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Sound cards: Presonus Firestudio Vs MOTU Ultralite Vs Echo indigo DJ
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| kitphillips |
Well, I think the time has come. My poor old digi Mbox which has served me for 4 years now has finally become too restrictive and I think I need a new interface. The Mbox just doesn't have enough inputs and outputs anymore at all.
I've narrowed it down to these three, but would appreciate if anyone has any advice on them.
I might need two different interfaces for different things, since I need to
1/ Record lots of inputs (acoustic+electric guitar, bass, vocals, drums, and synths maybe not all at the same time)
2/ DJ out
3/ Do a live act involving lots of outputs
The main things I need are
Really really low latency drivers
good sound (including mic pres)
lots of inputs and outputs (at least 10 pref 20+)
I'd go straight with the Firestudio and buy an indigo for Djing with the money left over, but I hear the Presonus mic pres aren't great. Does anyone know how they would compare with my Mbox's? What about with the ultralites?
I know MOTU has the best reputation for drivers, but would the Firestudio be OK for live work (like synth playing from the PC)
Sorry for the essay:p all help appreciated. |
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| echosystm |
how many preamps do you need?
how important is portability?
personally, i can't imagine motu's have better preamps than a presonus interface. |
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| kitphillips |
| quote: | Originally posted by echosystm
how many preamps do you need?
how important is portability?
personally, i can't imagine motu's have better preamps than a presonus interface. |
I have heard they're not supposed to be as good in terms of converters and pres, but I'm not really sure personally... What are the drivers like on the presonus? I think the MOTU are sposed to be best, but how much worse are the presonus!:p |
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| echosystm |
| quote: | Originally posted by kitphillips
I have heard they're not supposed to be as good in terms of converters and pres, but I'm not really sure personally... What are the drivers like on the presonus? I think the MOTU are sposed to be best, but how much worse are the presonus!:p |
I'm just going on logic here haha...
Motu make soundcards.
Presonus make soundcards, preamps, compressors, channelstrips...
I'd put my money on presonus for preamps. But yeah, MOTU would have better AD. Drivers I think will be about the same. |
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| kitphillips |
Ah... fair enough, so the presonus has an extra ten channels at the expense of some AD quality...
Have you actually had experience with them at all Echo? Wondering whether the latency will be better or worse than the Mbox now (1024 samples buffer while producing, could go down to 512 maybe...) |
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| echosystm |
| quote: | Originally posted by kitphillips
Have you actually had experience with them at all Echo? |
none whatsoever! like i said, i'm just throwing some assumptions out there. could quite easily be entirely wrong.
as far as AD/DA goes, if they have the same converters ars firepods, then yes MOTU are definately better.
neither brand has a bad rep for drivers these days, so i think you'll be fine with the latency of either. check on some other forums, like SOS. imo though, the motu is probably overall a better quality interface. unless you need the preamps on the firestudio, I would go the MOTU. |
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| kitphillips |
| OK, I'll take a long hard look at the MOTU, then, since it might have just enough inputs . I'd love some opinion from someone who owns one or the other too... |
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