Audient ASP008 and ProFire Pro Tools rig

[UPRYZ]

Trying to put together a high quality 24 channel mobile Pro Tools/Laptop based rig. I'm currently thinking 2 x Audient ASP008 with ADAT card + M-Audio ProFire 2626 via Firewire to my MacBook Pro running PT9. 16 nice pres with HPF and 8 decent simple pres. Total cost = under $4k and fits in 3U. Thoughts?

Anyone tried this? How would you set up clocking? Any stability issues?
Is there other gear I should be considering instead?

Thanks,

Dan

[UPRYZ]

No one?

[claying]

For the best stability / reliability, I prefer RME Fireface UFX, with DURec feature.

However, you then need to downgrade your pres with the same budget.

[Sheikyearbouti]

Yesterday I went to an event at SAE London. The guys from Audient were doing a demo of their new console (apparently uses the same preamps). They recorded an entire band using only the console's build-in pres. So I heard them and I have to say that the sound was not bad at all. They used a few ribbons and all together sounded rounded and clean.

All was going into the new Avid 16 I/O - so Avid ADC, not Audient.

I can not really comment more as I never heard them carefully and in my own studio. But before I would have walked by and not even bother to demo them. I would do that now if I am on the market for such gear.

There are other preamps to consider at this price range though. I am sure that the guys here will have many suggestions.

[LX3]

I'm a fan of the ASP008. I think it's the best-sounding commonly-available "8-channels in 1U" mic pre out there, and I've owned and/or used most of them.

I now have eleven ASP008s.

The A-D is excellent. They feature latching XLR inputs, which is a bit of a rarity these days. Very easy to see the switch settings because they're all illuminated, which is a godsend when you have 64 channels of them to figure out.

Usual things to watch out for though - like all 1U preamps, they get hot, so leave some space between them in a rack, and make sure you find a way to support the back of each unit - most heavy 1U bits of gear react badly to life on the road when suspended solely from the front rack holes, and the ASP008 is particularly susceptible thanks to its thin aluminium front panel.

[UPRYZ]

Originally Posted by LX3

I'm a fan of the ASP008. I think it's the best-sounding commonly-available "8-channels in 1U" mic pre out there, and I've owned and/or used most of them.

I now have eleven ASP008s.

The A-D is excellent. They feature latching XLR inputs, which is a bit of a rarity these days. Very easy to see the switch settings because they're all illuminated, which is a godsend when you have 64 channels of them to figure out.

Usual things to watch out for though - like all 1U preamps, they get hot, so leave some space between them in a rack, and make sure you find a way to support the back of each unit - most heavy 1U bits of gear react badly to life on the road when suspended solely from the front rack holes, and the ASP008 is particularly susceptible thanks to its thin aluminium front panel.

Thanks for the info!
As far as racking (in a proposed rig like i've described) would I need 6U or could I get away with a 4U rack with a vent between the Audient's and the M-Audio?
And as far as word clock i'm guessing - make one Audient master, then WC out to the 2nd Audient (slaved), WC out to the M-Audio. Set Pro Tools to use external clock (via firewire). Does that sound right?

[LX3]

4U should be fine - 3 x 1U units with half or a third of a U between them. Put the M-Audio at the top so that there's a space above each of the Audients.

(I wonder how hot the M-Audio gets? But I'd like to bet that the Audients get hotter).

I think it'd be more reliable and easier to stay on top of if you simply took word clock from the M-Audio and daisychained it to the two audients, then ran the M-Audio on internal all the time. Remember to take the termination out of the one in the middle. Better still get a good master clock... but that'd mean another 1U.

[Masaaki]

RME UFX, which allows 2 ADAT inputs, and Focusrite OctoPre x 2.
This way, you get 4 very good mic pres, and 8 line ins to UFX, and 16 decent mic pres from OctoPre going to ADATs. All can be recorded simultaneously to your computer (Mac or PC, doesn't matter), and front DUREC.

I've been extremely happy with my UFX for "portable" recording setup (with M-Audio Profire 2626, Octane as ADAT feeds). It's not really "mobile" though....4U rack is heavy...

[Highphi]

Setting up a similar rig. Will let you know how it goes as soon as I get it going!