Advice on recording external gear

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Lost to the Void
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Re: Advice on recording external gear

Post by Lost to the Void »

Root wrote:
if you sell the babyface, you won't get anything that good with more In's for a reasonable price. So you will loose quality and reliability.
What?
There`s loads out there, for example the Focusrite Scarlett 18i20, lots of ins and outs, nice focusrite preamps, reliable, great sound.
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Re: Advice on recording external gear

Post by Root »

I thought rme would beat focusrite in clarity when it comes to preamps. Haven't had the chance for comparsion though. It's been an enlightment when I gave up my echoaudio audiofire for a rme fireface. I considered the audiofire near the focusrite stuff, but as said, haven't heard focusrite yet.
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Re: Advice on recording external gear

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Well preamps are a matter of taste, focusrite have been making preamps since the 80s, so I trust them.
Clarity.... I mean if you did a shoot out with the same high end vocal mic recording vocals or maybe a piano some kind of comparison might benefit the it.
But running techno crap at line, you're not going to notice much difference.

Let's not get in to converters I think we solved that quandary enough times on this forum now.

I mean, I was just using the focusrite as an example, there are other options at that price point that sound and perform great, I just trust focusrite with preamps they have experience and pedigree in that field.
I've recorded a ton of vocals through mine for my own and commercial mix projects, albeit with very good mics, and the results have always been very good, especially when recording valve ribbons.

Never really understood the RME hype myself, it's good gear with ridiculous hype about it in techno land, but it's not the holy grail.
Personally I find it overpriced for what you get compared to the competition.
But, they do do small interfaces neatly.
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Re: Advice on recording external gear

Post by RWise »

Lost to the Void wrote: I mean, I was just using the focusrite
How would you rate the focusrite converters on their cheaper portable selection. Like the 2i2?

I have one that i take with me when i go to another studio i share, to record some hardware synths into my laptop. The studio has an Apollo 16 but i cant use it with my laptop and for the amount of time i spend there, its easier just quickly setting up a 2i2...

To me the sound has always given good results but i wondered how much it would differ to super high end converters?
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Re: Advice on recording external gear

Post by Lost to the Void »

Converters are converters man, we've had this conversation many times on here, and gone through the science untold amounts of time.

I've witnessed this myself having owned stupid high end lavry converters in the mastering room, to just high end (mytek), after realising the stupidity of it all.

On output, as in pure DAW out monitoring (D to A), converters makes next to no difference once you buy prosumer and above.

In input there is some difference, but it is fractional, and then preamps are as really more important.

I can link (again) the science on all this but I'm pretty sure it's stickied or in the classics subforum.


So saying that, whilst I don't know the 2i2, I think it has the same preamps as the rest of the range (I could be wrong) so it should be absolutely fine.

I have a 6i6 I used to use with my live PA, and use for portable recording, and it's great.
I used it to record the vocals for my Doom Metal album when I decided to go to another studio to record the vocals.
I'm going to do the same again when I record the vocals for my next album this year.
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Re: Advice on recording external gear

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Root; I was gonna get the Focusrite, but I just said fuck it and bough the Behringer 1820...I need the inputs desperately.
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Re: Advice on recording external gear

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Well I took the plunge!
Fucking love it, and the jasper stand too.

One thing I really like, is that you are able to send your instruments to ableton, process then, send it back by usb return with minimal latency so can play live. I personally want to mix 100% out the box, but i feel this opens up a whole new world for my analog gear.

Love it man.

Havent found any issues, only downside is no power button!

Cheers for the suggestions guys.


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edit: double checked and okay a bit of latency on the return, is it possible to fix that? if so how?
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Re: Advice on recording external gear

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How you getting on with that Deepmind? I'm pretty blown away by mine.
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Re: Advice on recording external gear

Post by nomadjames »

Root wrote:
Mono-xID wrote:Thanks for the recommendation mate. Nah I don't have space for 19" rack devices.
I was thinking already that selling the Babyface Pro to get a soundcard with more in's is the only option for me.

Hope to get a good price for the Babyface.

Atm I'm looking for a good adat 8 I/O device, too. Don't know, if you sell the babyface, you won't get anything that good with more In's for a reasonable price. So you will loose quality and reliability.

If you'd add a Adat Device, you'll have more ins and the quality of the babyface, for a price you'd pay at least for a new interface. And one day, if babyface + adat won't be enough anymore, you could still sell the babyface and get an interface with more In's and then have like 16..

