12+ audio port interface

axer

Hi y'all,
I'm looking to get an interface (USB2 or FIREWIRE) for 12+ audio channels. Only for demos. Cheaper is better in my case with decent sound quality.
Any advice/suggestions are much appreciated.
What do you recommend?
Thanks.

daram

Check out all the m-audio cards. They're pretty good, and the firewire models support the new protools.

What do you need 12 channels for?

axer

I want to record all channels live at rehearsals without having to lay drums first etc. I know it sounds like it's not the best way but it is handier to do it that what I think because its only for a demo.

Doctor J

Your hard disk may not be able to handle that. Is this on a laptop? Consider getting a dedicated drive for audio, such as the external ones from Carillon. Generally that sort of data transfer on a system drive (ie the same disk as your operating system) isn't going to work well at all.

feylya

12 input recorders are not cheap. What about getting a 8 or 16 input mixing desk and then putting the output from that into a pc or recording device?

axer

Yeah you right, I guess I will have to take only maybe 8 tracks at most at a time. Yep it will probably be a laptop, but I may just use my desktop computer for extra speed/storage - I have 3 harddrives in that (300GB, AMD 64 2800+, 1GB DDR).
Do you think there will be a problem recording 8/10 tracks at one time? I could just lay the drums and then everything else afterwards and still adjust all the levels seperately. feylya - I want to be able to adjust all the levels afterwards. Does anyone recommend a 8/10 port interface? m-audio are good? And where to buy them?
Thanks everyone so far.

feylya

Axer, what about recording the whole session, then micing up only the drum kit and getting the drummer to play back with the session you just recorded? Then record guitars, bass and vox seperately? It'll take a lot longer but the results should be better and it wouldn't break the bank either.

daram

feylya got the best plan of attack there. you'll get a far better sound if you record everything sepertately. whats the point spending a load of money for subpar quality.

All that aside, I think the best system available at the moment is probably the m-audio cards. In firewire models there's a 18in/14out model and a 4in/10out. They also do models which are external but connect through pci card interface, these come in 10/10 6/6 and 4/4. Not sure on prices, you can get them from thomann probably though. They come with protools too.

axer

Yeah I think I will go with feylya's attack on this alright.
One question - not sure if i'm grasping this digital recording properly - If I get a multitrack Firewire Interface like this or this, is each channel/instrument/mic (8+- instruments/mics) recorded on my harddrive independantly & simultaneously with Cubase or whatever so that I can adjust the levels of any of the channels/instruments afterwards at my own leisure?

daram

depends on the inputs of the soundcard. a lot of these cards, while they say they support 12 or 16 inputs, only really have 4 XLR sockets, the rest are line level jack or optical or such. The way I'm currently set up is running everything into a 24 channel desk with 16 mic preamps. Then running out from that into a 4in/4out usb card. 4 channels is suffucient for recording drums if you have good mics and a good room. Ideally though, 6-8 mics is what you'd want for drums. The disadvantage of my setup is that my soundcard doesnt support protools. If at all possible, get protools. And also, stay away from hercules. Nothing but trouble.

Helix

m audio firewire 1814 is your man