PreSonus StudioLive 24

You may find the PreSonus StudioLive the best setup money can buy right now. Highly recommended. The 16.4.2 or the 24.4.2 are amazing.

good article here http://recording.org/content/614-studiolive-24-4-2.html

mista majestic, post: 377049 wrote: i currently use an alesis multimix 16, but need more mic inputs for live recording - its got 8, but i want more. whats the best value unit i can get above the multimix that will give me 8+ mic ins?? im finding it hard to find something/anything suitable for my fairly low end budget.

Tell us a bit more about the "live recording". How do you work at present? Are you using Multimix 16 for mixing live gigs that you also want to record, or is this just a straight recording function?

At the moment I mainly record bands live at their place of practice, into the desk and into my laptop before taking it home and processing it all on my computer in my studio. I usually fill the desk up with drums/guitars (as it only has 8 mic inputs - the other 8 inputs are jack) and then go back and do bass/vocals whatever else after. I want to have the option of recording a whole group live using anything up 16 mics.

I've literally today stumbled on the Fostex LR16 which looks fairly ideal - do you or anyone else no much about the unit? The presonus is a touch out of my budget unfortunately.

I would honestly try to steer you away from something like the LR16, as it is a road to nowhere.

You haven't said what your budget is, but if you were considering the LR16, it must be £900+. At that level, you could continue to use your laptop and consider getting a pair of expandable 8-channel FireWire pre-amps, of which there are several in this price range. Purely as an example, the MOTU 8Pre is under £400 for 8 channels. Two of these units would give you 16 input channels, all of which could be either XLR microphone or TRS jacks. Focusrite and others have similar units at a similar price.

Hey try this. This costs next to nothing to do. Of course your mixer only has 8 XLR microphone inputs. So you go to Radio Shaft if you are in the USA or, your local music store and pick up 8 1/4 inch to XLR low to high impedance transformer adapters. This will allow for 8 additional microphones to be plugged in to the 1/4 inch inputs on the last 9-16 inputs. This will work just fine for your purposes. Is it high quality enough? Of course it is and this will give you 8 Transformers that you may or may not like the sound of better than your first eight inputs? You're not talking about high-end stuff here, high budget, high experience or knowledge. This will give you the tools to do the job with what you have and how you are currently working. I've done this plenty of times throughout my career when necessary and it works just fine. As long as you adjust your levels properly and don't clip out everything except coupons.

This coupon entitles you to one almost free recording
Mx. Remy Ann David

Interesting thought. However, channels 8 -16 on the Alesis Multimix 16 are controlled in pairs as stereo channels and have 20dB less sensitivity than the XLR inputs of mono channels 1 - 8. The mic transformer will give some (unspecified) gain, but this solution may only be useful for loud sources and/or high-output mics and where they can be grouped in pairs, such as drum overheads.

It certainly would be worth getting a couple of these transformers to experiment with for now, but be sure to get the type that have an XLR socket on one end and a jack socket on the other and then use a short jack-jack plug cable. If you get the plug-mounted transformer type, they will destroy your mixer jack sockets in short order.

So as Boswell indicated, you may not have as much gain for those particular channels. Perfect because that's what you put the drums on. It will work like a champ. And yes, as Boswell stated, if you get the ones that have the 1/4 inch female socket along with an XLR female input, you only need a 1/4 inch to 1/4 inch mono guitar style cable (less than 10 feet long) to keep from damaging the sockets on your mixer from heavy stress of a in-line transformer gizmo. Most of these high to low impedance matching transformers will provide on the average about 10 DB worth of gain. So all totaled, you'll have 30 DB of gain which is more than enough for drums & loud guitar amplifiers. In fact you may find it to be more than enough gain in this application.

Happy tracking!
Mx. Remy Ann David

I should have mentioned that when using an external transformer on a TRS input to a mixer, you get no phantom power for powering condenser mics, at least, not without a separate PP supply. It restricts you to using dynamic (moving-coil) mics on those channels, which should be fine on guitar amps, but may not have been your first choice for overheads. The alternative would be condenser mics like the (stereo) Rode NT4 that have the option of being self-powered using an internal battery.

Mista M, can you tell us what is in your microphone collection?

thanks for responses guys - lots to think about. i like the sound of the motu route......seems pretty straight forward. The multi-mix is ok, fairly basic, but when you start mounting up the tracks in Samplitutde after performing lots of layers it starts to loose clarity and punch. But this is a fundamental reason why this gear is cheap i guess.

I need to start winning the lottery.

my mics arent great but they do the job for me at the mo and are a good bunch of all rounders:

rode nt4
rode nt1
rode nt2
4 x akg c418 clip on for drum/sax etc.
a pair of behringer c-2's
3 x sm57's
3 x sm58's
sE electronics SE1000A - a £40 bargain
finally a cheap set of t.bone drum mics. fine if your going to use a trigger to fatten things up

- this i did for my mates last year, and shows you the hap hazzard way i work! sound aint great, but you get the idea