'Newbie' advice on recording gear

[Slogun]

Today I have a rather decent project studio (at least in my opinion ;-) consisting of Nuendo, Motu 896, Powercore Firewire (with optional Master X5 to name a few of the pluggs, planning on getting the Inflator) as the core system. I use Mackie 824 as monitoring along with some Sennheiser phones.

Well, soon some of that gear will be regarded as history as I'm planning of upgrading my 'studio' to a higher level. And what I've been thinking of is mainly three different systems.
1. Exchange my Motu to Apogee Rosetta 800 and keep the other stuff. Or will this be only a minor noticable upgrade not worth the hazzle?
2. Exchange my Motu to Apogee AD-16x and the MiniDac (or will my Nuendo be too much of a bottleneck here regarding the quality and dynamics)? Perhaps I should think of any other recording sw here as well?
3. Sell everything and go for Digidesign HD|1/2 with the 192I/O

Of course there is quite a difference between the price tags of the above options. What will you consider the most priceworthy alternative?

[toledo3]

Originally posted by Slogun
Today I have a rather decent project studio (at least in my opinion ;-) consisting of Nuendo, Motu 896, Powercore Firewire (with optional Master X5 to name a few of the pluggs, planning on getting the Inflator) as the core system. I use Mackie 824 as monitoring along with some Sennheiser phones.

Well, soon some of that gear will be regarded as history as I'm planning of upgrading my 'studio' to a higher level. And what I've been thinking of is mainly three different systems.
1. Exchange my Motu to Apogee Rosetta 800 and keep the other stuff. Or will this be only a minor noticable upgrade not worth the hazzle?
2. Exchange my Motu to Apogee AD-16x and the MiniDac (or will my Nuendo be too much of a bottleneck here regarding the quality and dynamics)? Perhaps I should think of any other recording sw here as well?
3. Sell everything and go for Digidesign HD|1/2 with the 192I/O

Of course there is quite a difference between the price tags of the above options. What will you consider the most priceworthy alternative?

Is this your personal project studio or is it a commercial studio, open to outside engineers?

[Slogun]

I would describe it as my personal hobby studio in which I do, once in a while, commercial productions in a small scale.
I'm in to a rather small genre of music ;-)

[Slogun]

I might add... I wouldn't mind expanding so that I could make a living out of it.
As for now I have my studio as a small extra income to my ordinary wage and help out some friends of mine, and as a hobby project. But I would like to upgrade my studio one or a few steps to make it more commercially interesting for potential customers (and of course to raise my extra income ;-)

[Chad]

Why dont you go to a dealer who has a diecent showroom, and demo all of the products. Find the software and hardware solution that YOU prefer. Who gives a damn what everyone on here or anywhere else likes? So it works for them. Does that mean it will work best for you? Who the hell knows, but you. Stop wasting your time waiting for someone here to make up your mind for you, and go do it hands on for yourself.

[NathanEldred]

Originally posted by Chad
Why dont you go to a dealer who has a diecent showroom, and demo all of the products. Find the software and hardware solution that YOU prefer. Who gives a damn what everyone on here or anywhere else likes? So it works for them. Does that mean it will work best for you? Who the hell knows, but you. Stop wasting your time waiting for someone here to make up your mind for you, and go do it hands on for yourself.

That is a good idea, hopefully he will be able to develop an opinion instead of flipping the proverbial coin. I've done many demonstrations for beginning and early intermediate engineers who cannot make a decision, simply because they don't know what they want. "It all sounds good". Many times the guidance of an experienced engineer who has used a large variety of gear in the trenches can be of great help.

[Knastratt]

I think what you need is a priority scheme.
Mine would look like this. Especially from what gear you already have.

1. Mic Pre/Channel in a box or Mic Pre/Compressor.
2. Great mic.
3. New converters.
(4. Monitor system.)

Since I don't know what situation you will record in, how many channels you're gonna track or what budget you have - I wont go into specific suggestions.

And, as mentioned before, the only judge is your need and your ears. And, of course, your vallet.

[jameslugo]

Good words Nathan!!!

[Jmess]

Originally posted by Slogun
What will you consider the most priceworthy alternative?

In my experience the best investment, though not very sex, is to install some bass traps in your studio. either Real Traps or even OC 703 covered in fabric would do the trick. All the gear in the world won't make a difference if you are not hearing things correctly. You will hear a noticeable improvement in your mixes, especially effects i.e. delays, reverb, etc. probaly cost around 250$ for a 12X12 room.