What to upgrade?

[tribedescribe]

Your system will only be as good as its weakest link. But I would upgrade in this order.

1. acoustics
2. Great mic collection
3. interface
4. preamps
5. converters
6. monitors

Make your own bass traps and sound absorbers with rockwool. Buy some great mic's and get a decent interface like the m-audio 2626 steinberg mr816. Then get one great preamp or money channel.

[tINY]

When you say "live band recording" do you mean at a gig?

If so, the Onyx 1640i is a lot of bang for the buck and it'll do ProFools.





-tINY

[ObiK]

How many channels do you actually need? And why Protools? If what you have works and you don't need more channels why not stick with it and put the money towards something better?

[Tdeem]

Do really need adat? Do you really have to have protools? There are tons of options. I started off recording live bands with a mackie 8 bus and two firepods. Ditched that and got a studiolive. And protools 9 works with any interface, unless you already have protools 8. Are you trying to add to what you have, or are you going to ditch the things you have, take that money ( and add to) and get a new rig? Plethora of options. Do you want a mixer? How many channels do you need? There are nice mixers out now with interfaces built in.

[mattjew24]

Im sorta trying to ditch what im doing now for something much better. I love protools, and I own pro tools 8 M powered, and im not planning to switch to 9 yet because I have first hand experience at how unstable and glitchy it is. Gonna wait for it to be smoothed out.

My objective is to have a viable recording solution for BOTH studio work AND gigs/band rehearsals. I get that the FastTrack has got to go, but why the profire 2626? I read that they have inherent random delay latency problems or such. What about the lightbridge? I want ADAT so that I can have freedom to add ins/outs as I please, rather than with my Firepod where I have no ADAT and no expansion choices BESIDES another firepod.

I want 16 channels. I can certainly track in Logic Pro 9, which I also have. But I really would prefer slowtools. Its my comfort zone

[mattjew24]

Need enough channels for a full band. Probably guitars bass drums and vox. 8 doesn't cut it for me.

[tribedescribe]

FYI -

2626 sample offset delay has been fixed with mac, but still persist with windows!!!! you own a mac, so you should not have a problem.

New ProFire 610/2626 Public Beta Driver for Mac - Fixes Sample Offset Bug

I use cross graded to PT9 and it has been rock solid. No Bugs.

Why the 2626? It is the best quality interface m-audio has ever made. You could also get a used m-audio 1814 and a adat preamp.

[mattjew24]

So then I could run those preamps in the Profire 2626 to ProTools while also running 8 ADAT Preamps into the 2626 for 16 channels at once?

[ObiK]

Yes and no.

Yes you can get 16 from the first 8 on the Profire and an additional 8 from an adat preamp.

BUT you can also add 8 more on top of that via the second ADAT input for a total of...24!

THEN you can add a SPDIF capable preamp for up to 2 more channels for a total of 26 ins and outs (If you add some outboard conversion for outs too)