How to best improve my signal chain?

[reid]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for advice as to how best improve my signal chain. I've got a budget of about £1k ($1700) (preferably less....).

I'm writing music to picture (so mainly instrumental, not too in your face stuff), mainly using sample libraries and the odd MIDI sound piped in from my XV5080. I'll occasionaly record live sources, but have so far never needed more than 2 inputs to do so.

My set up is: Yamaha 03d Mixer (with wordclock, spdif and AES i/o), Focusrite TwinTrak Pro preamp (with wordclock, aes and spdif i/o board) and an M-Audio Delta 1010 (spdif and wordclock i/o). I never use more than 2 ins on the 1010, but do use all 8 outs into the 03d for mixing down to a stereo pair. Don't know if it makes any difference, but I'm running Logic 7 on a G5.

Where would I get most bang for my buck?

Get a wordclock generator to help tighten things up? Something to replace the M-Audio? A friend suggested a summing mixer, though there seems to be so much discussion about these being vodoo or not that I wonder if I'd be capable of hearing the difference through my tin ears.

thanks for any helpful suggestions!

[Jules]

How does your mix sound get to your speakers?

I am thinking

A wordclock devicce

and / or

A stellar D/A & analog path - to feed your monitors

[reid]

My output chain is normally 1010 (analogue outs or SPDIF) > 03d > Monitor Outs of the 03d direct to a pair of Adam S3a.

Any suggestions on makes and models, Jules?

Thanks