Help from pro audio users please?

What exactly do you mean by reasonable cost?

I'd suggest you look at the Digidesign Control 24 unit, its a ProTools controller with 24 physical faders and 24 Focusrite mic pre-amps, it goes about £4500 over here, and is also an invaluably mixing tool.

Other than that you should look at the Tascam DA24 mixer which has 16 pre's and all the other bits you'd expect in a very compact frame. Works well with ProTools, but you'll need the 002 interface with it. the 001 doesn't work with the G5 cos Apple changed the voltage to the PCI slots.

I haven't used it, but maybe the MOTU 828mkII (http://www.motu.com) is an option for you. It has 10 analog inputs. You could daisychain two of them.

Hi metatron. The Digi 002 actually has the capability to input 18 tracks at once. It has 8 analog built-in inputs, but also has ADAT optical (channels) and S/pdif. All you would need is a PreAmp/Converter with optiical out. A company called PreSonus makes one for I believe about $800 or even less. 8 mic inputs, with pre's, and 8 analog AND optical out. There you are, 16 channels into your Digi 002. (which is a great little piece of gear) If you needed even more channels, the s/pdif inputs can take 2 more channels from another converter.


-chris

I agree with Steak. The Digi002 is a good unit, as you can buy an extra 8 channel rack strip and plug it in using the ADAT lightpipe connector and you get great software included. A presonus firestation or a MOTU 828 MKII will give you 8 inputs each but you wil need to buy Logic or Cubase and a control surface such as a Mackie HUI. Here in Australia the MOTU route will cost about $7500 where the Digi002 with a Presonus DigiMAX 96K 8 Channel Mic pre you can get for about $6500 to $7000. Much cheaper elsewhere in the world.

You can't daisychain 002's together. You use the route suggested above. IMPORTANT Be aware, ProTools LE 6.1 doesn't support the Apple G5 yet. Check here http://www.digidesign.com/news/details.cfm?story_id=243 for further details. Other hardware units have limited support as well.

One other point is, the FireStation and the MOTU units only have 2 Balanced Mic inputs. You would need to buy 2 MOTU 896 to get 16 Balanced Mic channels. The

You could ditch all of these ideas and go for a Mackie HDR 24/96 with 2 8 channel input cards. Nice, very professional, Works well and not that much more expensive and sometimes cheaper if you factor in the cost of the Apple G5.

Cheers

You will be able to control each channel seperately. The Digi 002 has 8 faders on it. If you're only using the built in pre-amps plus the 8 extra from the PreSonus you will have a total of 12 balanced XLR inputs. So the 002 will control all 12 inputs but only 8 at a time. You can "scroll" back and forth between banks of 8 channels and adjust as neccesary.

Sorry if this is confusing, basically the answer is yes you can control each channel seperately.

I concur with pepeleuepe. Each channel either from the onboard pre's or the outboard pre's can be assigned to a separate fader and controled independantly. Each Channel in ADAT Lightpipe is Full Duplex. It can send and recieve information.

I have the Digi 002 Rack, basically a 002 without the cool faders and stuff. It works great and has soooo much room for expansion I don't think I'll ever use all the channels. The 002 should work great for you, but be careful, Digidesign still doesn't officially support G5's, but withing a month they should.

For your consideration... seems interesting and I'll test it out when available locally but the 896HD MOTU (debuted at AES.) Some impressive features for the $1300 price.

Here's what you need

Why buy a G5 for the recording when he Mackie D8B v5 is avaliable, I've got no idea how much it costs but it's close to the best on the market. Unfortunatly you cannot use it for much else.