Question re connections

[eekamouse1967]

I have two 1394 firewire Motu 8Pre's and I want to add a 1394 Motu 828 to be able to use outboard gear. At this point I really only need one 8Pre. My questions is should I be connecting the 8pre and 828 via optical cable or firewire cable?

Thanks

[albee1952]

Probably I would use the ADAT connection, but I also question the need for hardware inserts(IOW, have you really thought it thru?) Here's my reasoning (which I'm sure many will disagree with): In my commercial studio in Nashville, I was not using an analog console and was set up to handle 32 IO, which was plenty for recording 5-6 piece bands. I spent a lot of money on some nice outboard gear(various mic pre's, Pultec's, LA2A,s, tube comps, etc) and tracked thru it every day. I then dropped some decent money on more IO, patchbay and cabling so I could do 8 hardware inserts. After I got it all wired and fully tested, over the next year or so, I used it exactly once I have nothing against it, but just didn't feel there was a net improvement in my mixes over staying in the box, and it eliminated any latency issues with the round trip out and back. Just some food for thought

[eekamouse1967]

Well come to think of it no I guess I hadn't thought it through that much.

I realize now that I see all this old gear I have had sitting around for years and I felt the need to make it available but you are right I probably will barely use it. Thanks for saving me a lot of headaches