Shopping for interface, need 4 pres & 4 level ins min.

[Zeno]

I find that researching this item is rather difficult. First I know nothing about the stuff and I don't know anyone with equipment doing this kind of thing. My objective is to record my band practice live and try to separate things as much as possible on separate tracks, 2 guitars, bass, mics on drums, vocalist. This is for three reasons. 1: to critique our sound, 2: to get ideas for altering the arrangements, 3: to make a recording for bandmates to practice their parts with and or experiment with new ideas for their part. We can only manage to get together once a week so I thought if we could coalesce some of our rudimentary ideas to a recording that people could keep to practice with during the week... could be valuable learning time. (My secret #4 is to actually try to construct some presentable recordings, maybe I am getting this recording bug!) Actually I have been recording for a while just a mic into my macbook pro but the levels are so bad, very difficult to get various instruments and vocals all heard. I gotta think several separate tracks would give way more control. We can run line level right from our amps for a completely isolated signal (right?), then just have to worry about bleed over between the drum mics and the vocalist/harp player.

MY selection process is making my eyes bug out,
I was going to get a presonus project or tube, then I saw all these problems with drivers and a number of machines that actually fail.
Looked into the mackie onyx 400, great idea but it is having problems, I think having a mixer control surface to work with (rather than on screen) and with good preamps is a great idea.
I got excited about the Echo audiofire 8 until I realized it only has 2 preamps, decide I needed more, otherwise seems like a decent interface for the money and really no mention of quality issues or driver problems etc.
So I read and read and finaly people were agreeing that you just couldn't go wrong with an RME fireface, well I would need the 800 for the 8 ins, so I look into it and it is over $1600! Hey I 'm not building a commercial studio here. Too much dough.
Ofcourse I read about M-audio, doesn't sound like impressive quality though some seem happy enough.
What I want is something that has adequate quality and that does not have silly problems that waste my time, driver issues, compatibility, and such.
My most recent thinking is that Motu might offer what I need. I'm looking in the 8pre model, there you go 8 preamped ins and its about $550. I'm not hearing about any problems with drivers and such when used with macbook pro. So this is where I'm at, a typical newbie kind of issue but one that is ever relavent since us newbies just keep on coming I'll bet.

Anyway here is my observation after reading too much about interfaces,
Those who seem to be recording gurus are the most reluctant to name or recommend specific interfaces. Most who recommend anything specific seem to have very limited experience and or knowledge. Of course this technology keeps moving perhaps the gurus are tired of keeping up with every new item. But some idea of a couple reliable units in each price range shouldn't be so hard to get together.

It seems a spreadsheet could be built that showed all to options in different price categories detailing all the features as well as all the knows problems and with a synopsis of such issues or links to info. I actually saw something like this a while ago but it was incomplete and price categories too broad plus it did not go into problems with drivers and reliability issues etc. These are important aspects to me, I want something I can use, that is not too difficult to learn, that is reliable, that doesn't come with problems. Tools are supposed to solve problems not create them.

So if someone can help me with where I am at in what I want to accomplish and ideas about the best interface, also monitor speakers for not too much $ please speak up. I wrote to the motu people and am waiting for their recommendation as far as their gear goes. Thanks

[Tony Ramone]

Hi there. Welcome to the terrifying world of spending more than you earn

Have you checked out Brandon's Home Recording Soundcard Wizard?
I think he upgraded it last year so it should have most current interfaces on it.

Some suggestions that might be worth looking into might be m-Audio's ultra 8R, or the profire 2626, or the MOTU 896.

Just put your requirements into the soundcard wizard and you'll get a good few suggestions along with a guide price, although I'm sure you can find different prices if you shop around.

Hope this helps somewhat. Good luck.

[ardenstudios]

I bought a used presonus fire pod and was recording my band in 30 minutes on a laptop with cubase LE. Man it was easy. Microphones used for band practice recording are Sure Beta 52, 3 Sure SM57's, one 58 for vocals. two SM58's on stands as high as they go(room mics) and we DI the bass. Set the levels to prevent clipping and let it rip. It came out really good for just recording practices. We just used the supplied firewire. Bleed over is minimal with SM57's especially for rehersals.

[Zeno]

[QUOTE=Tony Ramone;85949]Hi there. Welcome to the terrifying world of spending more than you earn

Have you checked out Brandon's Home Recording Soundcard Wizard?
I think he upgraded it last year so it should have most current interfaces on it.

Some suggestions that might be worth looking into might be m-Audio's ultra 8R, or the profire 2626, or the MOTU 896.

Thanks I did go thru the wizard and it is helpful, It didn't show me the motu 8pre though and 'm not sure why. Maybe it does'nthave a hiZ input or something. It would be $150 more than the presonus fp10 which I am considering as well, I dont know if the quality difference is worth it or if the cubase version that is included with the fp10 is worth having. Motu came back and said the 8pre is a good choice and nothing else.
One quick question while I'm thinking of it , will garage band work as a simultaneous 8 track recordind daw?

[Zeno]

Originally Posted by ardenstudios

I bought a used presonus fire pod and was recording my band in 30 minutes on a laptop with cubase LE. Man it was easy. Microphones used for band practice recording are Sure Beta 52, 3 Sure SM57's, one 58 for vocals. two SM58's on stands as high as they go(room mics) and we DI the bass. Set the levels to prevent clipping and let it rip. It came out really good for just recording practices. We just used the supplied firewire. Bleed over is minimal with SM57's especially for rehersals.

Thanks this is exactly what I am looking to do, very helpful advice. I am looking into the presonus fp10 now, I don't know why I never looked harder at it before, seems like it offers a lot for the money and people, like yourself, are having pretty good results. When you DI ("direct in" I presume) the bass is that from the bass amp? I was thinking of going direct from all of our guitar amps to discrete channels, good or bad idea? Thanks again to both of you guys, helpful tips from both.