Upgrade from a Motu 8pre
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Posted on Oct 25, 2009 09:05 pm
meltdown5
Faze 2 Studios
Member Since: Aug 15, 2005
Ok so here is my deal. I've been running a home Studio and have basically outgrown my mic pre's, A/D's, and Mic's. I out grew them a while ago actually. So, before i upgraded gear i made sure to upgrade my rooms acoustics first. I didnt want to spend 5k on gear.. and have it sound muddy and dull becuase of my acoustics.
SO, after a long doing i finally have the acoustics of my room working nicely. Its a beautiful sound room now.
Now its time to Upgrade my Gear.
What i want to upgrade next is my Motu 8pre. Ive had it for a while, and i dont love the sound of the Pre-amps. I also need more Inputs.
So, i was thinking maybe getting a stand alone A/D converter with about 16/24 inputs, and then separate Pre-amps to go with particular mics. Does that sound good? or should i stick with a A/D Preamp combo?
Firewire, or PCI is fine. My budget for this is about $1,300 - $1,900.
What do you guys suggest? Cna you guys help me work the problem?
-Ian
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cruxTypo SzarMember
Since: Jul 04, 2002
Oct 26, 2009 12:20 pm Just off the top of my head ur set up sounds good but i dont know how realistic 1,900 bux is to fulfill it, i mean how many standalone preamps do u want? if their worth their weight even 2 or 3 will start eating away at that 2k very quick
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Oct 26, 2009 04:02 pm Yep, to be honest the MOTU 8pre is no slouch at all and has pretty stellar sounding pre amps. For the money your talking about your not going to get much better combination then that.
But that said you are talking about more inputs as well so there is the rub.
You've got 2 choices really. The MOTU gear is what I will always recommend for your type of situation. You've already got a start with one 8pre so you can simply add another 8pre and you'll be set there with 16 channels of mic pre as well as the added i/o the unit has on it.
The other option and this is were you are going to need to decide on starting to build your investment is to start with a MOTU 24i/o as your input interface.
www.motu.com/products/pciaudio/24IO/
This is a stellar unit and runs with a PCI card that will allow you to build onto your system by adding 3 more interfaces with the single PCI card. That can be a total of 96 channels of some killer i/o and you simply add the pre amps you want.
I have several installation's of the set up over the years and all user's are happy with it. The unit's are stable and pretty much trouble free. And MOTU has some pretty stable driver's so that is not a problem. And you can run them with any software you choose. Nothing proprietary about them at all.
meltdown5Faze 2 StudiosMember
Since: Aug 15, 2005
Oct 26, 2009 06:03 pm Hmm, I like the look of the 24 i/o.
If i were to get the 24I/O (which is plenty of Inputs for me) would it then just be a matter of grabbing pre-amps for it?
If i were do go that route.. what do yu think it would take to outfit the 24I/o with about 12 lower end mic pre's (stuff the quality of the 8pre) and then another 4 mic pres that are medium/higher end?
My thinking is, i can use the lower end mic pre's when doing drums and such (doesnt seem to important to have a $1000 mic pre with a sm57 connected to it)
and then having the 4 or so nicers mic pre's to handle things that really need to shine (like vocals and acoustic guitars)
I have a few nicer mics that i want to get the full use out of (u87ai for example). So have nicer mic pre's to complement my nicer condensers would be nice while having regular pre's to just get things mic (toms, guitar cab's etc)
Does this sound like a decent plan? what if i were to extend my budget to about 4k? would i be able to get something worth while that is noticeably different then spending it on 3 Motu 8pre's? or would the quality be about the same?
Thanks for all of your help so far!
-Ian
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Oct 26, 2009 07:22 pm Yes, then it is a matter of finding the pre amps you want to use. This kind of set up allows a lot more versatility as you can shoose what pre to use and were. And be aware you can use a desk as well to input to it.
And to be honest, even a 57 needs a decent pre. Putting it thru a $1000 pre is not a bad thing at all and surely isn't wasted.
But yes, depending on what you want to do a row of decent pre's for drums would work fine.
cruxTypo SzarMember
Since: Jul 04, 2002
Oct 27, 2009 12:31 am I think i read somewhere that some of teh MOTU units when not connected via firewire or such can act as ADAT type units, i could be wrong on the use of the terms as im not an exprert but it was definitely along the line of an interface that can be used to expand the i/o of another MOTU interface without having to be powered by ur computer.
if not to hang on to MOTU so much if ur lookin to maximize ur signal chain by emphasizing preamps... digidesign? i mean if u really wanna throw down the cash mind as well go industry standard eh
on preamps, instead of getting some low quality mic pres (seconding noize's urge to get good pres for all ur mics, even 57s.. especially 57s?) y not hunt down an old mixer. Ive read about bands ripping out the mixers from old radio stations coz they have pretty sweet analog circuitry. If u have one good mixer with sweet pres that could be 8 good pres right there that can be used on drums and lots of other things.
just a few suggestions
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Oct 27, 2009 09:16 pm While both the John Hardy and the Audient are great units I might opt for something from True Systems for what you want to do. www.true-systems.com/
Their 8 channel can be had for a bit less then the John Hardy and my personal opinion is it would serve you just as well.
On the MOTU interface. Looking at that type of quality interface you will be paying a lot more going to something from Apogee or the like.
You can look for them used as well. They are usually found in very good shape if they are for sale. Most folks don't mistreat high end gear like that. But you might just be a bit ahead if you simply add another 8 pre to the system. You can bypass the pre amps and use other pre amps with it as a direct in unit. Then you will have an even larger variety of pre's to choose from as well.
meltdown5Faze 2 StudiosMember
Since: Aug 15, 2005
Oct 28, 2009 03:28 am Why the True systems?
Im not like already sold on the John Hardy and Audient, but just why would the True Systems fit my situation better?
CptTrippsCzar of Turd PolishMember
Since: Jun 20, 2006
Oct 29, 2009 01:01 pm Sooo.... want to sell me your 8pre for a good deal? :) I love my UX8 but it is not linkable therefore, I am stuck with 8 tracks. I had planned on selling it to buy the 896MKIII and an 8pre for 16 channels (will probably grab a UX2 as well because I do love me some Pod Farm).
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Oct 29, 2009 09:20 pm I'll quote someone else here. But I do agree with them.
If I was stuck on a desert island and could only have one pre to do all my jobs. I would probably choose the True Systems gear. A P-solo would work, but in your case your looking for 8 channel's so you would have 8 channel's of the P-solo.
For the money it is a very clean and straight forward pre amp. And of the P-solo's I've worked with that have been drug around the studio and dropped on the floor a few times and still work fine. I am sold on their quality build as well as their sound.
