The right pro tools hardware set up

[collinsullivan]

In a couple months Ill be putting together a studio for myself and to record other bands and im confused about what the right set up for me would be.

The two main ideas both using mpowered pro tools are either a firewire 1814 and an octane 8 channel preamp combined (if this even works) Mainly because I want a lot of mic preamp inputs to record drums. I would like to use just the octane alone but I think I need to put it through the firewire 1814 to get it to work with protools. Im not sure.

Or the m-audio project mix control surface.

Both ideas are similarly priced and Im not exactly sure about the pros and cons of either or if there is a better set up for me. My main concern is at 8 least high qaulity mic preamp inputs which both have.

Im new to this stuff can anyone help?

 

[CanadaRAM]

OK, a try -- To run Protools, you either have to have a Digidesign original interface, or an M-Audio interface (Protools M-Powered version). So you cannot get away from that.

The expense of your interface is going to vary with the number of simultaneous channels that it can digitize... so you need to make a careful assessment hof how many tracks you really need to lay down at one. This is possibly not the same number as how many mics that are on the drumkit - because you have the option to mix down the mics to a smaller number of channels (bass, snare, L+ R mix, for example, or bass, L + R mix and overheads)

In general I would be looking for a good quality outboard mixer in addition to whatever interface I chose. If you weren't going Protools, you could choose from a wider range of mixers with Firewire interfaces...