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Hello guys,
Yesterday I was kinda crazy thinking about some upgrades on my studio.
First let me explain the whole situation:
I live in Brazil where gear is very, very expensive. I have a friend that is moving back from the U.S.
in september and he has the right to bring used stuff as he lived for more than a year outside Brazil.
Right now I have:

- Tascam 2524 24ch in line
- Digi 001
- Meek VC6
- Korg 880 A/D 18bit
- ART SGX Nightbass Studio Edition

And I will for sure get an Apogee Rosetta so I can clock both the 001 and the 880 with it.
Ok, now the deal is I track mostly rock bands like this:

- drums (8/10 ch on the 2524. 8ch going on the 001 and 2 ch on the Korg )
- bass (DI on the VC 6 into Korg )
- guitar (POD into Korg ) ** this could be a keeper, it depends on the playing
- guitar (whatever the player brings in and goes into the Korg ) ** if the band has 2 guits and each one
plays totally different stuff from the other. that's just a scratch track.
- vox (into the 2524 out to the Korg ) ** scratch vocals only
- click track (Yamaha PSR 160 into Korg )
- one channel free on the Korg ...

I want to upgrade to a level where I don't need to worry about buying stuff anytime soon, because I won't
buy anything here in Brazil...

So I'm thinking about getting rid of my big'ol board ang going for something better and smaller, or even
going with outboard pre's only.

I can also borrow some money too, just to make sure I won't spend anymore soon :) .

I can get around $1300/$1500 for my board here in Brazil and $800/$1000 for the Korg interface.

So what do you guys suggest for pres? How many channels you think I need? For example, 4 channels to
snare, kick and overheads and 4/6 more (cheaper ones) to toms and scratch vox. About the A/D I thought
about those:

Swissonic AD24 8ch A/D $750
RME Audio ADI-8 Pro 8ch A/D/A $1300
Lucid 8824 8ch A/D/A $2000

C'mon guys, I know it's a huge post, but I do need help... thanks!

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Comments

sdevino Thu, 06/20/2002 - 07:37

I would stay with what you have until you can afford a 192I/O and 16 channels of I/O. Maybe broken up like this:
- 4 Channels of Neve style mic pre
- 8 channels of something clean (Earthworks, Millennia, Grace etc., maybe the new digi pre (if it ever comes out)).
- 4 channels of DI/Line level, something like the SKE RDB-400.

Thats probably almost $10k worth of mic pres :( . If you can do it in steps thats great. But shoot for really good stuff and be patient. It will be worth it.

RecorderMan Thu, 06/20/2002 - 08:20

Hello Jeronimo....how's it goin' ....

For the amounts of money we're talking ($2500 US if I'm right) I'd look at it this way.

Alanis Morrisette's "Jagged Little Pill" was recorded and mixed off of black face ADAT'a @ 16 bit. The big differrence was (outside of Her, Glen Ballard and Francis Buckley (among a couple of others) was REALLY GOOD MIC's and MIC PRE"S, EQ's & Compressors.

So, I'd get maybe a Digimax(eight pre's w/lightpipe) for your cheap pre's. Then get up to six Vintech x73, or some other neve knockoff (svae ALOT of money...still sound great) and a UA2-610 pre (tubes sound great w/digital). Add a pair of royers 121's. A pair of UA 1176's. an Alan smart compressor. One good large Diaphram (At least) . A bunch o' sm57's. At least one large kick drum mic( d112,d12 or d12e,re20,421 a couple is good...one can do)

My point is ....you're not talking about alot of money (yet). I mentioned the "JaggedLittle Pill" analogy to poiny out that the digi can get you by....but you need a good front end. The 2-610 and royers i HIGHLY recommend. You just can't believe haoe good ribbons intop tubes sound in digital (esppecially on gtr's & oh's). I wouldn't woorry as much on the clock/converter front...it can be important...but if you place instruments and mic's in the room right, and record through really fat chains you shouldn't need to do near as much on the digital side. the less processing the better in digital. And if you8 can mix out of the computer, analog, to another mixdown device through a rael alan smart (ssl) compressor...then you'll be talkin.

You said think differrent....that's all I know how to do.

best of luck.

P.S. give us a better Idea of budget, and I'm sure you'll get more precise recommendations

:w: