Alright ive been recording for about a year now but i use my dads tape deck set up. I would like to swicth to digital recording just on my computer. And i almost want to start like my own small studio. i dont really want to spend more than 800$. So what will be best for me to get I need at least 8 tracks that can be recorded at once. I was looking into the firepod. Is there anything else i should look at. I also was looking at the Alesis Firewire mixers. Please help i could use it.
Topic Tags
Comments
The Project Mix looks nice but the street price looks like aroun
The Project Mix looks nice but the street price looks like around $1200-1300.
One route (which I am currently plotting out) out is to go 'mixerless' - buy an audio interface and do the mixing in the computer. If all you need to buy is the interface, for $800 you could look at some of the MOTU products (e.g. the 8pre) which have 4 or 8 pres and ADAT with firewire connection to your computer. This doesn't give you a control surface. Many people are raving about MOTU as an interface with Macs. There are lots of other options you could look at too.
The 8pre is similar to the Firepod in mic/pre capacity but has t
The 8pre is similar to the Firepod in mic/pre capacity but has the ADAT connection. ADAT is a digital interconnection which can transmit 8 channels of data from an external unit. This lets you connects external converters, mic pres, digital tape units, etc. If you want more info, you'll have to do a google search since I'm not expert enough to pass it on :)
The story I heard is that Apple threatened to sue Presonus because they have trademarked names ending in 'pod'. Maybe not be true, but Presonus is replacing the Firepod with the FP10. I think that also up-graded some of the hardware. Here are a couple of URLs of relevance:
I hope someone will step in if I am getting into hot water :)
I hope someone will step in if I am getting into hot water :)
The 8pre and FP10 are generally rated as similar quality in terms of the pres and converters. The 8pre has the ADAT option so it would be possible to add on additional mics through a second pre-amp. The Presonus web page gives information about connecting up 2 or 3 FP10's to give extra pres (the info is on the URL I posted earlier) but you can only use 44.1/48 kHz recording.
The FP10 does have an S/PDIF input. This is another digital input which can transmit a stereo signal. So, if your mixer for drums could output an S/PDIF signal, you could input that into the FP10 and still be able to hook up 8 mics to the FP10 pres. But, I think that most lower end analog mixers do not offer S/PDIF outputs (or ADAT outputs either).
You didn't say what you are recording... Yourself, one instrumen
You didn't say what you are recording... Yourself, one instrument at a time? If so, the Presonus Firebox (http://www.presonus.com/firebox.html) would suffice.
If you're recording a band, you can piggy-back up to 3 FP10s (http://www.presonus.com/fp10.html) together for up to 24 XLR mic pres.
The FP10 is the newer version of the Firepod. I had 2 Firepods. Great units. I liked the Firepod better than the MOTU I'd had before it.
I've recently upgraded to the Firstudio (http://www.presonus.com/firestudio.html) for the ADAT/SMUX connection. The Firestudio is very similar to the FP10.
If you have a band and can convince everyone to get the Presonus Inspire (http://www.presonus.com/inspire1394.html), you can daisy-chain up to 4 of them, for up to 8 XLR type mic inputs...
Personally, I'd recommend the FP10, or Firestudio if you can afford it. They have great sounding mic pres and pretty good converters for the money.
We need to know the specifications of your computer. CPU RAM et
We need to know the specifications of your computer.
CPU
RAM
etc.
That will help the people here determine what your system is capable of, since you want to be computer-based with your recording.