Rack Gear

rcaz

Anyone on here use any rack-mounted gear?

I'm about to be buying a new audio interface, and I'm probably gonna end up with an 8-input rack-mountable PreSonus thing, seems to be the best quality AD/DA I can get for under €400, and the 8 inputs will let me record more than one or two instruments at once, and a drum kit, which I'm pretty excited about trying.

The main thing I want the interface for is using my laptop set up at gigs, which is fast becoming the only way I want to go with my gear, and I'm almost convinced the 8-input interface is the best choice compared to a few 2-input jobs. Although they'd be far more convenient for gigs, they'd be almost useless for demo recordings and other studio-type work I want to try.

So I'm now looking at rack mount cases to keep the interface safe and portable. Anyone here use rackmount stuff? I was looking at the budget Thomann and Thon racks, the smallest ones for around €60, and I like the idea of getting a rack reverb like an old Yamaha SPX90 or Alesis Quadraverb, and maybe a rack tuner to free up pedalboard space for my guitar gear (though that's probably a long way down the road...). Ronald Jones, one of my favourite guitar players, had a pretty decent rack setup along with a load of pedal boards to get a lot of his crazy sounds - I'm really interested by what the rack gear side of things might be able to offer.

Er really I'd like to hear your opinions on the reliability/safety/portability of small rack setups. I don't know much about this stuff at all but it's fast looking like the best way to go for me.

Demeyes

I have a rack guitar amp setup and some rack gear for recording/live use in my house. The thon rack cases aren't too bad, you just have to check the depths you'll need and also be conscious of the weight of the equipment in the rack. Some of the cheaper cases only have one handle and they can be awkward to carry if they are heavy. I've never used their molded plastic cases but I have something like this http://www.thomann.de/ie/thon_4he_economy_ii_rack.htm and it has held up great after loads of gigging. You can splash out more and get really heavy duty cases but it's not really necessary unless you have something very delicate inside and it's going to be really thrown around.

Squidgy Black

I used to use a rack preamp and power amp, some cheap dodgy behringer preamp and a rocktron power amp. I ran it into a Marshall 4x12.

My mate uses the PreSonus with the 8 preamps, it's quite amazing when it's used with half decent mics. He's recording some amazing demo's that are better than most of the local studios.

It's all reliable enough like, the thon cases aren't the most sturdy. it's like a pedalboard to be honest, except your just not stepping on the actual units and you can power it all of a power block. You just have to be careful with cabling and power.

You can eventually get a rack drawer, place all your pedals in it, and just get a looper or a midi footswitch to control the pedals, voila, no more pedalboard :cool:

Welease

Do you really need the 8 inputs? The live recordings are probably gonna sound pretty rough in untreated rooms, and you could probably get similar results from the PA desk.. At home, maybe if you record the live drums, but again it might not sound all that good and wouldn't be usable..

The reason I post this is.. I was of very much of the same opinion so I have a large rack unit at home with an 18 channel firewire desk.. Looks great, lots of flexibility.. but the reality is, I generally record solo at home with it, and a single cheaper more portable interface would probably have done ..

Recording drums in an untreated room is not going to be usable, and dragging a rack around is a pain in the ass
I wouldn't get rid of my rack, but I don't use it for the reasons I bought it now...

Your situation might be different, but i thought i'd throw in my 2c so you don't waste money you could use elsewhere..

Best of luck.

rcaz

stetyrrell wrote: »

I used to use a rack preamp and power amp, some cheap dodgy behringer preamp and a rocktron power amp. I ran it into a Marshall 4x12.

...

You can eventually get a rack drawer, place all your pedals in it, and just get a looper or a midi footswitch to control the pedals, voila, no more pedalboard :cool:

Ooh, I hadn't even thought about rack-mounted amps! I'm not sure if I'd go with them really, I'm not too pushed about getting a really nice guitar tone from the start, I'm happy enough with my amp and I'm kinda obsessing over getting more and more of the sounds I've got in my head into reality, most of them are based around computer processing, which is why I'm after the interface mostly.

