Home Recording

[wmlusk]

I have decided that my project for next spring is to build a portable, yet scalable home-studio. I know that I will be using some type of MAC notebook, but don't know much about the varied software and hardware options.

I am also considering some of the all-in-one recorder/mixer/cd-rw such as Yamaha, Zoom, Tasacam, etc...

Can some of the home recording enthusiasts help?

[traktor]

Billy,

I've had good luck using Cubase with a high-quality Delta A-D Board. Originally I bought two of these cards, as they have Sp/Dif in addition to the A-D converters. I thought I'd keep the signal digital from the johnson j-stations through the Sp/dif inputs (one on each board) into the Cubase digital recording to hard disk.

Well, that works. However, I've also done recordings using the normal A-D converters ... and my ears cannot hear any difference at all! The A-D's are supposed to be pretty good; and I guess they are.

At any rate, I'm going to sell off my (now unused) second Delta board. It's simpler setting up and using the usual A-D channels and dealing with just one board. The break-out box has four out and four in, and I've never needed more on a pass, since I'm using a little Boss mixer coming in. I've not checked for any going rates, but will make a very reasonable price, if you wish to go that way.

Cubase and Vegas both work with this board, and some others but I don't know which ones. Vegas is supposed to be easier to use than Cubase, but Vegas requires Win98 or better, and I'm still working on Win95 machines.

Steinberg's site should have lots more info about cubase, and M-Audio about the Delta board.

I've been tempted by the all in one gadgets, too, but had a spare computer with a big disk so went that route. If you're considering anything by Yamaha, you might want to check the user interface first. I love Yamaha sound, but always find their interface kind of puzzlilng.

[rockola]

A friend of mine is using a RME Hammerfall system. He has a PCI card in his desktop Mac and a PCMCIA card in his laptop Mac, and can plug the external connector box into whichever he's using at the moment. I haven't seen his system, only heard his description, but he sounded quite happy with it. Not very cheap though.

I've almost decided (the "almost" bit has something to do with my bank balance) to get a ST Audio (formerly Hoontech) DSP2000 C-Port system for myself. It has MIDI I/O, AES/EBU digital I/O, and 8 analog I/O ports, and two of the inputs have mic preamps. It's only PC and only has a PCI card connection, but it's also a lot cheaper than the alternatives at a bit more than 400 currency units (isn't it great that the Euro and the US$ are so close to each other these days?). Plus, it does 24bit/96KHz, which for instance the Motu 828 isn't capable of (I don't know about the RME system).