Ok guys. in a pinch I bought a Behringer ADA8000 today just to have some extra ins until I can afford a nice piece of gear. (I'll use it for a year if it lasts that long). Basically I'm going to be using it for a control room mic, possibly as an A/D when I get better pres, and extra channels for scratch guitar/bass tracks while tracking drums. My question is. .using only your ears. what is the difference in sound between a crappy converter and a great converter? Lack of bass, noise, tinny, etc?
I've heard rumors that the converters in this unit are a knock off of the Alesis Al-3. can anyone confirm how crappy the converters are because I haven't had a chance to hook it up.
I'm slowly going to start improving the front end of my gear with nice pre's (maybe some seventh circle, JLM, or Sebatron ). Do you think that it would horribly degrade the quality by running a high quality pre in to this unit for A/D conversion? Obviously it won't sound like the pre should, but would I be cutting myself off at the knees by doing this?
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Not all that crappy... I have 3 ADA8000's that I sometimes use
Not all that crappy...
I have 3 ADA8000's that I sometimes use in live multitracking situations (depends on what the band chooses as their price point). I have to say I've been quite surprised in a good way at the results. In some cases they've actually produced a more pleasant sounding track than the Presonus Digimaxes we also use (this really surprised me, too!)
I know this brand gets slammed a lot, but I can't say anything bad about the quality of the live stuff I've gotten out of them so far. Now their robustness is definitely another matter - already had to return one that died after being out of the box for 12 hours...
Dirk
mmm ... rather than talk about copies I will say that the Behrin
mmm ...
rather than talk about copies I will say that the Behringer ADA8000 does contain :
Wavefront AL1101 and AL1202 - AD and DA
and for Lightpipe duties
Wavefront AL401AD and AL401DS - Encoder and Decoder.
The AD and DA have inputs and outputs to 4V so some conditioned buffering is required.
The B uses TL074 and it's use is very close to that described in the application notes from Wavefront.
Remember the B unit has the Mic-pre front end based around 4 transistors.
Check the clip point of these units as the Ai3 actually crashes around 13-14dbu ... which I find useful for the less than Pro ... pro-units.
Good mic-pres are worth it regardless the quality of converter you are stuck with.
You will be using the quality Mics and Mic-pres long after the converter we talk about today is superseded.