Focusrite Octopre

[Ole Vangsgaard]

Hello, everyone

I need to record a childrens choir for an upcoming album. I have recorded children before and found compressors/limiters to be very useful (A MUST) in the process.

I would like to record as many channels at a time as possible (8/16) and got a nice offer on a Focusrite Octopre (Not LE) which look like the gadget that could solve the problem...

Is it any good ?

Does anybody have other good suggestions/alternatives - 8 or 16 Avalon VT-737SP's are not in the budget right now, sorry.

Love to hear your opinions

OV

[gerax]

I have an Octopre with the ADAT card. Nice clean and useful preamps, obviously not in the league of API or Neve, but for basic tracking needs they work fine. The Comp/limiters aren't to rave about, but they can be useful to cover your butt from overs in some situations.
For the price is a good deal. The alternative could be the Presonus Digimax but I haven't tried it so I cannot comment, though from the reviews I red they are very similar in sound and features (but the Presonus costs a little more).

Here's a sample of something I recorded with the Octopre in my mobile rig (later edited and mixed in Pro Tools)

Baroque

Hope this helps

L.G.

[jjhuntfox]

Cool recording Gerax.

I have an Octopre and Gerax hit it just right.

It also has a better clock than the 001.

Go for it.

[gerax]

Thanx

I think that for that kind of recordings, where you don't need too much "color" in the preamp, the Octopre works nicely, in fact I had the sounds I wanted with very little effort and just a minimum of mic pointing.

L.G.

[JPS]

I picked up up an Octapre w/adat conversion and I have been satisfied with the purchase. I used it in a band demo. I was looking for decent preamps and limiting/compression. My thought were to use it with mobile recording, and if I didn't have the features in my initial purchase, it could be costly to get it later for 8 channels.

The Octapre compression/limiting works in this way: you have one pot that performs both functions. If "off", both compression and limiting are disabled. If turned "on" to the lowest possition, then "limiting" is engaged, but you get almost no compression. The more you turn the dial, the more compression you get. You are not able to "compress" without the limiting function engaged.

I have a question for other Octapre owners, which I have been wondering about. How do you get the Octapre to clock to a SPDIF device when using them with a 002r. I ask because I am looking to add two high quality SPDIF pre and conversion channels and occasionally I might like to use the Octapre and have it clock to SPDIF. I am considering a Lunatec V3, or if I win the lottery, a Trak2. I'm even thinking a Rosetta 200, then just get a separate preamp. So, if I go this route, will I be able to get everything to work together with the better SPDIF clock?

[jjhuntfox]

Hijack: Gerax, what mics did you use for that recording? Placement? How many?

JPS,

You will need a word clock, something like the Big Ben or a Lucid Clock, there are many out there. I'm in the same boat. I have the Ocotpre and a Lucid AD9624. Cant use them at the same time because I have no master clock. PT will clock to one or the other and nothing I have generates word clock out. So I'm looking at the Big Ben. They are about $1200. Lucids are a bit less. Clocks can have a huge impact on how things sound, especially how the high end sounds.

This is part of the reason I sarted the "Sensible Petition" post that caught fire and fell off the board.

[gerax]

jjhuntfox

If I remember well (the recording is more than one year ago) I used a main ORTF stereo pair for the whole ensemble (Rode NT5), then I used a single AKG414 B-ULS on the piano (hypercardioid pattern, half stick, no blankets), AKG D112 on the kick drum, a single OH on the kit (AT3035), AT 3035 on the double bass (pointing at the righthand f hole facing the instrument), Blue Baby Bottle on the cello (in front of the instrument, 1' back slightly angled). Placement was a little tricky beacuse the players were packed fairly close (that's why I used a single 414 on piano instead of my usual 2, or my AT4040 pair), but since we recorded in a really good sounding theater I had the back of the hall fairly live, while the stage was dampened by curtains and that gave me minimal bleeding and a really focused picture of the players just in the main stereo pair, which was used quite high in the mix with spot mics used to highlight passages or solos where needed.
Three takes for each song and we were done, those players are monsters, recorded with my mobile rig (Mackie SDR2496 and a few other things for monitoring ) and I later assembled and mixed in Pro Tools (back then it was a 001).

Glad you liked it, I think it sounds good too.

Second your opinion on clocking, definitely use a master Word Clock generator when using more than two digital devices in the same chain, makes a big difference; the Octopre has WC in to be slaved to an external generator, and I guess that would make the AD sound better (though it's not bad), I'm about to get an ISA428 with digital card and I'll set that as my WC master for the whole mobile rig, I think it will improve the quality quite a bit.

L.G.

[jjhuntfox]

I've done a bunch of listening with a few different clocks: The internal 001, Octopre and the Lucid AD9624. There is a big difference between the 001 and the others. One of the sessions I listened to was the What Is Me session that we all got a year or so ago. Amazing difference in the high end specifically in drums / cymbals. The Octopre and the Lucid, I dunno, seem about the same to me, clock wise and converter wise.... It is hard to objectively test a converter. Unless someone has an idea??? Buhler?? Buhler? Ferris Buhler??

Gerax,

I just got a AKG414BXLS. Great mic. Didn't get to compare it with the ULS, I think that is an older model right? Wanted to compare it with the 414XLII but GC didn't have one. The hypercardiod pattern on that mic is great.

[macr0w]

I have a question for other Octapre owners, which I have been wondering about. How do you get the Octapre to clock to a SPDIF device when using them with a 002r. I ask because I am looking to add two high quality SPDIF pre and conversion channels and occasionally I might like to use the Octapre and have it clock to SPDIF. I am considering a Lunatec V3, or if I win the lottery, a Trak2. I'm even thinking a Rosetta 200, then just get a separate preamp. So, if I go this route, will I be able to get everything to work together with the better SPDIF clock?

If I'm not mistaken adat needs to be the master clock. I use my presonus digimax 96 for drumset and my lexicon mpx550 for an fx loop every day. The presonus is the clock source and the lexi lines up perfectly. I believe the digimax has a much better clock than the octapre. just my 2 cents.

[JPS]

j/x,

I was afraid that I would need a clock. The good news is that PrimalGear has the Lucid Genx6 for $465. I was surprized at your statement that the Lucid 9624 and Octopre were close on conversion. I was looking for some specs on the Octopre converter a while back and was not able to find any. I even emailed Focusrite and got no response. Maybe, there are specs out there somewhere, but I couldn't find them. On the other hand, Focusrite advertizes the digial card for there ISA pre has like 120 dBa sound-to-noise ratio. BTW, I liked all your suggestions in your "Sensible Petition", especially the quick bounce.

Gerax,

your recording was very good. If that's Baroque music, it's Baroque with an attitude! The ISA 428 looks nice and to get 4 Neve preamps for that price looks pretty economical. Based on the specs of the digital card for the 428, you should be getting much superior clocking, but it sounds like you will not be able to use the Octopre with the 428 on the same system. You would still need a Word clock, it seems.

Octopre fan- I do have one little gripe about the Octopre, the fan. When I turn on the unit, the fan noise is acceptable low, but as it warms up, the fan noise seems to increase. It is very noticable to me.