Latest A/D Recommendation?
 

I’ve got an HD Accel system that I’m running in my home studio. I recently started renting a grand piano that I have setup in my dining room. I mic’ed up the piano going into my 192 I/O interface and it sounds as good as I could have hoped for. However because the piano is not in close proximity to my workstation, it’s a little inconvenient running between rooms to record when I’m by myself.

It just so happens that I also have a Digi 003 that I’ve had laying around for years and never used it as well as a MacBook Pro that I recently bought for personal use (I have a separate tower for my studio). So I thought why not hook up the Digi 003 and have a recording setup right at the piano? It sounded like a good idea but when I did a test run, the audio quality is substantially less than running through my 192 I/O but I guess I should have seen that coming.

So my question to the group is if there is an alternative A/D out there I can run PT 10.3 on a MacBook Pro that is comparable in sound to a 192 I/O and not too hard on the wallet? Thanks in advance!

Re: Latest A/D Recommendation?
 

If you are looking for something in a similar price range than the 003 and as you are on Mac
I definitely can recommend the Apogee Quartet (having one myself).
There ain´t anything better sounding up to much higher costs. It doesn´t offer
a lot of features and stuff indeed and only 4 mic pres, but the sound quality is really exceptional.

Me also had a 003R before and I was impressed by the step upwards sound quality-wise.
As it got connected via USB it is easy to use with any computer anyway (neither FW needed nor Thunderbolt).
On the other hand it´s made to record with 64 samples (or less) without any problems.

Finally it´s very straight forward and convenient to use.

You see, I obviously love that piece of gear ;).
Can´t say anything bad about it actually.

All the best to you,

VRW


MacMini i7Quad, 16GB Ram, MBP Mid 2012 2,5GHz i5, 16GB Ram, MacOS 10.9.2, Apogee Quartet+Duet 2, Genelec Active, Yamaha NS10,
Pro Tools 11.1.2, Logic 10.0.6, Waves, MCDSP, Duende Native, Softube, HOFA, IK Multimedia etc

Re: Latest A/D Recommendation?
 

Hey man sorry for the delayed response! I never got an indicator from DUC that anyone replied and I don't come here often so I thought this was a dead-thread. But thanks for the info. I'll definitely check out the Apogee (never heard anything bad about Apogee products). However since I posted this I learned that Waves is now in the interface game as well with their new SoundGrid/DiGiGrid system. The Waves setup is quite intriguing because it's ethernet based and they also have integrated mic pre's so I could literally have one of their boxes at my piano and/or in another part of the house (say I want to convert a bedroom into a vocal booth for example) and all I'd have to do is run a CAT5 cable from their device through (under) the house to my DAW. That is very tantalizing proposition although I haven't heard any feedback on the A/D audio quality.

Plus Waves has already got me roped in since I bought Mercury Native with hopes of upgrading to TDM at some point but they're no longer supporting TDM and instead I 'have' to now invest in the SoundGrid system if I want to offload my plugin processing. The old bait-n-switch LoL

Thanks again!

Re: Latest A/D Recommendation?
 

I'd use the laptop to control the HD rig with screen sharing
Have you looked at the price tag of the SG/DG system?

Re: Latest A/D Recommendation?
 

Also Neyrinck V-Control, in case you've got an iPad.

https://neyrinck.com/products/v-control-pro/

spooky action at a distance

Re: Latest A/D Recommendation?
 

As far as video monitoring, I actually did the reverse. I ran a long monitor cable from my tower and set up a screen next to the piano and my wireless mouse was still in range so that worked out well. If there's an I/O that can be manipulated from my desktop that would be great. I have contemplated getting a PRE then at least I'd just have the one snake going across the room to my 192 so I haven't ruled that out as of yet but what I'm really hoping for is an I/O A/D combination then I could go digital to my 192 and not have any signal loss.

And yes the Waves HW is pretty pricey but hey, I pray at the alter of St. Ebay, LOL.

Thanks again for all the great tips!

Re: Latest A/D Recommendation?
 

the PRE is a good utility mic pre but not for what you want
I'd look at a 500 module lunch-box that holds 4 to 8 modules and load with what you want tone wise for pres and compressors then run the line level back to the 192

Re: Latest A/D Recommendation?
 

I hadn't considered a lunchbox option but I'll definitely check it out. Since I originally posted this thread last year, I have contemplated various solutions and now I'm leaning towards looking for an A/D that I can run across the room verses the I/Os. If the A/D had great sounding I/O's even the better. As far as preamps that I'm already leaning towards, I have a couple of FMR RNP's that I love and FMR came out with 500 series versions of their compressors so I'm hoping that a 500 series RNP is around corner.

I'll definitely look into it. Thanks!