Brother Martel80...I'm not quite sure if I should take your post as being cynical, funny, mean spirited, a combination of all or none of the above. In the event that you are actually forbidden to see your son for whatever reason, I will take you at face value. I feel your sadness. I would be terribly sad if I was in your predicament as I love my daughter more than love itself. I wouldn't want to imagine living apart from her, lest far away and in another country. And about the Babyface, I bought it about four years ago used for 300 bucks and at the time needed to save up to buy it for exactly 30 weeks, saving a tenner each week. Rich? Hardly. I was given not too long ago a gift of x amount of money from a relative for my hobby and that is what I have to play with, nothing less and nothing more. I am grateful and appreciate the blessing of my situation and give thanks every day for it. If I come across as bragging it was not my intention. I am airing out important decisions that are important to me, needing friends to bounce off ideas and hopefully receiving good advice in return from those that might spend a few minutes helping me out. Nothing less and nothing more. And again, sorry if my posts have rubbed you the wrong way.

About your mentioning preamps with SPDIF, I am not quite sure of what you mean here either. There are pres with A/D conversion (ADAT connection to the Babyface) but are much more expensive and was really hoping to get more from my buck than that. I have two other preamps but would like the ability to record three at a time, but since the Babyface allows only two at a time....my post explains it all. But I am probably going to forgo it all and heed nicoDPS's advice for the itime present.

 

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Hey Friend,I was simply trying to show my envy for your RME.
I was not thinking you were bragging at all, it was simply a way of speech.....that was me trying to be funny at the same time.
And yes, I'm away from my 2 years old Son against my will, His mother wont let me see him pretexting all sort of B.S. but thats a completely different story. ( and thats why I was very sensitive when someone threatened him the other day)

The thing with ''getting more for your buck'' is that you might get more in and out but youll never get the same quality.
With the Toslink connections in the back ( SPDIF or ADAT if you want) you get a extra output and input (24 bit 192khz) depending on your need/budget.
The only thing with those Toslink is that they need to be paired with a DAC if you want extra output connected to your Toslink OUT, or ADC if you want extra input connected in your Toslink IN . Or AD/DA if you want both. and dont worry about the Optical to coaxial convertion for those psdif...they both tranfer in 1 bit and theres specific cable for that that work flawlessly.
Of course your best bet would be to go with the RME ADI-2 but its pretty expansive.

Another way to get yourself an extra Headphone output would be to buy yourself a Heaphone preamp and connect it to your headphone output.......this wont give you the best result but youll get your signal splitted

Anyways, I'm not even sure whats exactly your need in therms of In and Out.
Let me know and I'll point you out to some good and / or decent product .

 

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Part of my issue is that I keep rethinking this through. I am not certain that MOTU has brought up their game in regard to Windows platform, the latency thing plus the stability of their drivers. It would solve my problem and could see me into the future as their newest interface, the 624 would tick off all my boxes, minus of course the 2nd headphone jack. It is about 400 bucks less expensive than the UCX.

I would like to have minimum two built-in preamps, four being ideal, as well as four line in and four line outs. This would enable me to of course use the two hardware pres I have and be able to record a minimum of four simultaneous tracks, more if I can borrow a few more when I want or need them (two guitars, cello, percussion and at least one vocal, etc).

Thanks

 

@superliquidsunshine
So 4in 4out with 2 headphone jack if I understood correctly

Seems like the Scarlett18i8 is what you need. Price tag is 349$ at sweetwater. You get your 4mic pre's XLR/ 1/4 combo , 4 line in, 2 headphone jack but only 2 x 1/4 out. Of course, like your RME , this can be extended to 18 in / 6 out at 24 /192 simultaneously with a AD DA in spdif.

Focusrite make great audio interface and have very affordable price. They are playing in the same league as motu and steinberg.

Apogee, RME, Audient and digidesign are something else.

The thing that I would really like you to rethink is the fact that you will put away your Ferrari ( RME ) to bring up a Cadillac ( Focusrite ) .
You WILL hear the SPL difference .

Believe me, I'm playing with a Steinberg UR28M and I know my new cans are bottlenecked by my interface. The focusrite will give you the same experience if you have decent cans.

I urge you to rethink the possibility of changing your RME......as a friend, please dont do that for your own peace of mind.

