recommend me a firewire interface

[Fragle]

hey there,

i'm going to get a firewire interface soon (using a cheap m-audio 2496 pci card as of right now), and any input from you guys here would be greatly appreciated!
i'm mainly getting this to have more I/O options for reamping and the likes, plus also the ad/da converter quality.
regarding the preamps, well....basically, i don't really need more than 2 or so.
however, i'm thinking that if i'll spend that kind of money on a piece of gear, i might as well get something that i could use for recording drums, without having to upgrade again. i'll have to add though that this isn't exactly likely to happen - there's no way i can record drums in my house, the only possiblility would be our rehearsal space, but that's just a thought and nothing more really.

anyways, i'd like to have a piece of gear that i can do some serious recording with (no professional work though, just decent quality home recording) without having to upgrade again in a few years.
unfortunately, i'm a cheap bastard, my pricerange is only around 500euro, going used is fine though.

right now i'm mainly considering the m-audio profire 610 (maybe also the 2626, although i don't NEED the extra preamps as of right now), but i'm open to other suggestions of course.
the RME fireface would be way cool obviously, but unfortunately it's just out of my pricerange.
regarding the extra preamps, i'm thinking that a smaller interface with good converters but few preamps at whatever quality, plus an adat/spdif/whatever capability so that i could hook up some quality pre's later on might also be a reasonable alternative?

btw, i also have studio projects vtb1 preamp; any info on how the interface's preamps will compare to that one would be great too.

sorry, kind of newbish post maybe, but i have zero experience with interfaces so far...basically, i definitely want to step up and be able to forget about that part of my rig for the next few years, so to speak.

 

[drew_drummer]

m-Audio Profire 2626. Mine is awesome.

 

[oscillat0r]

Echo Audio Audiofire 8. Awesome converters, has a pair of preamps, and SPDIF in addition to 8 analog i/o.

rock solid drivers and way better sound quality than anything short of an RME imo

j

 

[drew_drummer]

Echo Audio Audiofire 8. Awesome converters, has a pair of preamps, and SPDIF in addition to 8 analog i/o.

rock solid drivers and way better sound quality than anything short of an RME imo

j

Profire has more pre's, that are just as good (and reportedly rival RME quality, although I don't know how true that is) as the Echo's for sure. I used to have an Echo Layla, and I found the gain knobs to not be sensitive enough.

 

[oscillat0r]

Profire has more pre's, that are just as good (and reportedly rival RME quality, although I don't know how true that is) as the Echo's for sure. I used to have an Echo Layla, and I found the gain knobs to not be sensitive enough.

To be fair, I never used the pres much but found them seviceable when I did. The converters are the aspect of the sound that I'm basing my recomendation on. . If you need a ton of pres get something with adat on it so you can expand/add on later w/o replacing your soundcard. No soundcard pre's can compete with the range and quality of dedicated pres on the market

 

[beyond dead]

profire pwns in its price range... Im thuper serial!

 

[Metaltastic]

Well if you don't feel the need for too many preamps, the converters in the TC Electronic Konnekt 24D are superior to the Profire's and it has ADAT i/o, so it's a good option for future expandability! The only problem is it's had some reliability issues, but if you can find a place to buy from like Sweetwater.com that gives you a good warranty (Sweetwater gives you 2-years no questions asked replacement), it'd be my vote! (and will be what I buy when I get the money )

 

[drew_drummer]

To be fair, I never used the pres much but found them seviceable when I did. The converters are the aspect of the sound that I'm basing my recomendation on. . If you need a ton of pres get something with adat on it so you can expand/add on later w/o replacing your soundcard. No soundcard pre's can compete with the range and quality of dedicated pres on the market

Of course they can't. But when you're just recording your own band or something, and don't have much money, 8 preamps of whatever quality are very useful. We're kinda spoilt for quality these days.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Profire 2626. Solid quality, 2xADAT I/O, 8 good pres and excellent converters.

 

[beyond dead]

Of course they can't. But when you're just recording your own band or something, and don't have much money, 8 preamps of whatever quality are very useful. We're kinda spoilt for quality these days.

I agree.

 

[Fragle]

so getting the profire indeed seems to be a reasonable purchase?
well, would you recommend the 2626 over the 610?
afaik the pre's and converters are exactly the same, the 2626 has 8 pre's and adat though - which i don't need as of right now, mind you....i'm just curious whether going the 610 route will bite me in the ass sooner or later, based on your experience?

btw, how do the profire Pre's compare to the studio projects vtb1?
i'm mainly asking because the vtb1 has an insert, the profire does not....i'm thinking that if i also got something like the RNC compressor to track vocals through i'd have to use the vtb1 pre instead of the profire ones, which would suck if the quality of the profire is much superior to the vtb1.

btw, thank you guys so far!

 

[AdamWathan]

Maybe I'm way off the mark but my understanding with an outboard compressor was the chain went mic>compressor>preamp... Shouldn't have any problems using it with the Profire I'd imagine...? Worst case scenario, you can route one of the preamps in the Profire to one of it's outputs and plug that output into another preamp and stick the compressor in between.

 

[oscillat0r]

i respectfully yield to the might of the m-audio posse!

 

[Joematthews]

Maybe I'm way off the mark but my understanding with an outboard compressor was the chain went mic>compressor>preamp...

Nope, it goes mic ---> pre ----> compressor... Why you would need an insert on a stand alone pre is beyond me though .

Joe

 

[beyond dead]

Nope, it goes mic ---> pre ----> compressor... Why you would need an insert on a stand alone pre is beyond me though .

Joe

so that your compression can come after the preamp stage silly

but... if you compress on the way in, the damage is done PERMANENTLY!

OP: if you can afford it, go for 2626 so you can expand later. I bought an mbox2pro because I figured I didnt need all the inputs. I ended up with a firepod a month later