The Pro24 is a good piece of kit for what it offers. The reservations I have with your proposal centre more on the ADA8000. Do you already have that unit? If not, I would urge you to look at a single interface with more inputs rather than the combination of the two you specified. I acknowledge you would be hard pressed to match the overall price even for 8 mic inputs rather than a total of 10, but audio quality and equipment reliability are worth paying a bit more for.

Thanks for your input. Yes I do own an ada8000. I know they are not the nicest converter around but I already own it so I'm working around what I have. I was using an E-MU 1820m with it's adat input but it seems to have have died. That was pci card with breakout (the breakout part is the problem) and although I really thought it was a great unit, I wanted something in firewire or USB2 and I record drums (I play drums) so having 8 or more inputs is almost essential. If I had the money I would maybe go for an interface with 8 or more line ins (preferably with pre-amps) AND 1 or more adat ins. I think MOTU have something like this. I figure that the Pro24 is great in terms of bang for buck and I can use it without ada8000 for 1 or 2 input tracking (like almost everything apart from drumkit) and just add the ada8000 for tracking drums. That's the theory anyway.

FWIW the PCI EMu will have a significantly lower latency level than a firewire device. That said, I use firewire FF800's all the time without ill effect.

newmz, post: 369320 wrote: Thanks for your input. Yes I do own an ada8000. I know they are not the nicest converter around but I already own it so I'm working around what I have. I was using an E-MU 1820m with it's adat input but it seems to have have died. That was pci card with breakout (the breakout part is the problem) and although I really thought it was a great unit, I wanted something in firewire or USB2 and I record drums (I play drums) so having 8 or more inputs is almost essential. If I had the money I would maybe go for an interface with 8 or more line ins (preferably with pre-amps) AND 1 or more adat ins. I think MOTU have something like this. I figure that the Pro24 is great in terms of bang for buck and I can use it without ada8000 for 1 or 2 input tracking (like almost everything apart from drumkit) and just add the ada8000 for tracking drums. That's the theory anyway.

OK, I was guessing that from the way your original post was phrased.

The Pro24 would be fine as an input ADAT interface, and you should get improved quality through its two mic inputs, subject to the latency increase going from PCI to FireWire that Jack mentioned. Don't forget you lose the ADAT output capability, so your ADA8000 DACs will be marooned. However, the Pro24 gives you 6 DAC outputs.

Since you will already have been tracking your drums through the ADA8000, you will be familiar with its acoustic limitations, so I won't labour the point any further. However, I would re-emphasize the continual need to re-asses the capabilities and performance of your equipment as your technique as a musician increases and your ear attunes to sonic quality. A need to replace one piece of gear should trigger a re-assessment based on capability and funding, and if the result is a decision to make a functional replacement of one item leaving the rest unchanged, fair enough, but at least you would have gone through the mental process.

Good luck!