your thoughts on good external pres for more channels within PTLE?

[bluesguy]

Hey guys I have gotten a lot of input and was just curius on what you guys do and use and what you think of your results. Obviously 4 channels is a joke when trying to record drums where you have two mics on a snare, kick mic, 3 tom mics, 2 overheads, and 2 room mics alone to capture the drums. So I am going to buy something and have heard that the Mackie Onyx 800R is the way to go for your money and can't be beat which would give you 12 channels live input counting the protools le channels.

I have several mics already including an mxl v69, sm 57's a good mxlpencil condenser, and a really good kick drum mic. along with Pro Tools LE8.0 I figure ill invest in a couple MXL 414s for vocals and overhead drums, a few more decent 58s for toms ect. And go from there. Anyway any thoughts of yours would be greatly appreciated before I go spending a bunch of money!! lol.

[nst7]

The 800R was discontinued. I believe it's been replaced by the much cheaper Onyx Blackbird:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Blackbird

I don't know what the quality's like.

In this price range you can also look at the Presonus Digimax FS, or the Focusrite Octopre Mk II.

Note these are combination preamps and converters, which is a good value. If you go with separate converters and preamps, the options get much more expensive, but potentially higher quality.

[albee1952]

I run the Presonus D8 and like it plenty. I had the Presonus FireStudio before and notice no real sonic difference(the F.S. had outputs while the D8 is inputs only). I've heard great things about the old Onyx 800r and the new Blackbird certainly looks interesting. If you're really on a budget(and it looks like you are) the Behringer ADA8000 is the bargain of the day at $199. Then you need to improve your mic locker a bit. What is an MXL 414?(never seen that model). I can tell you the MXL V89 and V69 are both solid vocal mics. And 58's on toms?! Not a great pairing IMHO. Shure SM57 is a little better but Sennheiser e604 or Audix D2/D4 would probably do a much better job for only a little more cash. If you can find an A-T 3031, its the best hat mic ever(except for a KM84 that neither of us can afford). I use MXL 2001's for overheads and they work fine. Cascade Fatheads are great if the ceiling is treated.

[nerhal]

get the m-audio octane 8 channel preamp. it sounds great with good headroom. I use it to record drums all the time and its awesome. also it has the option to run a mid side mic configuration.

[albee1952]

If you want to go with M-Audio, I would recommend the ProFire2626 over the Octane. The sound is every bit as good but the unit can do way more in the way of functionality(especially if you want to go portable with M-Powered on a laptop). Re. M/S recording, you can do that with any unit mentioned as long as you decode it correctly(which is actually very simple).

[bluesguy]

Im sorry I meant to say AKG 414!! Two of them I want but thanks for all the advice on the mics too man!! I will look into the Maudio. Im looking for around the price of a 1000 for the external pres. Sorry It took me so long to get back I will check out all these and reviews ect and try to find the best bang for the buck!! Thanks again so much guys for you advice and wisdom:)