Anyone knows if this Focusrite Octopre are worth it? It's like 430€, I guess you won't get cheaper than this without Behringer..
After a week or so of using the Behringer ADA8200, I would recommend it. You're gonna get it at half the price of the Focusrite Octopre Mkii. I would have preferred it, but the Behringer piece is spot on for the moner. I got the ADA8200 new for $162 US.
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Re: Advice on recording external gear

Post by Macca »

nomadjames wrote:How you getting on with that Deepmind? I'm pretty blown away by mine.
I absolutely love it. Its my first poly synth so I dont have any comparison, but its pretty damn versatile, pads,leads,bass,stabs its does them all decently.
I think the effects sound great (chorus-d and tc-deepverb are my favourites havent fully explored the rest). But i love it man, especially when you dive into the mod matrix
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Re: Advice on recording external gear

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The effects and effect modulation are fucking amazing. the presets really do this machine no justice. Chekc out Once Upon a Synth on youtube, that guy does some pretty mindblowing patches on the Deepmind.
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Re: Advice on recording external gear

Post by WOLF! »

Macca wrote:Well I took the plunge!
Fucking love it, and the jasper stand too.
Jaspers is really nice; all tough I spot some free space on the stand, but that will get filled when you get more into slut mode :D.
It would be quite handy to jam, when you get the elektron gear and the mixer on the stand as well!
First do the jam, then go to the computer and sit down to edit, arrange and finish the track.

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Re: Advice on recording external gear

Post by Macca »

WOLF! wrote:
Macca wrote:Well I took the plunge!
Fucking love it, and the jasper stand too.
Jaspers is really nice; all tough I spot some free space on the stand, but that will get filled when you get more into slut mode :D.
It would be quite handy to jam, when you get the elektron gear and the mixer on the stand as well!
First do the jam, then go to the computer and sit down to edit, arrange and finish the track.

Yeah I got a three tier one because I know over the next few years there will be more gear going on it.

Had a good play around and really love doing everything out the box.

Would you guys recommend maybe putting a limiter / compressor on the output of the mixer to the speakers to controller peaks and maybe tighten up the mix a bit if I was doing something live?
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Re: Advice on recording external gear

Post by Hades »

depends on how far away the mixers main out fader is from wherever it is you could be standing in your studio.

I got a mixer that can output tons more than my monitors,
but I never turn the main outs fader up too much anyway.

I think it would be just money thrown away but I guess that largely depends on how much you usually turn your shit up
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Re: Advice on recording external gear

Post by zukenbauer »

Hey guys, got myself stuck in same situation as Macca was.
Anyway, mtk12 is exactly what i need, the only thing that bugs me is that multitrack via usb option.
I have no previous experiences with mixers so i want to make things clear in my head before ordering it.
How do you setup individual channels in ableton that corresponds with mixer channels?
Synths outputs to mixer inputs and thats all?

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Re: Advice on recording external gear

Post by Lost to the Void »

You just open the Ableton I\O section of the Ableton mixer and then select the channels in the drop down.
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Re: Advice on recording external gear

Post by quest »

No mention here of sync problems that come with this territory, but they only really crop up if you are using hybrid workflows. If you do absolutely everything OTB and just wanna record it, then it's no issue, but doing a mix of ITB and OTB and sync becomes a real problem.

My solution was to get a sync box that jacks two sound card output channels but gives you dead accurate sync from DAW to hardware:
https://www.innerclocksystems.com/new%2 ... 20pro.html

Really great when you want to selectively print hardware tracks as they become dialed in enough to freeze with confidence. Combined with sufficient sound card inputs you have tons of flexibility. If you premix your hardware with a mixer then you have to either record one track at a time or compromise with pre-summed hardware tracks.

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Re: Advice on recording external gear

Post by zukenbauer »

Hmm, you mean latency? Does it change anything if i add scarlett in the chain with mixer?

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Re: Advice on recording external gear

Post by quest »

No the latency is to do with syncing the clock of the DAW to the clock of the hardware. Doesn't matter if it's Mac or Windows, my experience was that the hardware could not slave tightly to the DAW clock like it could when I used an Atari. Nothing worked until I found a box that could generate sync over audio which is then translated into MIDI by the box itself.

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Re: Advice on recording external gear

Post by Lost to the Void »

quest wrote:
Fri Jun 15, 2018 2:55 am
No the latency is to do with syncing the clock of the DAW to the clock of the hardware. Doesn't matter if it's Mac or Windows, my experience was that the hardware could not slave tightly to the DAW clock like it could when I used an Atari. Nothing worked until I found a box that could generate sync over audio which is then translated into MIDI by the box itself.
Wow that`s so retro... Reminds me of when we had to stripe tape when recording to multitrack reel to reel, the old smpte sync days.
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