Audio Interface selection...

[Lord Lurion]

Hi guys! First post here!

I'm afraid I have a very nooby question for you that has probably been asked docens of times before, but I could not seem to find a search tool on the forum, so...

Here goes: I'm planing on slowly building a small home studio for the recording of demos and small projects. I have a decent computer (athlon 2600+, 1gig RAM and going for 2 gigs, 160 gigs HD) and am now looking into a nice but cheapish audio interface and pre. I was thinking of the M-audio delta 1010 and the focusrite octopre LE. How's that for starters? Any opinions or sugestions?

Thanks a million in advance!

Oscar.

 

[Bob Savage]

In the lower price range, I think the E-MU 1820m is a good bargain, and it's got two useable mic pre's too.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

I think you're on the right track for sure but the Behringer ada8000 costs less than half what the focusrite octopre LE does and yields solid results. BTW behringer owes me for how many plugs i've been giving this thing!

 

[Awake_In_Animosity]

Its one of the only good things they make

 

[Hopkins-WitchfinderGeneral]

if you go for the focusrite and the m-audio i doubt you'll be dissapointed

 

[Lord Lurion]

Thanks for the answers guys! I'm checking the e-mu right now and it looks tight! Plus it has adat I/O (you have to buy that separately for the m-audio). About Behringer, i've alwais been weary of them. My band bought the virtualaizer to use on vocals and we ended up nick-naming it the "noise-alizer" because of the unbearable hiss it produced. I'm also able to spend the money on the focusrite, but I dunno, if you say that that behringer pre is worth it, I might as well give it a try...

On other terms, what are your feelings about fostex monitors? are thy any good? I can get a couple for pretty cheap but I dunno...

 

[Fyhed]

Motu 828 mrk 2 is a nice audio and midi interface

 

[unsilpauly]

Motu 828 mrk 2 is a nice audio and midi interface

yep, its really good. that with a octapre or a digimax or a mackie onyx or even the behringer for that matter would all be super good.

 

[Radd]

Motu 828 mrk 2 is a nice audio and midi interface

Newbie questions...
Are mrk 2 and mk 2 the same thing? Either way, does anyone want to post a clip? While I'm at it, what makes firewire better than a PCI card?

 

[Impy]

Newbie questions...
Are mrk 2 and mk 2 the same thing? Either way, does anyone want to post a clip? While I'm at it, what makes firewire better than a PCI card?

Same thing..

I wouldn't say that a firewire interface is better per say, but it's a lot more portable and so on.

 

[Radd]

Same thing..

I wouldn't say that a firewire interface is better per say, but it's a lot more portable and so on.

Ok, that's cool. I thought maybe firewire provided better sound quality and/or less latency issues.

 

[Lord Lurion]

Thanks for all the response guys! I'm getting very usefull ideas. Cool forum!

 

[Glenn Fricker]

One thing you have to consider is the drivers..... How stable are they?

General rule of thumb, if you're recording onto a PC, go with RME, as thier drivers are rock solid.

 

[Exsanguis]

Very true. RME's stuff not only works really well, it sounds absolutely fantastic in comparison with the other stuff available in their price range. Highly recommended.

 

[EtherForBreakfast]

What is your budget?

 

[_RiseInside_]

rme fan here

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Yeah, RME is very very good, I agree as well, but maybe a bit expensive and high-end if you're just wanting to start with audio recording.

 

[Lord Lurion]

What is your budget?

About 1000€ for both the audio interface and the pre, but having some doh left over would be nice. Been looking into rme... It's a bit pricey! Ad motu is very expensive too...

 

[unsilpauly]

About 1000€ for both the audio interface and the pre, but having some doh left over would be nice. Been looking into rme... It's a bit pricey! Ad motu is very expensive too...

that stuff is cheap considering what you get. youll figure it out after you get some gear. you get what you pay for with audio gear. so the way to go is to look for the best deals you can on the gear that is worth getting. for everything the motu 828 does at 750.00usd it is dirt cheap. the more you spend, the better converters you get, and that is super important. do some more research. itll help you spend your money more wisely.

 

[~BURNY~]

In my opinion, the M-audio/focusrite solution is a good choice to start with. I used the 1010 several years ago, and the result was pretty good. Ok, it's not the newest top notch akm converteters generation, but it works nicely, it's pretty stable.
Another option would be the presonus firepod (I own it myself). 8 (really) nice preamps in the box, solid converters. I'm more than happy with it. And it's damn cheap for what it is.