suggest.
regards hally

Just saying, why pay for something that can go to 192khz when you're not going to use it.

Greener, you know I'm snobby & opinionated, unfortunately a rather practical engineer? And even though I still generally record at 44.1kHz, 16-bit, the concept of having a more capable product, riding in the lower safety zone will still probably yield a better product, since its newer, more capable technology. I mean, if you have money, you can travel.

Not going anywhere but the control room
Ms. Remy Ann David

That's a very valid point.

mobile recording,
I've done this only a couple of dozen times,
but here's my 2 cents:

44.1/24 is more then good enough, 16 bit is also enough if you set your input levels carefully
the noisefloor of 99% of the venues is worse then -70dBFS

half my on location recordings are live with pa
so my main problems are the pa and the guys operating it...
you'll want a lot of mic-splitters and the necessary cables

get the band to trust you before they trust the pa guys
for guitar-amps, use your own mics
for vocals: splits (hopefully the singer is experienced with microphones, strongly suggest a hypercardioid: md431-II or beta 58)
for kick / snare: splits (try to use your own mics)
overheads: own mics
keyboard: your dibox + micsplitter
audience: don't forget this instrument! :)
maybe even record some pa sound just for fun

live pa recording can be very stressfull to set up
as there is probably less than half an hour to do so
no need to worry too much about preamps
as the room will more than likely not be too good
so keep it simple on your side and practise packing/ unpacking setting up at home
chances are the pa guys are more interested in beer/girls
and you'll end up being responsible for the live sound as well
(hey, you did tell the band you're good at audio....)

of course there's also the accoustic stuff
jazz, choir, folk
more fun on the recording part of the gig
mics and preamps will make a difference
small diaphragm condensers and ribbons become very usefull
and less (mics) is usually more with these styles
try to influence the location the band wants to record in
as accoustics is allmost half the sound, no reverb can compensate for bad accoustics, and of course it's your fault if it is

oh...

have fun :)

cheers

I am thinking of the Aurora Series (8 or 16)