Miscellaneous > Recording - Studio Talk

New I/O day Focusrite 18i20

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rnolan:
Since my win xp machine died  :facepalm: and thus disenfranchised me from my pro tools  and thus digi 001, I've been without descent I/O and stuck with using the on board realtech crap AD/DA that's built into many pcs blah  :facepalm: it's so shit.... (if you have decent monitors...).  So after much recalcitrance/reluctance (on my part, hey I spent thousands on that setup..)  I finally bought a new I/O device (USB is not my preferred connection method but hey, what can you do..).  So I bought a Focusrite 18i20 (as did Harvey IIRC).  So far it's been painful (though not quite as painful as a win98/win xp install of pro tools 5/6 with digi 001).  Well win7 (64bit) seemed ok with it and it let me play some wav files, but the Focusrite Control program (the thingy you need to rout inputs and output etc) didn't want to recognise it WTF. Ended up having to bounce it around a few USB ports until it was happy (it seems to only like USB 2 ports), and finally it works.So I've just played back a few (wav) files with GoldWave, and then VLC. VLC is so shit (from a resolution perspective), with GoldWave there is sooo much more detail.Initial reaction, the Focusrite is very detailed in the midrange (maybe too detailed  :dunno: lacks bottom end IMHO), the pro tools digi 001 (which is very old now) is a better sounding I/O (AD/DA) device as in it just sounds allot better.

Chip Roberts:
Okay!  Story: I, too, recently updated my interface to a Focusrite and it was a horrible, painful process.  I got the Saffire Pro 24(?) which runs off of Firewire.  That said, I bought a Firewire card and installed it, plugged everything in and the piece of crap MixControl wouldn't recognize the connection.  So after 3 hours of scouring the forums, I arrived at the conclusion that it's general knowledge (which laymen wouldn't know) that my unit will ONLY be recognized by a Firewire card manufactured by Texas Instruments.  First off, that should be CLEARLY written SOMEWHERE that's easy to find that in order for this unit to WORK it NEEDS a TI Firewire card.  I had to go through 8 or 9 different forum chains just to come to that conclusion!  Second, what kind of buyer-friendly system is that!?  Oh, I'm just supposed to ASSUME this unit needs a TI card?

Anyways, I bought ANOTHER Firewire card, installed it, everything worked fine, but occasionally the sound in other applications will crash because Mixcontrol is a piece of crap.  I bought this unit based on the recommendations of my band members who said it has the best mic pres for my price range, but in the future, should I need to update my interface I'll probably stick with Presonus.

rnolan:
Hey Chip, thats just crazy, 1 that it has to have a specific firewire card but that they don't tell you  :facepalm: .Also, with the 18i20 it only seems to work (for mix control) if you use a USB port on the computer (and not the USB 3 port), if I used the ports on my external HDD (it has 3 additional USB ports) it didn't recognise it.  Windows was happy with it though, it would play stuff from other programs even when mix control wouldn't work  :dunno: .  Then I discover today that mix control has changed things in my laptop, for the first time ever I now get sound from the external monitor (connected via HDMI), it had never worked before.
And next I have to buy new recording software, I own pro tools (6.4) but it wont work with any non digi design interfaces.  So it's $1000 to buy new pro tools, well at least since my daughter is going to Uni she can buy me the student edition for around $400...

MarshallJMP:
It seems TI firewire  chip sets are best for audio. When I bought my tascam DM3200 with the firewire option they told me it was best to use a TI chipset. Seems also to be the case with other cards. So I looked for a motherboard with lots of USB and a TI chipset firewire port.

I also have a focusrite octopre dynamic hooked up via ADAT to the tascam so I can record 24 tracks at once. (I can even go to 32 tracks if I hook up a second octopre).
So audio goes through firewire to my computer (32 in and 32 out @ 24 bit 96 kHz) and I can use all the controls of the DM3200 in cubase via USB. Took some time to set it all up but it works perfect. So I have real knobs and sliders  ;)

rnolan:
Hey MJMP, good setup  :thumb-up: .  I get by with 8 in/out, I use my Eurorack UB2442 FX desk as the centre piece and do all I/O and monitoring from the desk, so no latency issues.  Also the desk has direct outs (post fader) for the first 8 channels, it's a well thought out desk (with real knobs and faders  :thumb-up: ).

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