Reccomend A Control Surface?

guitarguru777

guitarguru777

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Nov 13, 2003
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Well, my friend as stated in the other thread is building a studio. We have a long discussion yesterday and he has decided to go with Logic for his DAW. its his personal preference and hes been using it for years. In addition we have decided to go with two Saffire Pro 40s for interfaces. He is adamnat about having a mixer / control surface for the system. I told him the mixer is pointless and he has agreed we can go with just a control surface.

Can any of you guys reccomend a good one that runs via USB / Firewire even MIDI online would be fine. But we are trying to keep cost down as we would rather invest in the big dollars in things like Monitors, Interfaces, Mics, Waves and some outboard compressors.

Hes looking at spending about 8 to 10k after construction.

Right now on the books we have planned to set aside cash for:
2 Saffire Pro 40s - $1000
1 Presonus Studio Channel Tube - $300 (trying to talk him into an AVALON)
2 Decent OH's - $600
4 Senheiser 421's - $1200
1 Audix D6 - $200
1 Sure Beta 52 - $200
2 SM 57s - $200
2 KRK Rocit 8's - $1000
Waves + CLA - $2500
Slate Trigger Platinum - $300
Pod Farm Platinum - $250

So that's $7750 basically spent. So we are looking for something in the 800 to 1k range if we don't upgrade the Presonus to an Avalon
 
Korg NanoKontrol? It´s pretty cheap.

NANOKONTROL.JPG
 
Trevoire520 said:
Um, the Behringer BCF2000 Has Faders AND Knobs.

To be honest, for £100 it's awesome. Only negative points are that they're not touch sensitive and there's no LED scribble strip. Nice and cheap though.
Click to expand...

+1 to this. I have one and I like it a lot. I use it to control my MOTU mixer when tracking, then switch it to Cubase for Mixing. In Mackie Emulation mode it works really well. The newer ones are much quieter and faster responding than the older ones BTW.

You can also put two together linked via MIDI which gives you room for expansion.

If you search for BCView or something like that, it will make up for the lack of scribble strip. It essentially monitors the MIDI port and puts it on your screen that you can anchor.

I do wish strip was on the mixer itself, but I am certainly not willing to spend the $$. But the Mackie ones are 10x the price (got my BCF2000 for $129 new, GC bro discount).
 
And tbh, I'd change a LOT about that list. Get a better interface - it's the core of your system. Something with killer A/D and driver stability. The Focusrite is good, but not great by any means. I'd go with a FF800 + Audient ASP008 for interface/preamps, and then add some SCA preamps for nice channels. Then you've got however many SCA's for really nice, character-based pres, 8 pristine pres from the audient, and 4 alright pres for triggers or room mics or something from the FF800.

Instead of all those MD421's, pick up one of the Audix drum mic packs, like the DP7 - gives you a solid pair of SDC's for ride/hats or even a secondary overhead set, as well as the i5/D2/D4/D6 set that will be super versatile. Add a 57, an SM7b, and an LDC, and you're pretty much set.
 
radikal_SAC_2K_main.jpg

Radial Tec SAC-2K

the faders go sooooo smooth..
i had 2 (old, not the new ones) mackie control previously in my studio.. both felt cheap compared to the SAC-2K, so i have returned the mackie controls.

if you are on mac, you should check out the EUPHONIX stuff.. they should be amazing.
the big plus on that is that they are very small..
what i dislike of the mackie control is, that its huge!!! and when you have it in front of you.. your monitor-screen quite far away..
the SAC is not so big as the mackie control, see this pic of my actual setup..so for me it works to have the keyboard, then the controller, and then the computer screen.
SAC.jpg


the mackie control is about as big as the mackie onyx on the left side
 
JeffTD said:
Instead of all those MD421's, pick up one of the Audix drum mic packs, like the DP7 - gives you a solid pair of SDC's for ride/hats or even a secondary overhead set, as well as the i5/D2/D4/D6 set that will be super versatile. Add a 57, an SM7b, and an LDC, and you're pretty much set.
Click to expand...

