High End Mobile rig suggestions

[londontown]

hi folks
here's a question. $$$ amount not an issue particularly, but nothing ridiculously insane on this one eg no mint condition vintage U47s....

Thinking of buying a mini and fairly portable high-end recording rig, probably on a Macbook Pro with PTLE/Mbox2; need a small, and hopefully fairly light, but v.v.v. good workhorse stereo pre that could handle lots of things (rarely vocals, mostly instruments), already have an apogee rosetta for conversion. Just stereo. Also looking for thoughts on three workhorse mics, one for single mic applications, one pair for stereo. Would need to travel with it occasionally.

Thinking
macbook pro
stereo pair of mics ***
two channel pre ***
apogee
mbox
pt le

any thoughts on pre, mics for that application?

instruments would be predominantly piano, kantele/zither cimbalom, smaller percussion (like handheld), bell sounds, and occasional instrumental solos etc. and sounds would be used for both sampling/post-processing, and incorporated in much larger mixes. Warmth and clarity a plus.

Thinking a single royer perhaps and a stereo pair of something different. Will have a small flight case built specially most likely, so it could store the mics and pre safely for transit and be opened up and used right away.

Any thoughts?

[max cooper]

My rig is specifically set up to travel. I've used various laptops with my 002.

I think if you're only recording two channels at once, MBox is fine. If you wanna use something like Nuendo, you can use the Rosetta with a interface card and avoid the Digi thing altogether. But I like PT.

Is there any chance you'd consider trying to turn your Rosetta into a Trak 2?

It's got a couple of preamps, and they're very clean; probably just the ticket for what you're doing. Could save you a couple of rack spaces, y'know.

Here's the specs on the Ambus firewire card for the Trak 2.

AMBus FireWire At A Glance:

Two S400 FireWire connectors, allowing convenient chaining of multiple units
A standard off-the shelf adapter cable allows connection to S400 FireWire ports
Compatible with Apple’s Core Audio FireWire driver
Supplied with Windows XP WDM/ASIO driver
Up to 8 inputs and 8 outputs of 24bit, 88.2/96k audio (Max. 48K with AD-8000 converter)
Fully compliant and compatible with 61883-6 and other relevant 1394 IEEE and AES specifications
Low Latency Mixing via FireMix software

The reason I mention it is that you'd have converters, interface and preamps in one rack space.

As much as I love having dedicated units, smaller is better for travelling and that Trak 2 is a stellar unit.

Just a thought.

Here's my 'fly rig' with Wunder preamps, Rosetta 800 and Digi002.

[James Lehmann]

Probably not considered "High End" by many here but FWIW my mobile rig is as follows:

- Mac 12" Powerbook w. Logic Pro
- Metric Halo ULN-2 Firewire Interface/Stereo Mic Pre
- Matched pair of Gefell M300's Cardioids
- Matched pair of Avenson STO-2's Omnis
- Sony MDR-7506 Headphones

It all fits into a compact Crumpler backpack including cables!

If I had a larger budget I might look at getting into the Schoeps Colette microphone system - once you purchase the bodies you can then start putting together a nice collection of interchangeable capsules - omni, cardioid, fig8 etc. They're all darn good mics used in the field by legions of recording engineers, particularly classical.

[londontown]

God I love this site, I hadn't even thought of that box. That couldn't be more perfect...calling apogee now =)

any mic suggestions? Looking for a really nice stereo pair to give another flavor as well as a single royer. Schoepps Colette looks interesting...


[QUOTE=max cooper;1090712]My rig is specifically set up to travel. I've used various laptops with my 002.

I think if you're only recording two channels at once, MBox is fine. If you wanna use something like Nuendo, you can use the Rosetta with a interface card and avoid the Digi thing altogether. But I like PT.

Is there any chance you'd consider trying to turn your Rosetta into a Trak 2?

[leifislive]

My aproach:

1.) Get the cheapest computer and DAW which will do (you won't need a lot for three channel audio, unless you are doing more things than mentioned with this setup)
2.) Seriously consider a standalone recorder (they are simply put more reliable)
3.) Spend almost all your money on the best available mic.
4.) Spend the rest on a good quality preamp.

