[xaMdaM]

OK, so you tell me how someone wanting to put a budget rig together is supposed to lay 16-24 tracks down w/o having 16-24 input devices, cables and mic stands... especially when my experience is that when dealing with most venues and production companies, that they won't let you take direct outs from their consoles.

Additionally, you will invariably come across situations where you need some sort of adapter to get some signal format to another... so how are you supposed to do that w/o adapters?

The OP hasn't mentioned a budget, and stated he wanted good mic's... so I listed good mic's to have in the kit. Hell, you mentioned the RE20... and that's not a cheap mic.

The OP also wanted to know what else was kit that was needed... including whether to buy pre's. I didn't mention Orchid or the KT active splitters, therealbigd did. I just confirmed that on my 2nd rig, I'm considering stepping up my game and getting them... and even you mentioned when extra money allows it.

I don't see a UPS as being over the top. I KNOW it's essential. If you loose power because your lappie battery took a dump, you got no product to offer the client.

A couple of big booms are worth the investment, and you can typically use the venue/production company's base mic's/stand packages until you build up your own locker. So, buying a couple a light stands is cheaper than some of the audio stands, and that's OTT?

Picking up fabric remnants and packing blankets on the cheap is OTT?

C'mon... lets face it therealbigd, you're jumping the gun and knee jerking in that you assume that I'm saying you gotta have all this to even get started... which I neither said, nor implied. Just as no studio is ever complete, neither is a mobile rig... especially a mobile rig. You grow into it, and they just keep growing.

Granted, a 3 way iso split is gonna be a chunk of change, but it's the heart of the business end of offering yourself as a service. If you can't afford a 3 way, then at least get a 2 way splitter... and you can find em' cheap enough used, but you gotta look for em.

I mean, you can buy used gear and save plenty of dosh to make your investment go further. No one said you have to buy new... did they?

To get 16-24 inputs into a lappie isn't gonna be cheap, but it doesn't have to cost you a large fortune... just a small one. To change course a bit and go with a decent analogue console and HD24's gets you the pre's, converters and I/O for about as dirt cheap as any other system configuration... and it's stable as hell. After 16 years of running a mobile rig, that's what my experience has proven. I started out with hauling 16 channels of ADAT's up and down the road, and grew to 32 channels of parallel ADAT's and MOTU. I'm now down to 2 HD24's and a console, and doing just fine with that configuration.

And all I'm tryin' to do is make the OP aware of, is that he/she needs to get the professional results that they are likely wanting to achieve, he/she needs to be aware that mobile recording can, and usually does, require extra stuff that a regular studio doesn't need.

If that's OTT, I'm sorry, but I'm not gonna bullshit anyone about what the reality is.