Doing a Studio Upgrade, Need Some Advise

[HatchetDrummer]

Well to give you a little background, I have a project level studio at my bands rehearsal space, and have been recording our material and some stuff for other local bands for some time now. My band is getting picked up my a major record label and we have decided to take the cash and invest it in more gear and record our album our selfs as opposed to going to a studio, I know you may think I am crazy, but I have no confidence in any studio in our price range that can actually deliver a album that sounds like we sound, I don't know how many of you listen to bay area thrash but we are going for something like Oppressing The Masses, or Impact is Imminent, that might make sense to some.

My budget is around $2000 to spend on some type of an interface setup.
Here is what I have come up with so far to add to what I already have:
Firestudio connected to a Digimax FS. That gives me 16pre's and adat to connect up more for the future. Having something with analog in's would be nice to.

I was also looking at getting a Halo 2882, I've heard a lot of good things about them, but its got only 4- pre's on it and I need at least 16. Plus I am can get a bundle price on the FireStudio and the Digimax for $1000.

I need it to be a FW interface and with at least 16pre's. I would like expandability to add more without having to totally retrofit my studio.

Does it seem like I am going in the right direction? If there are better choices out there for lower or slightly higher prices please by all means let me know.

Thanks for the help guys.

Dave

 

[colonel kurtz]

do you need the ability to do outboard processing, or are you mixing strictly ITB?

 

[Rob Logic]

RME ff800 plus mackie 800r if you can swing it. It's 12 preamps but it would be sweet if you could toss a little more change at it.

 

[HatchetDrummer]

Just INB, I have some outboard gear, but nothing thats nice enough to warrant needing that now.

I would love to go for a RME, but for the price and the ammount of pre's, I just dont think that I will work. My drum set alone uses 14 mics.

Any other suggestions are welcome, I just want to make sure that I am not going to regret the decision after.

Thanks
Dave

 

[Wolfeman]

I think the combo you mentioned would work great, but you could also go with the motu 8pre and the digimax......