cameron_k wrote on Thu, 24 September 2009 20:38 |
Hey Halfway, I've been tweaking the 002 for years, trying to wring every last bit of sonic goodness out of the thing. My current setup is built around external A>D and D>A. It sounds great, allowing me to produce pro quality recordings. If I were in your situation (assuming you need 8 channels of mic pres and A>D conversion), I'd get an 8 channel mic pre unit (the JLM Audio TMP8 is hard to beat for the dough) AND.... wait for it..... a Behringer ADA8000 converter. Wait - hear me out! The Behringer unit uses Alesis converter chips. These units are in use in pro studios around the world, and for good reason. They sound good, and they're cheap. A group of buffs over at Prodigy Pro investigated whether the ADA8000 could be improved by circuit redesign, component swaps etc. They eventually decided that there was no point messing with it at all as it works just fine out of the box. You could get more spendy and go for an Apogee or similar converter, but in the hands of a decent engineer an ADA8000 is capable of producing pro results. Don't forget that ADAT restricts you to a maximum sample rate of 48k though. |
Halfway Competent wrote on Sat, 26 September 2009 00:15 | ||
Hey Cameron, I hadn't heard of the JLM unit. Hey, another contender! I wasn't aware that Alesis even made their own A/D/A chips. You say that the ADA8000 "in the hands of a decent engineer" sounds pro... Thing is, I'm tired of having to compensate for my gear. I did a pretty decent sounding recording thru the Mackie Onyx board, as I mentioned, going through the 002's A/D... Would you say the Behringer A/D is at least as good? I recognize the limitations of the ADAT format. I'm hoping that in future LE products, Digi includes at least S/MUX over optical. I know, wish in one hand... Hah. All the same, I need it if I want to record, say, a live show, or more than 10 simultaneous mics. You know, in my statement of "I'm tired of having to compensate for my gear" it sounds like I've pretty much presented an argument to stop compromising with the likes of the Mackie or Presonus units. |
craig boychuk wrote on Sun, 18 October 2009 15:50 |
I'll second the ADA8000 vote. I would normally never use behringer gear, but ended up with one when a rental fell through... I was very surprised at how not bad it was. ha ha. Nothing stellar, but very usable. |
mdbeh wrote on Tue, 10 November 2009 11:53 |
...That's to be expected, but on places like g***s**** you'll read that it's essentially a high-end converter for 1/10 the price, and that's not what I heard at all. |