Gear Decisons - A run down of my rig!

[gareth.h.rees]

Gear Decisions

Keeping this as short as possible, I'm trying to put together a 16 - 24 track mobile recording rig. I've had a lot of good advice from this forum already, so pretty much know what I want save for a few details which will be discussed here.

Before I go on to the details of the rig, a bit of background should probably be given. Next year I've got a regular slot recording a band a week in a small-ish club, generally 3 - 5 piece rock bands. I'm a relative beginner to this, in that I haven't had any paid gigs yet. I've been recording bands for my student radio station and a few other gigs, and one "studio" album in my living room. This gig is not going to be "paid" per say, but I'll be allowed to sell the recordings to the bands at the end of the night. It'll also be very good for building contacts with the local scene, so I figure its worth doing. With this gig there will be no isolation - a standing next to the band job!

I'll also be doing occasional recordings of more "classical" groups/soloists, so should include relevant gear to cover this. I'm thinking small wind/string ensembles and some jazz groups (drums, sax, bass, keys, guitar) etc.

I don't have a fixed budget, but I've figured I have enough money for £4000's worth of gear. I'm graduating from university this summer, so hope the next year will be a good time to start building up some experience and hopefully returning clients. I also have a studio at home, so want as much gear as possible to be useful in both situations.

For the location gigs, the plan will generally be to send everything to the multitracks via the mixer (ADAT), and then do a "live mix" to the macbook via the built in optical connection.

Question: Will the optical input on the macbook be good enough quality?


I'm going to base the rig around 16 tracks, but will probably expand it to 24 if it needs to get that big. If I need any more than that, well then I'll probably be making enough money to expand fairly easily!!:

Recording
Yamaha 01v96
HD24
Macbook (stereo master/spectrum analyser)

Backup Recorder/Studio Computer
Dell Optiplex/Vostro (nothing special)
RME Hammerfall (16 i/o ADAT thing!)

Monitoring
Beyer DT770's or DT250's
Cheap Poweramp
Cheap Bookshelf speakers

Microphones
MD421
m88
SM7b
SM57
AT4050

4 * Naiant Omni Condensers
5 * Naiant Cardioid Condensers (very midrang-y.. for guitar amps!)
1 * Naiant Omni Valve Condenser

2 * Royer 121 Ribbon Clones

either 2* m160's or 2* mc930's

I work at a venue that has plenty of sm57's and 58's, so enough of these can be borrowed at any time.


Accessories
2 * DI Box - probably a Behringer until I can afford a JDI
2 * K&M Overhead Mic Stands
1 * Kick drum stand
7 * General purpose stands
1 * 1 meter stereo bar
1 * 30cm stereo bar

Enough mic cables and a 30m 16/4 snake.

APC UPS - Line Interactive
Behringer HA400 Headphone amp - just in case!
Various Rack cases - not decided exactly what yet.


Questions

Now, I have a few questions.

a) That only leaves me with 12 mic amps. I was considering a DAV BG2, which would bump me up to 16, but then:

b) I need to include splitters. I was originally considering the Art S8, but came across the KT Square One, which includes 8 mic amps, and is probably a bit more reputable than the Art. The problem with this is that I think the preamps are only for the direct outs (electronically isolated?) with the transformer output receiving a fixed gain output.

Will the FOH/Monitor guys mind taking the transformer out? Possibly not? But I'm concerned that they might mind that the preamp gain is set for one of their outputs at the splitter. Granted, I doubt I'm going to be doing many gigs that are so big they have a separate monitor desk, but the Art S8 3Way would get around that problem easily. but,

c) The Art would leave me 4 preamps short, whereas the KT would give me 20, and possibly better quality than the Yamaha desk?

I've been going around in circles all day with this...

I guess the choice is between:

i) Dav BG2 + Art S8 £850
ii) KT Square One Splitter £700

I doubt I'll need to split more than 8 mics for now, so I'll assume that if I do, I'll have to hire a unit for the odd gig that does need more splits.

I also currently own a Digimax FS 8 Channel preamp. I could save some cash by keeping this instead of the Dav, and which coupled with the S8, would give me 8 preamps and good splitting options, but I'm concerned that I then have no "high quality" preamps.



This list is near my total budget so I don't have that much room to manoeuvre, but was just going to ask everyone's opinion on it as I still have a lot (most!) of it to buy.

I want to try to keep things to mainly reputable, reliable brands - even if it does mean having slightly less. I am flexible with this, but it depends on what the items in question are.


What would you guys go with?

Do you think its a fairly respectable rig?

Have I missed anything? (probably have!)

Is there anything that you thing the rig can't manage? (save for big festivals/big orchestras)

Any other pointers?




Sorry for the looooong read! I've probably forgot to mention some things even in amongst that lot!

I can't think of much else to say, other than any advice is very very welcome - even if you can only comment on some of the points - do feel free!

A very large thank you!

Gareth

[jd_]

Don't know answers to most of your questions, but these are the ones i konw

The optical input in your Macbook is already in digital domani - so no loss of quality there.
As an owner of 01v96 myself i have regularily used the 4 line inputs as additional preamps for dynamics (SM57-s mainly) they have worked fine for me.

[therecordinghous]

the optical on the macs are spdif. this means they are only two channels max. you are better off getting a pro level interface. since you have a mac already, maybe logic?

two devices i would recommend, the maudio lightbridge, or the presonus firestudio lightpipe.

both devices are relatively cheap, and offer 32 channels of lightpipe IO.

[gareth.h.rees]

Originally Posted by therecordinghous

the optical on the macs are spdif. this means they are only two channels max. you are better off getting a pro level interface. since you have a mac already, maybe logic?

two devices i would recommend, the maudio lightbridge, or the presonus firestudio lightpipe.

both devices are relatively cheap, and offer 32 channels of lightpipe IO.

I have one of the new macbooks, so no firewire.

The macbook is only going to be used as a stereo recorder anyway, so thats fine

The multitracks will be the HD24 and a rackmounted PC


Cheers
Gareth

[Daniel Stark]

No monitorsss!!! You're going to mix all that on bookshelf speakers? lol

otherwise sounds ok if a little stretched thin. i would rather have a few good mics mixed thru a mackie than all that stuff but that's just me, i can definitely see where cheap mics mixed thru a hd24 and 01v would be better for some things.

[gareth.h.rees]

Originally Posted by Daniel Stark

No monitorsss!!! You're going to mix all that on bookshelf speakers? lol

otherwise sounds ok if a little stretched thin. i would rather have a few good mics mixed thru a mackie than all that stuff but that's just me, i can definitely see where cheap mics mixed thru a hd24 and 01v would be better for some things.

Ah, I forgot to mention that I have a half decent set of monitors back at the studio (Event 2020 bas v2 - not the best but not half bad).

The bookshelfs would be purely for quick checks on location - half the time I'll be in a pub/club so thats where the headphones come in. In time I'll probably upgrade to something better

Yeah, I know what you mean about fewer good mics rather than lots of cheap ones. I'm definitely trying to go that way. I've bought some good dynamics (m88, sm7b, md421) and an at4050, and am on the look out for either mc930's or m160's so thats probably not a bad start. I have the Naiants purely because they're too cheap to bother selling, but useful now and then!!

Thanks for looking over that - I'm fairly confident I'll be happy on the most part, just wanted some extra opinions to make sure I haven't forgotton something really important!

Cheers
Gareth