How many inputs are do you guys have?

[luismars]

Only 8 at the moment enough to mic a standard drum kit

 

[crillemannen]

16/8

Crane Song spider 8ch. and a OCtopre Le.

Usually end up with 12-14mics on a drumkit.

Im gonna buy a SSL alphalink next year. So i can connect 16 preamps and 8 to my hardware inputs, so i wont have to buy a patchbay in the near future.

 

[DeclanWhite]

4 + an instrument input on rme 800

and 8 on digimax FS

 

[GeertSamuel]

What I use:
My motu cards allow me 48/32.

Actual mic pre:
- RME Ocatamic
- BLA Auteur
- Neve 1073 clone
- SM Pro Audio SM8
- API A2D

Gives me 22 inputs.
Got some minor outboard gear.

 

[drew_drummer]

When I did the drums for the next TNBD album, I had 16 inputs simultaneously. A 2626, and a Digi002 - I also used a ADL600, an SSL X-Logic channel pre, and a Focusrite 420.

 

[006]

Profire2626 and MOTU 8Pre here. 16 ins should be the bare minimum if you are trying to do drums, IMO.

 

[luismars]

Profire2626 and MOTU 8Pre here. 16 ins should be the bare minimum if you are trying to do drums, IMO.

1 Kick
2 Snare
3 Tom 1
4 Tom 2
5 Tom 3
6 OH L
7 OH R
8 Room

With 8 you can do things, but a few more comes handy.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

I track at other studios, but here's a run-down of the channels I usually need:

1. BD 1
2. BD 2
3. SN Top
4. SN Bottom
5. Tom 1
6. Tom 2
7. Tom 3
8. HH
9. Ride
10. OH L
11. OH R
12. Room L
13. Room R
14. Reference GTR (ctrl room)
15. Reference VOC (ctrl room)
16. TB (ctrl room)

Add another tom and five or six triggers, take into account that one of the channels/preamps is bound the bo shot and thats 24 minimum.

 

[aortizjr]

Typically I use no more than 22 or so. Even when doing full band live tracking. So I think 24 would be sufficient. 32 is nice just in case... ie...

I did this huge non-metal band with keyboards, acoustic guitars, timbales, congas, full drum kit with additional percussion, etc. Nearly maxed me out and I had to some rigging to get it all working.

So here is my max setup.

MOTU 828mk3
2 Mic/Guitar DI ins
8 analog line ins
2 SPDIF ins using my DBX Quantum as converters
8 ADAT with Digimax FS
8 ADAT with BLA modded ADA8000

So that is 30 typically. But the cool thing with MOTU is that you can slave additional units. So I was able to slave a really old 828.

8 ins (2 with pres) MOTU 828
in theory
2 SPDIF
8 ADAT

Now I think we may be taxing the firewire bus at this point. I definitely had to raise my buffers to even get this to run smoothly.

Even this band, we didn't "need" that many inputs, but they wanted to play live and be ready to switch instruments at any time. Definitely more of a "Commercial" studio expectation. I was surprised I was even able to handle it as a project studio. I was really surprised to have enough cables and mics (obviously not primo choices). We topped out at 36 simultaneous channels.

But hey, it ended up working. But definitely not typical, especially for a project studio. In my 7 years of recording, this was the first time I have very had to do that. Won't be the last unfortunately since the same band is coming back....

 

[digitaldeath]

Don't forget that you might also get instances where a band might want to record live in the studio. Plenty of inputs needed there!

 

[Mikaël-ange]

16 analog and 8 AES actually so strict minimum...

32 in/48 out analog and 16 AES I/O is standard.

So 3 192 with additionnal AD/DA card.

Of course when you work hybrid the right way (with a patchbay not like Ermin )

 

[Fredrik-Ablaze]

I've got 16 in 8 out through my Ramsa board into my RME soundcard; and then an additional 8 in/out with external preamps through an Alesis AI3.
The highest channelcount so far was when we recorded drums for the Egonaut album; 21 channels of kit plus DI's for guitar and bass simultaneously

 

[006]

1 Kick
2 Snare
3 Tom 1
4 Tom 2
5 Tom 3
6 OH L
7 OH R
8 Room

With 8 you can do things, but a few more comes handy.

Right, like I said in my opinion, 16 should be the minimum. Of course you can do it with 8. You can do Glynn Johns and do two... but no serious facility has only 8 ins, which was what this thread is about. I track drums all the time, I'd kill myself if I only had 8 inputs.

 

[jangoux]

The place I work on has 26 inputs, but 8 of them are reserved for outboard...so 18 in. I NEVER used them all. The most I used was 16 IIRC.

 

[starclassic63]

34 in, 20 out,
(lynx aurora, apogee ad16, UA 2192, Cranesong avocet)

will regularly use up to 26 or more at once doing full live band tracking..

 

[luismars]

Right, like I said in my opinion, 16 should be the minimum. Of course you can do it with 8. You can do Glynn Johns and do two... but no serious facility has only 8 ins, which was what this thread is about. I track drums all the time, I'd kill myself if I only had 8 inputs.

You are right, the minimum for a serious studio must be 16 or even 24.
What I said is that the minimum inputs for recording only drums, placing a mic for almost everything is 8 (my case), yes you can place more mics, but I understand that the minimum for have control in almost everything is that. And also you must have more if you want to record a band live like others said before.

 

[gabriel g.]

I have 18 inputs (16 preamps and 2 inputs for the SSL comp)
and 18 outputs

Metric halo preamps, audient, and octopres

only using monitor outs, headphone outs, reamp out and stereo out (SSL comp) so 7 outputs are used.

I am more into stereo micing for OH and cymbals in general so I never ran out of channels.....

its like this:

1. kick 602
2. kick d6
3. snare top i5
4. snare bottom sm57
5. tom1 604
6. tom2 604
7. tom3 604
8. china spot
9. hats spot
10. ride spot
11. OH L
12. OH R
13. ROOM L
14. ROOM R
15. pilot guitar
16. ?