Sorry if this has been discussed before... but I've been away from the industry for a while and am slowly reemerging from the grind of family/mortgage/more stable career. I'm now in the process of building a small studio, catering to local (Toronto) indy musicians. It will most certainly be a non-profit venture so I'm keen to manage cost's where feasible.
My last set up was a portable rig using a Focusrite ISA 428 with the 8 ch AD card and an API 3124+ running into a Digi 002 via ADAT (basically a useless protools dongle). I sold the 3124+ a while back, but I've still got the 428 with the AD card (the 002 will be tossed soon). That being said, I'm in the process of building out 12 channels of good mic pre's from Seventh Circle Audio to go with my 428. My goal is to have 16 channels of mic pre's and 24 channels of AD in total. So here is my question... what converters/computer interface should I consider, given that I'd like to avoid breaking the bank. Has anyone tried the new MOTU 16A? Are used Apogee 16x converters still considered decent? Is worthwhile to also use the converters in the 428 (they've always sounded decent to my ears).
Thanks for any feedback and sorry for the long post.