I have had my studio up and running for about a year but havent opened my doors yet, I was thrilled when I just found your course. I spent more money on my building, 1200 sq feet than I anticipated but figured I could change my equipment a lot easier than my room. I went with nuendo and hammerfalls 9652 card but had to settle for behringer ada 8000 preamps untill I learned the digital system.I have the uad card which I see you recomend so I thought you may be able to recomend or give some advice on a/d converters. after reading some of your articles I see this is a more important part of the process than I may have thought. Im getting some good preamps but havent decided on the converters. In my price range and what Ive looked at are the alesis, creamware,swisonic, apogee, and the mackie onyx and true preamp converter combinations.thanks so much for everything you are doing, it is a honor to be able to have someone like you to learn from. I am the audio engineer for daystar television a religous channel on direct tv and do a lot of sound for video to, thanks again for the course and your time Jeff

To tell you the truth, I am going to have to check out some recent models in order to properly answer that question. In the past I have had success with certain companies (such as apogee), but do not want to say anything without giving other stuff a chance.

-B

RME does a great job on cost-effective converters. Something in the ADI range will work well with your RME 9652 card.

http://www.rme-audio.com/english/adi/adi8ds.htm

DOT are you familiar with the multiface I can get one of those for almost nothing from a friend and I have located a good deal on a creamware, are you familiar with these at all, Ive read some good things about them thanks for the help Jeff

Jeff, the RME Multiface is not the quality of the ADI's, but it's still quite good. I don't know much about Creamware. Their A16 Ultra runs around $799 for 16 channels of AD/DA - which is cutting things a little thin if you want good-quality converters.

One great thing about RME is there are no latency problems. All the RME systems I've tested have been super tight - including the ADI 8/DSP9652 I run in my own studio.

I'm using the RME ADI-8DS with my multitrack and an RME ADI-2 on my 2-track (I mix on an analog desk). The RME converters sound very well--clean and clear--and are much more cost-effective than Apogee.

I'm thinkin about the Apogee Rosetta 200. Anyone have a comment on that one?

Also, does anyone know if it's possible to slave to its clock via the S/PDIF only (i.e., not the clock connection)?

Thanks!

Hi,
I have both the Creamware A16U and the ADI-8DS and a HDSP 9652 card. I sync it all with a Lucid GenX96. I would say that the ADI-8DS sounds better than the A16U which is kind of "darker" and not so "open and detailed" as the ADI-8DS.

Still I think the A16U is a very good piece for the money especially when you need lots of channels routed to a console. I use the ADI-8 on the most "important" tracks of the song.

My setup has worked without any problems for me.

By the way, RME has some news on their site http://www.rme-audio.com/english (maybe old now...)

Regards,
Hans

I mainly use Crane Song A/D (12 channels), but I suppliment them with Benchmark, Lucid and Apogee (in order of my preference). Other converters I've had experience with that I'd say are in the same league are Lavry and Mytek. There are even better ones: Pacific microsonics, Prism, Weiss, and a few other smaller (mostly European) companies.

When it comes to converters, the old adage "You get what you pay for" applies pretty well. It's not far from the truth that the amount of $$ you pay per channel of conversion is indicative of the quality you get. I'm quite aware that such a statement will bring people out of the woodwork saying "ABC converters are WAY better than anything else in their price range". I don't say these people are lying. I say these people lack sufficient studio experience and/or ear training. They really believe what they say; they even believe they hear it. They might REALLY hear it, as everyone's ears are different.

Scott

DigitMus,
Think you're right there. The nice thing is the speed of development in this area.

I got myself 24 outputs (a while back) to be able to mix on a console using analog outboards instead of plugs. Just to get a better sound.

Wish I had 24 channels of Prism or Weiss, but that's not possible....think I'll buy myself a new house and a car before that

I bet that we'll have affordable gear in a year that is "comparable" to the best today for a fraction of the money....And I think we will see this from the "second best" like Mytek, Apogee, RME.....

.....And in three years or so the very best are out of business...if they don't lower their prices. At least we'll see old Prism's and Weiss gear sold for a reachable price, and that's great and probably good enough then

And, what a huge market it would be for a good tech knowing how to swap the old converter circuits and upgrade to newer, together with having a look at the analog path of them.

Someone?

quote:

Originally posted by dirtyragamuffin:
I'm using the RME ADI-8DS with my multitrack and an RME ADI-2 on my 2-track (I mix on an analog desk). The RME converters sound very well--clean and clear--and are much more cost-effective than Apogee.

Hey Dirty, how do those RME sound on the 2- mix? I mght have even asked these questions before ( hey, I'm getting old, deaf,and senile.. ... .. ... .. ,,see the mood swings?..You are mixing to the MasterLink,right? Are you monitoring out of the Masterlink's stock DA? Thanks.

Does anyone know if the MOTU 2408 is any good? I like the fact that it has SMPTE etc, as I do work on film projects (editing), but my main concern is audio quality for my music work. How would the 2408's converters compare with those in my EMU 1210 card? The reason I'm asking is that a friend's selling one at a great price. I'm not sure if it's a Mark 1 or 2.

Thanks

Kane, you probably won't find too many favorable opinions of the 2408's converters. My friend has one and he hated the converters (he upgraded to an RME ADI-8 and hasn't looked back). You could always get the 2408 as your interface and then connect better converters through the ADAT I/O later.

The EMU has newer converters than the 2408, and I think the general consensus is that new cheaper converters are a lot better than older cheaper ones. I have a Traveler and the converters are pretty good, but I'm about to have it upgraded by Black Lion audio, who says the traveler is up there with the RME and Apogees after their mod.

Jimbob, please post a review when you get your traveler back from Black Lion. I've been planning on getting one but have been worried that I'd be disapointed in the conversion quality.

I will, Keller. I'm trying to figure out what will be a good before / after comparison. I'm going to run at least a few full mixes into the traveler from an external cd player and I'll probably do some careful recordings of guitar and vocals and mark exactly what settings I use so I can track the same thing after I get the traveler back. I know this isn't scientific by a long shot, but I'm not sure if it's possible to be very scientific with this test. This upgrade might be worth it just from a mental aspect--I will think that my traveler should sound better, so therefore I will "hear" the improvement, giving me confidence in my mixes. OK, maybe that would suck. I'm hoping for an actual improvement.

My biggest problem is that I'm going to be without an interface for 2 weeks!

p.s. love that dangermouse avatar!

Thanks. I must say, the EMU seems pretty good.

You should put in a price range of what you can afford.

I record to RADAR and when i mix I go thru a Benchmark. That's gonna cost you something like $1800 though.

Oddly, we have kind of a hodgepodge of convertors...

- RME FF800 for most things audio/master clock
- Tango24 (great but dated unit) for sending to and from certain external devices, clocked to FF800
- Conversion card in the Focusrite Octopre for line level in, again clocked to FF800...

In the not too distant future, I'll be adding a Benchmark, Apogee, or if cash permits, UA as the master monitoring and so forth...I never thought I'd say this, but some things sound better (or at least different in a good way) through differing conversion units...

The RME ADI-8 series are very good converters, overall. No, they're not Larvy or Weiss.

No...they aren't Lavry, Weiss, or any other hi-ticket items...

But they are good enough to get nominations (and occassional wins) in the Grammys...most recently and publically announced being Ted Perlman's nomination...

Which rolls right back to the old chicken-egg question: is it the gear or the guy?