If it is just for mobile recording, I'd rather go with the macbook (not pro), since you won"t need the x1600... but you may have a reason for your decision. I don't like computers anymore and got the fostex d2424 for recording...

Main mic: probably best value for your money is a cmc5 pair with mk4 and mk2s (so you cover all main mic situations from XY to AB). A friend of mine regards the dpa 4006 to be significantly better than the mk2s, but from the audio files I have heard so far (and from the forum test files once available here) I would doubt, that it is worth the additional money, since this already more than two third of your...
...Third mic: the only acceptable no brainer cardioid mic for anything that may come (I would even say from Rap over Death Metal to Berlin Philharmonics) for me is the Schoeps mk4. \

There are other opinions suggesting the expensive microtech gefell series (I forgot the number, must be 296 or something alike) to be better than schoeps. I could not check that. Probably a question of taste.

If you don"t have that money right now (probably 4400 Euro for the mics), You may start with MBHO MBP 603 and omni and cardioid capsule and buy directly at Mr Haun's office. They get close to Schoeps for half the price, but won't beat Schoeps... and they retail at probably 75% at ebay...

Pre: No brainer for me is the Millennia, since it was the only preamp to reproduce a signal that euqal to zero, if you phase inverse either the original or the recorded through file. Cheaper: DAV BG1.
In most of the cases, 1cm mic position yields more imaging difference than the difference between those two (my opinion, many will not like that opinion...). Think about whether you, or your clients

That's my experience from the last year struggling with the same kind of question (mainly orchestra and chamber music).

Best
Leif

[crna59]

Why not a hard disk recorder. I have a Genex 9048 with DSD cards. You could also look into a Radar system.

Regards,
Bruce

[numrologst]

I'd say if you have plans to go bigger, and start recording more live stuff... IE Live bands....Then I'd start looking at a used radar... They go for anywhere between $4000-$5500.

Now your original question:

This is what I would do for a mobile 2 track rig:

MacBook Pro
Apogee Ensemble or Mytek AD or better yet both


As far as mics and mic pres:

API lunchbox w/ 2 p1's, and 2 512c's or 2 chandler ltd1's and 2 john hardy m1's

Sm81's, c451b's, tc30's, i5, 421.

I say you need a pretty wide assortment of mics.

[henryrobinett]

This should be in the remote forum.

I have Metric Halo: two 2882+dsps, and a ULN-2. One of the 2882s is fed by 8 channels of Millennia mic pres. I use a 1.67 Powerbook. Sometimes I bring an additional 4 channels of Millennia and a Motu 2408mkII for adat lightpipe into one of the 2882s. I use the Record Panel for Metric Halo to record, unless there will be overdubbing, in which case I use Digital Performer 4.61.

[mytek]

Originally Posted by numrologst

This is what I would do for a mobile 2 track rig:

MacBook Pro
Apogee Ensemble or Mytek AD or better yet both

I would like to add that both Mytek Streo96AD and DA have optical I/O which plugs directly into MacBook Pro optical digital IOs for up to 96k operation without any card.

As for 8X192ADDA, for full (up to 192k and DSD) 8 channel operation (or more with more units), Firewire seems to be the solution with things mentioned above(RME etc), a partial intermediate solution.

I will try to keep you posted as we get closer to releasing the card. As I wrote earlier the card is based on TC DICEII chip which has been implemented already in other brand products, some of them like Alesis with limited features (such as 48k only). Our implementation intends to use all 16 channel/up to 192k/DSD of both way capacity and low latency.

Regards

Michal www.mytekdigital.com

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by henryrobinett

This should be in the remote forum.

I have Metric Halo: two 2882+dsps, and a ULN-2. One of the 2882s is fed by 8 channels of Millennia mic pres. I use a 1.67 Powerbook. Sometimes I bring an additional 4 channels of Millennia and a Motu 2408mkII for adat lightpipe into one of the 2882s. I use the Record Panel for Metric Halo to record, unless there will be overdubbing, in which case I use Digital Performer 4.61.

It's now in the right forum...

Folks, please carry on.