To be honest I find myself agreeing with this. MD421's are bloody expensive. Something like a Audix I5 or a Sennheiser E609/906 will do as tom mic's for alot less money, and leave you money for something else.
 
JeffTD said:
And tbh, I'd change a LOT about that list. Get a better interface - it's the core of your system. Something with killer A/D and driver stability. The Focusrite is good, but not great by any means. I'd go with a FF800 + Audient ASP008 for interface/preamps, and then add some SCA preamps for nice channels. Then you've got however many SCA's for really nice, character-based pres, 8 pristine pres from the audient, and 4 alright pres for triggers or room mics or something from the FF800.

Instead of all those MD421's, pick up one of the Audix drum mic packs, like the DP7 - gives you a solid pair of SDC's for ride/hats or even a secondary overhead set, as well as the i5/D2/D4/D6 set that will be super versatile. Add a 57, an SM7b, and an LDC, and you're pretty much set.
Click to expand...

I hear ya, but its tough to convince him that the FF800 is a better way to go when the Focusrite is double the channels for a third the price. Hell he wanted to go M-Audio and it took me forever and a day to convince him the pres and routing of the Saffire were better. As for the drum mics hes not an audix fan. He was endorsed by them at one point and never liked anything but the D6 on the kick. He loves the way his toms sound with the 421's. Hes a drummer so everything is about him getting a quality drum sound. Hes also straight out the 80s so alot of the tones he likes fits into that "Hair Band" kinda thing. BTW this is the guy with the 14x12 snare I was telling you all about ...lol

This is also just really a project studio for him, and not so much a lets produce / mix / record bands and do it for a living thing. So convincing him to go with anything beyond "project studio" level equipment is tough. I totally hear what you are saying though.
 
guitarguru777 said:
...
Right now on the books we have planned to set aside cash for:
2 Saffire Pro 40s - $1000
1 Presonus Studio Channel Tube - $300 (trying to talk him into an AVALON)
2 Decent OH's - $600
4 Senheiser 421's - $1200
1 Audix D6 - $200
1 Sure Beta 52 - $200
2 SM 57s - $200
2 KRK Rocit 8's - $1000
Waves + CLA - $2500
Slate Trigger Platinum - $300
Pod Farm Platinum - $250
Click to expand...

I would REALY REALY think about this equipment list!!!!

I would say kick the saffire out (for what its worth they are middle class) and buy a fireface800 or even better a Metric Halo 2882.
You wont need 421´s at the start. Go with sm57 and maybe 3 e604 or stuff like that.
What Waves plugins are you thinking about?
CLA is great but make sure you REALY need any of the diomand, platinum bundles. ?!?!

It is just a lot of cash you guys will put on the table so dont buy stuff you will trade for something better the next year.

I learned my lesson and lost some real $.$$$ money.
A stable and future-proof interface is the central station and should have quality converters (thats why metric halo 2882 or fireface 800)
421 are great mics but overpriced. You can get amazing results with sm57´s and dont look cheap by using them.

cheers
 
i think my fave part about this thread right now is I told him the exact same things you guys are about the 421's a week ago, and he refuses to not buy them ....lol

As for the interfaces I would love to go with the FF800 but unfortunately its not my studio, nor is it my money. I even tried talking him out of the KRK's and going with something better but he says he likes the way the KRK's sound in my studio.

Believe me if this 10k was mine there would be some major changes. My dream list is totally different ...lol (somehow I would find a used Cranesong for $5k...lol Ya in my dreams)

My Dream list:
1x FF800
2x ASP008
1x NS-10s
1x Adams Monitors

Add to that some really nice outboard comps / limiters, and I would be really happy. But like I said its not my cash :(
 
Ok I see, funny enough I posted before reading Jeffs post, and we both say mostly the same.

Guitarguru check out the metric halo 2882.
This isnt just an interface, it is religion (if you take a look at gearslutz:lol:)
 
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