And am I weirdo in that I love having a properly linear pedalboard with no switching system or obsessive buffer-evasion or anything?

Welease wrote: »

Do you really need the 8 inputs? The live recordings are probably gonna sound pretty rough in untreated rooms, and you could probably get similar results from the PA desk.. At home, maybe if you record the live drums, but again it might not sound all that good and wouldn't be usable..

The reason I post this is.. I was of very much of the same opinion so I have a large rack unit at home with an 18 channel firewire desk.. Looks great, lots of flexibility.. but the reality is, I generally record solo at home with it, and a single cheaper more portable interface would probably have done ..

Recording drums in an untreated room is not going to be usable, and dragging a rack around is a pain in the ass
I wouldn't get rid of my rack, but I don't use it for the reasons I bought it now...

Your situation might be different, but i thought i'd throw in my 2c so you don't waste money you could use elsewhere..

Best of luck.

I guess I don't really need the 8 all at the moment, but they sure would be nice for some of the rougher ideas in my head... As for the plans I could immediately put into motion as soon as I get the gear, no, I don't need them all, but the more I think about them, the more I think they'd be nice. And if I got a smaller interface, I'd be spending almost the same amount of money... It's €311 vs. €375 or something last time I checked. From previous experience, this is the kind of gear where it's well worth spending the absolute most you can afford, so I'm trying to not let fiscal matters colour my decision until the very last moment, with the trembling credit card... :P

I know all about the impracticalities and impossibilities of DIY recording and self-produced, and to be honest I don't really care too much for them... :pac:

The live use wouldn't be anything to do with recording shows or anything, I'll be sampling off two of the inputs, feeding two channels with software instruments to a PA DI, one channel with processed guitar signals back into my pedal board, and another two channels to a mini mixer for headphone mixes with click tracks etc.

The home use will be for producing demo recordings with my band, whether they be for sketching out tracks for rehearsal purposes or making some tracks to put on a SoundCloud or BandCamp page or something.

I don't really get it when people say the quality 'won't be usable'... There are a zillion different kinds of drum sound, well-produced perfect room clean studio drums are just a handful of those. I put more value into the artists taking the process into their own hands than the fidelity of the outcome... And hey, Elbow won a Mercury Music Prize with no control surface, no producers, and no outboard gear apart from some preamps :pac:

I know my attitude to home recording doesn't line up with more grounded or realistic ideals, but that's the reason I'm not posting this in the Music Production forum :pac:


Thanks for the replies! So I should avoid the Thon stuff and go for something a bit more upmarket?

slavedave

El Pron
I use a Tascam US1641 at home and out when playing live. It has been very reliable to date with low latency on WinXP (tweaked for DAW purposes and no internet, etc). Loads of input options of which I have never used more than 3 xlr ins and a guitar line-in to date. Most of my music is all "in the box" still and being controlled by external midi controllers but this is about to change as I am moving towards a few modules (already have a Yamaha VL70m and a Roland JV1010 tweaked for my wind controller). To be honest, I agree with a previous poster - you may find yourself not using all the ins on a multiple input interface that often. Can't remember if it was you that I sold the alesis to way back but if yes then that has an adat port that you can whack an external 8 channel pre amp into to give you more ins if you wanted to. I had a behringer adat for that but again never used it for more than a couple of extra channels.
Rack mounting gear is useful though. I currently have a 4u setup that is on wheels with a collapsible handle that is purpose built to also hold and transport a laptop in safety http://emusician.com/misc/skb_studioflyer4u_0807/
Very convenient because you can leave all the connecting cables fully attached at all times and therefore can just plug in and go. And it is very robust. i would have few concerns of rack mounted gear getting damage dthrough normal use. Gator do a cheaper version called the studio2go or something like that.