***The Official Home Recording Studio Thread***

I'm thinking of getting a dual channel pre amp for vocal ,guitar and drum overheads...

The pre amps on the Octa Capture are excellent but very clinical...

Should I take a stab at the Art Digital MPA II ? And swap the tubes ?


Ideally I could use Spdif out and use the Spdif in on the Octa capture bypassing the Roland pre amps?

Or doesn't it matter so much if I use a line out of the pre amp into the line in if the Octa capture with no gain used?

Lowe over to you :D


http://thelittleredlight.com/gear-reviews/can-you-tell-a-100-preamp-from-a-4000-preamp/
 
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banja said:
We must be psychically connected! I have the Octa-Capture and just bought the 4 channel DAV BG2 :) Are you just going from the DAV into to the Octa-Captures pres (XLR)? Do you leave the Octa Captures pres on zero gain??
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Nice! How much did that cost you?

I'm going from the BG1 using an XLR to balanced 1/4in jack line input. Not Xlr to XLR

Its very important you use a 1/4 jack going into the DAV. I set the OCta capture gain to zero. So effectively line level and control the level gain on the DAV.

Another Q about the Octa-Capture: I've been using it on an old netbook with USB 2.0 and it works OK but I need to upgrade. But reading online it seems it doesn't like USB 3.0. Have you tried it on USB 3.0?
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Not tried it with USB 3 but I don't see why its not backwards compatible.
 
banja said:
BTW - in case you weren't aware - (due to DAV being a beast gain / output level wise) inputs 7/8 on the Roland have higher headroom than the other 6 inputs, specifically for hotter inputs.
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Only if you are using the Octa pre amps...

7 and 8 matter not at line level with the Octa gain set at zero

They just behave like line inputs...so it matters not what input on the Octa you use if it's a line level signal.

What effectively the Dav is doing is amping a mic signal to a line level signal.


You do not under any circumstances manage the input level on the Octa when using a mic pre....

You just use the DB gain on the mic pre you leave the Octa gain at zero.
 
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banja said:
Just checked the Roland manual and you're correct, 4db more headroom even than the XLR inputs 7/8. I wouldn't have caught that.

I haven't even had chance to test my DAV into the Roland yet. With no output attenuation on the DAV have you had any issues going into the Roland? It's still surely super hot?? 4dbu max on the 1/4 inputs but the DAVs can throw out much more than that.
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Just see the DAV like any line level input going into the Octa.

Like a keyboard or drum machine.
 
banja said:
Not entirely. Line level can be any level, including massive dbu which can overload an input. For example the Audient iD22 you can bypass the pres straight to the converters up to a headroom of 22dbu. Various interfaces have various nominal input max amounts.
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I know that...


what I'm saying is no issues using the dav and the octa inputs at zero gain.

I had the DB gain on about 60 % on the dav when recording an acoustic guitar last night.

Octa gain on zero.
 
Lt_Red said:
Hows the Eleven Rack? Was wondering what the latency round trip is when using USB.

I have been using Scuffham S-Gear 2, there's plenty of peeps stating that its more responsive to input than 11R, but not having tried it I'm not so sure.

I'm looking to minimise round trip latency when using software but I'm tossing up between a Babyface Pro or just hybriding with hardware and going for an 11R right now so your opinion would be great.
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I'm using the Spdif digital coax on the eleven rack going into the octa capture 9/10 digital inputs

I'm not using the ER as a audio interface its slave to the octa capture.

I got it of ebay brand new for £ 250 with Firmware 2.0 installed ( absolutely vital) quite simply its stunning...Not experienced any latency at all. :)
 
Merlin5 said:
Hey guys, I've been getting into some home recording the last few days, albeit not on the grand scale of equipment shown in this thread.

Took me a little while to understand how to record but finally got there. Also had to install ASIO4ALL drivers to reduce latency. What do you think of this for a drum sound. A 50 second test recording of me playing the kit and there's a backing track. Not on my acoustic Yamaha 9000 RC however, but with my Roland TD9 vdrums. I'm triggering EZ Drummer 2 software with high quality real drum samples via a Roland UM-ONE mk2 midi interface from the TD9 to my laptop into Mixcraft 7.

http://picosong.com/Zuuf/

Pretty realistic and punchy drum sound I think and one might be hard pushed to know it's not an acoustic kit being played? Better than the Roland module defaults. I'll play and record myself playing that complete song soon. I'll probably bring the drums down in the mix a bit as well, although I do kind of like the strong presence.
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Its sounds great mate...Not my cup of tea with drums but its all subjective anyway,


I also did a video recording of myself drumming using EZ Drummer again, but this time tweaked the pitches up of the snare and toms. Vinnie Paul 8 x 14 signature maple snare, Yamaha 9000 toms, and 22" Sonor kick - damped extreme EQ.

Video is from my S6 phone. After recording the audio in Mixcraft and saving as a .wav, I imported both the .wav and the video into Pinnacle Studio 17 onto two tracks. I did a sort of clapperboard thing at the beginning of my recording by hitting the drums hard 3 times which the phone and the drums picked up so that I'd have a reference to line up the AV. So I detached the phone audio and manually/visually lined up the spikes with the matching spikes of the mixcraft .wav. Then I deleted the phone audio and cropped the clapperboard bit. Seemed to come out ok I think without any noticeable sync issues?

Here's the video. Also gives me a chance to showoff a bit :p

https://www.vdrums.com/forum/performance/showcase/1132756-latin-playalong
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Quality drumming right there...You should pop over to my place I have loads of stuff that you could do some real drum recording on :)
 
Iv'e been trying to get some decent mic pres and after a month searching and haggling on the net

Brand new Eleven Rack £250

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Focusrite ISA One £ 200

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DAV Electronics BG1 £ 255

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I just need another pre and I'm pretty much there.I don't need more than 4 for the drums. Currently got 3 mic pre channels and a Focusrite Di so should give me some flexibilty.

They all sound amazing. Its amazing what you can pick up.

Oktava Mk 012 recording some acoustic guitar parts....Its amazing that once you get some quality stuff the sound quality sounds so professional it inspires creativity.

ixBNRahl.jpg
 
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