 

I kept wanting to mention the 18i20 too...2 pre inputs with inst/pad buttons...and a whole slew of inputs on the back..
$500 list... can get that down substantially by checking around... or used if you can do that.

but yeah, the RME is in a different league, I was debating between that and the
Apollo Twin Duo last time I purchased an interface ; went for the Duo to try the UA plugs...
pres are very good on it as well

 

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Can't speak for their current interfaces, but the HD192 is rock solid. When I was using an M-Audio or a Lexicon Omega, I would often get crashes within the DAW. Always a computer reboot got it going again. Since I started using the MOTU, I think the only time I've experienced a crash has been instantiating a plugin. As for latency, I'm probably not a good case study on this 7+ year old AMD.

I totally agree with @NicoDPS on this one, just get started and see where the journey takes you. At the very worst, it's good practice, and it's always a good feeling to have that idea recorded on some type of medium.

I have never tried doing any vocal recording with live monitoring, always use the cans. I wonder if one of those Reflection Filters like Aurolex Mudguard would be of benefit in that situation (or a McGyver version of it)? The reversing the phase idea would/should help so long as the acoustic mics and the vocal mics are time aligned to the monitors and the frequency response is close. That's a pretty neat idea!

 

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@digitaldragon .. I didn't come up with the idea, but it is a great one. The important thing is to stand (or sit) exactly in the same place as when you recorded the vocal so that when you flip the phase on the new, vocaless track everything lines up and all you are left with is your vocal. It is like magic and in a way similar to manually processing a mid/side recording, that is by taking the figure 8 microphone track, copy it, paste it onto another, empty track, flip the phase of one of them, pan them hard right and left then bring up the two levels to taste in relation to the center, mid cardioid recording, and voila, a stereo image that won't collapse in phase when summed to mono.

@Herr Durr .. I probably will keep on living with the Babyface for now and be happy with what I have. When switching from Focusrite to the RME sound upon first listening, it was like, WTF**k, totally opened it up, clearer with more width and depth. It was as if a blanket was pulled off the monitors and I had an ear transplant. Unless an incredible deal falls in my lap for a UCX II guess it will for at least the time be "just me and my Baby".

 

@digitaldragon
I monitor in the cans too, but the reflexion filter made a world of difference in my live recordings.

Damn, look at all the dust on my spider Didnt notice it without the flash, the garage=s2.D.O is dark with foam on the window

 

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@subGENRE :
Did you make this reflexion filter yourself?
Could you tell me how you've done it?

EDIT: I've missed the SE Electronics logo...

 

Last edited: Dec 15, 2016

No I bought that when they fist came out. Thats the sE Electronics one. Supposedly the best if you believe the hype, lol.
http://www.seelectronics.com/reflexion-filter-pro/
It was a like $200 US when I bought it. Still is looks like it is. They have a plastic one that's cheaper, and I have seen a lot of imitations since then as well. Theres also DIY stuff on the web if you look. I saw one made with some auralex foam somewhere before.

 

The best one is the newest kid on the block. It works like a charm.

 

I've been thinking of getting one of these. I wonder if it would adversely effect the tonal response of a figure 8 ribbon? Any experience with that?

 

Not for your particular situation (guitar & vocals), @superliquidsunshine, but I was just reading where you can take a figure 8 mic for vocals, and point the playback monitors from left/right at the dead zone and get reasonably good cancellation. Good trick for the occasional singer that can't perform their best with cans or when you have too many singers (eg. a choir) for each to have a set of cans.

 

@digitaldragon
No, I cant say that I do. Both of my mics, bluebird and at4040 are cardioid. But it can serve many purposes, not only for vox, they have the mini ones for micing cabs and drums too. I used it to mic an acoustic guitar and a cello before. Definitely sound better with it. More body to the tone

 

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@digitaldragon .. I have no direct experience with using a reflection filter in conjunction with a figure 8 microphone. I have seen a kind of a blocking filter used for mixing drums..http://post-audio.com/product/the-arf-50-protect-and-isolate-ambient-room-filter/ that I believe I saw once used with an AEA figure 8 promo video, but not for drum isolation but rather to keep it quiet on one of the patterns, I think. And yes absolutely, use a figure 8 mic to capture two singers opposite of each other or an omni for a bunch of people in a circle.