Gearslutz.com - View Single Post - Thoughts on "starter" commercial recording setup

deepwaste · 26th February 2010

Hi all,

Long-time reader, first-time poster...first of course I'd like to thank everyone who contributes to this forum for providing tons of priceless information and opinion over the past few months.

I'm a longtime home recorder and planning a major, major upgrade soon...as in, upgrading from a Focusrite 2 i/o MBox running ProTools 6.9. The main motive is to record my own projects, but with an eye toward monetizing the gear and recording other people as well, and not just my friends' bands. Basically I'm envisioning a compact (mobile) 8-track digital recording rig with a tasty set of outboard gear and good A/D.

So rather than going over the old "X sounds better than Y" conversation, I'd like to focus on what kind of rigs GS readers have worked with, owned, etc, that were commercially successful without costing the value of a small house. Here's my current wish-list:

RME MultiFace II
Focusrite ISA428 4x mic pres ("A" pres)
Sytek 4x mic pres ("B" pres)
Neve Portico 5043 Comp/Limiter for vocals
Waves plugins (compressor/reverb)

Plus headphone amp, power conditioner etc...and a laptop of course (running Reaper). I already have a decent mic collection and can rent the really expensive stuff instead of buying outright.

It seems to me that the above setup provides a very competitive signal path that could record drums, band demos, string ensembles, church choirs, high school musicals etc., in addition to providing pro-level tracking capability. And could all fit into a mobile 8- or 10-u rack unit (Gators seem nice).

Does anyone else have experience with this model? Thoughts on the signal path? Any other high-quality (reasonably priced) outboard gear or interfaces a better value? Thanks for reading!

26th February 2010	#1
deepwaste Gear interested Joined: Nov 2009 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 8 Thread Starter	Thoughts on "starter" commercial recording setup Hi all, Long-time reader, first-time poster...first of course I'd like to thank everyone who contributes to this forum for providing tons of priceless information and opinion over the past few months. I'm a longtime home recorder and planning a major, major upgrade soon...as in, upgrading from a Focusrite 2 i/o MBox running ProTools 6.9. The main motive is to record my own projects, but with an eye toward monetizing the gear and recording other people as well, and not just my friends' bands. Basically I'm envisioning a compact (mobile) 8-track digital recording rig with a tasty set of outboard gear and good A/D. So rather than going over the old "X sounds better than Y" conversation, I'd like to focus on what kind of rigs GS readers have worked with, owned, etc, that were commercially successful without costing the value of a small house. Here's my current wish-list: RME MultiFace II Focusrite ISA428 4x mic pres ("A" pres) Sytek 4x mic pres ("B" pres) Neve Portico 5043 Comp/Limiter for vocals Waves plugins (compressor/reverb) Plus headphone amp, power conditioner etc...and a laptop of course (running Reaper). I already have a decent mic collection and can rent the really expensive stuff instead of buying outright. It seems to me that the above setup provides a very competitive signal path that could record drums, band demos, string ensembles, church choirs, high school musicals etc., in addition to providing pro-level tracking capability. And could all fit into a mobile 8- or 10-u rack unit (Gators seem nice). Does anyone else have experience with this model? Thoughts on the signal path? Any other high-quality (reasonably priced) outboard gear or interfaces a better value? Thanks for reading!