Rebuilding my recording rig

[Impulse 101]

I'm sorry if this is long...

I'm rebuilding my recording rig in order to get with the new fangled hi-tech age we're in and I'm fishing for opinions on my gear choices.

For now I'm using my old blackface ADAT's and my Mackie 2408 8 buss board to mix. Then that feeds back to my Panasonic DAT. Very old school but it's worked for me and I've only needed to demo stuff for a few years as I've not had a working band or project that can stay together for longer than a week.

I've been demoing stuff with the ADATS and Mackie alone but I'm pretty much done with that stage now and I want to cut, paste and manipulate my arrangements more in the computer during demo stage rather than working everything out on legal pads and then recording it to tempos maps via the ADAT and BRC combination.

The first thing I've added is a hot rod custom PC running Sonar and I'm getting the RME Digiface to give me 24 channels of ADAT lightpipe in and out of the computer.

For now the ADAT's are going to be used as converters and I'll still be mixing in the board to avoid running out of computer mix buss headroom. The tracks will also be mixed back to the DAT which will also feed back to the computer via SPDIF. Once again this is for demoing only and it will be upgraded again in a couple of months for real recording.

The final part of the picture is to replace the ADAT's and Mackie with a Yamaha 01V. There are a lot of benefits to using a digital mixer to mix tracks sent digitaly from a DAW. I work that way in the studio often so I'm used to the layout and I like the way that it "feels" Add to that the ability to use all of the Yamaha's dynamics and effects processing without stressing the computer's CPU at all and that's why I'm going with the 01V.

Later I want to add the Langevin Dual mic pre/opto-compressor as a dedicated input stage. But I think I can get most (95%) of what I want from the system I've outlined above.

Does anyone have any suggestions or comments?

JT

 

[GaryNattrass]

I can highly recommend ditching the whole set-up and investing in a Digidesign 002 with Pro Tools 6.1 LE.

Everything in a box and some great plug ins too.

I'm even using mine to do audio post for TV as well now.

 

[LSchefman]

>>Very old school but it's worked for me<<

Funny how something that was absolutely revolutionary only a few years ago is now "old school."

For me "old school" would be a big analog machine, an autolocator, an analog board, and a razor blade.

 

[Impulse 101]

Protools is out of the question. Poor MIDI implimentation, my least favorite interface and the spector of the "Evil Empire" of AVID invading my house just like it did my business and stealing all my happiness.

I prefer Sonar and I like using the external mixer as it provides a better feel and workflow.

Les, Analog 24 tracks, razor blades and tape editing blocks are not a thing of the past. They are simply out of the price range of my project studio. ADAT's are definetly old school now to those of us who were starting in studios as the Mackie/Alesis combination created the project studio revolution. As far as the autolocator, I have a BRC!

JT

 

[MichaelK]

Originally posted by Impulse 101
Protools is out of the question. Poor MIDI implimentation, my least favorite interface and the spector of the "Evil Empire" of AVID invading my house just like it did my business and stealing all my happiness.

You might prefer Logic Audio or Digital Performer - worth looking into.

 

[GaryNattrass]

Interesting that I get a few comments that the MIDI side of Pro Tools is not too good.

Do many people use MIDI nowadays?

I have been very anti it since having my monster midi racks of the early 90's and now prefer to keep things simple and either play a part the way I want it or get a decent keyboard player who can play in time without quantisation.

As for samplers and drum machines I stay well clear of those too as they suck the soul out of everything.

Am I too purist?

I prefer to record real instuments played correctly.

 

[LSchefman]

>>Do many people use MIDI nowadays?<<

Of course!

 

[MichaelK]

>>Do many people use MIDI nowadays?

Sure they do. Film and TV composers, mainly. ProTools is definitely lacking in that area.

 

[Impulse 101]

I'd love to have great players at my disposal but unfortunately Milwaukee WI is a black hole in the universe of musical talent when it comes to my style of music. (Progressive rock) The few REALLY talented players I do know are far to busy to come and play on my demos for free. So certain sacrificies have to be made in the name of expeidency. That's where MIDI comes in.

I work hard on mapping out my songs and their tempos before I commit them to my sequencer and all sequenced parts eventually will be replaced by real players. MIDI drums and percussion are vital to my demoing process. I also need to have as much creative freedom right now as I possibly can and I want to be able to work quickly. So I need a little of everything available to me via my software package.

I would love to be able to afford more hardware and software but I don't have the money and I don't really have the time to sit down and get everything out of the software I have. I do think that an improved front end would yeild positive results fairly quickly though, so a nice solid state mic pre and compressor is part of my plan once the intial stuff is bought.

I guess my main technique for writing is to get what I'm hearing in my head to come out of the speakers as quickly as possible and with the cleanest possible results. I'm always looking for better ways to do that. So starting with a small, powerful and familure system like this should help me out quite a bit.

JT

 

[MichaelK]

So just out of curiosity...

What was it you were asking?

 

[Impulse 101]

After reading my last post I was wondering the same thing. It does sound kind of finite doesn't it.

I did have a few things in mind by posting the question though. First was to simply throw it against the wall and see what sticks. Maybe my well thought out play was full of holes and someone here might catch something or have a better or cheaper solution. That part of the question still stands.

As far as the last post I was being specific as to why I didn't want to go straight to a Digidesign 002 and protools and just ditch everything else, as well as describing a little about how and why I use MIDI.

This isn't a post that anyone would use to run up their post count so you'll have to trust that I'm asking a real question in good faith and looking for like minded answers or at the very least stirring up an interesting discussion.

JT

 

[MichaelK]

'sall good, hope it works out well for you.