M-Audio Firewire 1814 Rack Solutions/Racks

[MangumHartDossSchneider]

Hi, I'm new around here and I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this question. My brother has been reading this board for years and I decided that it's finally time to throw my hat into the ring with a dumb question.

What is the best solution for getting an M-Audio Firewire 1814 to sit comfortably in a rack? I have one and I'm trying to put together a more comfortable portable recording rig, and a big part of this would be consolidating everything into a nice rack... which leads me to my next question...

What sorts of racks would you guys suggest for a portable recording rig? I don't know much about them as I've never owned one before. I currently have a M-Audio Firewire 1814, and a Digimax FS, and I'm planning to add a bunch of things soon, including some Sytek preamps, possibly a nice clocking solution (getting a good deal) and a new headphone amp (also getting a good deal). My only real criteria for this rack is that it is durable, it will hold my shit, and have enough empty space for the stuff I've described or more. I should say that it is also possible that I might be using the Firewire 1814 interchangeably with a Digi002 in the near future.

Edit: Good handles and a nice set of casters would also be a major plus!!

I hope this isn't too much for a first post, and I hope it is in the right place. I tried the search function but I found the results to be sort of confusing. Either way, thanks for reading and have a great day!

[spankenstein]

There isn't a good way to mount the 1814. I used some industrial strength velcro to put it on rack mount shelf that was meant for those little Alesis things (Microlimiter, nanoverb, etc). The rest of that shelf has a USB hub, also attached with velcro, that I plug in an iLok when I use Pro Tools.

I had it in a 6 space Gator rack that has rollerblade wheels on one end and a long handle that slides out of the other. That works pretty well leaving 4U open. The FW1814 is taller than 1U so you lose 2 rack units with it.

Other than a cheap way to run Pro Tools, which I am not even doing now since PT isn't compatible with my laptop, the 1814 is kind of crap. If you haven't already purchased it then my opinion is to go elsewhere. The driver is pretty crappy and the rotary encoders for the volume controls only work sometimes. It's a driver/chipset problem but I've had it be a problem on 2 of the 3 computers I have used with it. The MOTU 828mkII I had before was ten thousand times better and I never had a single incompatibility with any other hardware.

I do, however, like Pro Tools now and going back to SONAR is a little weird. I also miss the Massey plugins. I can still use ProTools on one computer, but not my laptop, so I'm painfully doing without.

[MangumHartDossSchneider]

Ah, bummer about the mounting solutions. I'm kind of using stuff on a borrowed/shared basis. If I can get ahold of the Digi 002 on a more permanent basis, should I go for it? I haven't had problems with the 1814 yet but I do think that it's kind of shoddy and that it may catch up with me.

Thanks for the rack suggestion, I was thinking that Gator's offerings look reasonable.

[mrufino1]

I had an 1814 until a few months ago. The drivers suck. Rotary encoders do not work, m-audio is aware, and won't bother to fix it. Sound quality was decent, although the preamps are very noisy if you push them hard. I moved on, now I use 2 firepods and reaper and am extremely happy. If you are not set on using protools (which I do like, but don't like the fact that I need to use bad hardware to use it), check out some other options. Reaper is awesome and very affordable, and there are other programs too. You said you have a digimax fs- try clocking the 1814 from that, the clock in it is supposed to be good. I had an aardvark aardsyncII as my clock with the 1814 and it did make a difference, especially with the behringer ada8000 that was connected to it. That was only $100 used and I sold it for more.
Now, to answer your actual question... The 1814 screws onto a rack shelf with no problem (a rack shelf is $20 in guitar center and pretty much anywhere else). As for a rack, All of the gators I've seen have been kind of flimsy. SKB's are nice, light, but expensive. I got an 8 space shockmounted rack on ebay (new) for about $150, but it is unfortunately not light. It is decent. I am impressed with the "Road Ready" cases guitar center sells (yikes! 2 GC references in one post- honest, I don't work for them and I avoid as much as I can...). Hope that helps in some way.