Stepping into the digital realm for the first time. Help!

xraymind7781 · Post by **xraymind7781** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 11:26 am

I have a small studio. I'm recording on a Fostex E-16 1/2" reel to reel. So far I've been mixing down to 1/4" tape and sending it out for mastering. I love the sound of the machine but would like to dump my tracks to computer for the mixing and mastering process.

I'm starting to take a look at some of my options. I'm thinking of building a PC strictly for audio projects. Having little to no experience recording or mixing with computers, my initial concerns are: which sound card do i need to buy?" and what sort of interface will allow me to dump 16 analog tracks to PC for mixing.

As you might imagine, I do have a budget. Looking to spend about $500 or lower on an interface. I'm trying to stay under $300 for the sound card.

I would love any insight on the matter. Thank you in advance!

Bro Shark · Post by **Bro Shark** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 1:18 pm

I'm not aware of any interfaces that will give you 16 analog channels in for under $500. The cheapest thing I can think of would be two Echo Audiofire 12s which would cost $1200 new for 24 channels of I/O. There's no hardware monitoring but I'm assuming you have a console.

Snarl 12/8 · Post by **Snarl 12/8** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:28 pm

What do you mean by "interface" and what do you mean by "sound card." If you can put the $500 together with the $300 you'd have a bigger budget. If you've got an interface, you don't really need another sound card.

xraymind7781 · Post by **xraymind7781** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 3:07 pm

Snarl 12/8 wrote:What do you mean by "interface" and what do you mean by "sound card." If you can put the $500 together with the $300 you'd have a bigger budget. If you've got an interface, you don't really need another sound card.

I don't currently have a computer. I'm thinking of building one. I'm assuming that I would need some sort of sound card for the computer as well as an interface that would allow me to dump multiple tracks down to the computer from my 16 track reel to reel. Again, this is all new to me, so i'm really just looking for guidance.

I was looking at this focusrite:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Scarlett18i20

It only has 8 analog inputs. Would i be able to dump down the 16 tracks from my reel to reel in two separate dump downs? I'm not really sure if this would pose any sort of problem syncing them up. I'm probably going to be using Protools.

Snarl 12/8 · Post by **Snarl 12/8** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 3:21 pm

xraymind7781 wrote: I was looking at this focusrite:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Scarlett18i20

It only has 8 analog inputs. Would i be able to dump down the 16 tracks from my reel to reel in two separate dump downs? I'm not really sure if this would pose any sort of problem syncing them up. I'm probably going to be using Protools.

You won't need another sound card.

And yeah, it'll be hard if not impossible to sync up. That fostex ain't a computer. It's never gonna do the same exact thing twice in a row.

xraymind7781 · Post by **xraymind7781** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 3:40 pm

Snarl 12/8 wrote: You won't need another sound card.

And yeah, it'll be hard if not impossible to sync up. That fostex ain't a computer. It's never gonna do the same exact thing twice in a row.

Awesome! Thanks! I thought I had to have both.

So, I have $800 for an interface. I need 16 analog inputs. Anything come to mind?

Bro Shark · Post by **Bro Shark** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 3:43 pm

Two Audiofire 12s will do the job. The plus is you'll just get straight I/O. No preamps in the way. Maybe shop used.

If you do go that route be sure to include a Texas Instruments chip-based Firewire card in your PC build.

xraymind7781 · Post by **xraymind7781** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 3:46 pm

Bro Shark wrote:Two Audiofire 12s will do the job. The plus is you'll just get straight I/O. No preamps in the way. Maybe shop used.

If you do go that route be sure to include a Texas Instruments chip-based Firewire card in your PC build.

Thanks. Note taken. Yeah, looking around there doesn't really seem to be any cheaper route.

xraymind7781 · Post by **xraymind7781** » Thu Mar 13, 2014 4:43 am

Okay, Ive decided to build a PC. Im going with two WD 1tb drives. Ive heard good things and bad things about SSD's. Anyone here have any experience with them. As of now im not planning on going that route.

Also, as mentioned before i plan on dumping a maximum of 16 tracks simultaneously to the computer via a firewire based interface. Im on a budget, and would like to keep my PC build around $1͵000. Any reccomendations on motherboards and processors in that price range that will be suitable for dumping that many tracks simultaneously? Anyone have any suggestions on what kind of case might be best for this project.

I need as much feedback as possible as this is my first build. Any tips on fans and power supplies would be useful as well.

Bro Shark · Post by **Bro Shark** » Thu Mar 13, 2014 9:20 am

16 in is pretty easy for a modern PC. Stick with brand name motherboards like ASUS, Gigabyte and the like. Go Intel i7 if you can swing it. SSD is not necessary, but if you must, use it for the system drive. 7200 RPM for the audio drive. If you want to be safe, factor in two or more backup drives. Backing up data early and often is crucial.

NVIDIA graphics card was the Avid recommendation 4 years ago. But, fuck Avid. Use Reaper. It runs light and lean and won't hog your resources. It will in fact maximize and play nice with what you do have. As opposed to the Avid product which will come into your house, find everything it hates about it, and give you nothing but grief until you tweak/adjust settings you never knew existed. Piece of shit.

Try to go fanless for CPU cooler and graphics card. Those are traditionally noisy. Use "quiet" case fans like Silenx.

Power supply, I believe 600W is more than plenty. Don't quote me on that though.

Again: 16 in is no big deal, especially if you work at 44.1 or 48. If you start getting into the realm of going over 96k I can't help you.

xraymind7781 · Post by **xraymind7781** » Mon May 05, 2014 7:35 am

Got everything set up for PT 11. When im dumping my tape tracks into pro tools, should i be EQing on my analog mixer before sending through the converter or should i be leaving the tracks flat?

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Tue May 06, 2014 8:26 am

i would probably transfer flat, but that's me. depends if the eq on your board is better than the eqs on your computer. what's your board?

kevin206 · Post by **kevin206** » Sun May 11, 2014 9:37 pm

I have a Fostex B-16, a Tascam US-1641(US-1800 +/-$250), and a used laptop that I've had a few years with Win7, and I use REAPER.

I can do a dump with a few extra pieces of gear and some special cables. Of course, the B-16 is RCA out, so I can use RCA to Male XLR cables for my interfaces 8 XLR inputs, RCA to 1/4" TS for the 6 line ins, and RCA to RCA into my old DAT recorder and out of that into the interface S/PDIF. I have an 8channel XLR mic splitter that has a -29db pad switch if needed, but I've had good results straight to the XLR pres and I just turn down the gain on the interface.

My computer has a 5400RPM drive that I hope to upgrade to SSD, but I can do the dump or even track live bands with this setup. That drive slows me down if I need to track, mix, and monitor all at the same time.

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Stepping into the digital realm for the first time. Help!

Stepping into the digital realm for the first time. Help!

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