A Great, Affordable, Small Recording Set-up!

I know many of you out there are just starting out in the recording business. I am all about continuing to spread information from generation to generation. Someone took the time to teach me and I think it is my duty to continue to learn, and give the knowledge I gain to someone else. In this blog post I will give you some opinions on how to build a very affordable recording rig that is also able to capture great audio. To start with, interfaces, which one? I am particularly fond of the Digidesign 003 Rack+.

There are eight mic and line inputs, each able to engage phantom power. The pre amps are decent and smooth. Obviously you can do better, I run a Neve Portico 5012 myself, but you could do a lot worse. Now, there are two channels of SPDIF and eight channels of ADAT input available to the 003, this means we can use another interface with equally decent pres to increase your inputs to 16 or 18 with SPDIF. This is more than enough to track a small band of power three piece. So I found out that it is not recommended to stack two 003s to achieve this, so I started looking for affordable choices.

I stumbled across the Focusrite Octopre MKII. The Octopre LE preamps offer 5dB lower gain, they are capable of 96kHz audio and there is an ADAT i/o. On the higher priced Octopre MkII Dynamic, you will have all the functionality you’d see on an ADAT expander. As well as a compressor-limiter on each channel, you get both ADAT in and out (again at 24-bit, 96kHz). I also talked to other colleagues that said they and people they know have used the Octopre to add eight channels to their home rig. In the Dynamic version of the MkII you get a compressor-limiter on each channel. So what I do is hook up my 003 Rack+ to my Apple Mac Book Pro. I run all of my sessions off of an Avastor HDX 500GB hard drive and leave the processing up to the CPU. I have two channels of Neve pres and if I need more pres I have the 003 and Octopre to turn to. The Octopre is connected to the 003 via ADAT light pipe and the 003 is the master device when clocking. This gives me sixteen channels of i/o and two high quality preamps along with sixteen decent pres. I have a variety of mics to choose from, but honestly one of my go to mics is the AT 2050. I bought and made my own XLR cable and ¼” cable and I was able to do it at a fraction of the cost of buying pre-made cable. The Octopre MkII Dynamic is $699.99 and the 003 Rack+ is being phased out, but you can get the Complete Rack in the plus version for about $1750.00. The Portico 5012 is about $1725.00 and a great starter mic pack that includes two Sampson C-12 pencil condensers, the AT2020, and the e-609 for $399.99. So, for about $4575.00 you can have a very mobile, very decent recording rig that is capable of recording anything from stand-up comedy to bands to voice-overs. I have used this rig for years with much success and I didn’t invest near that dealing with Sweetwater. They have worked with me on every purchase to help get closer to the numbers I have in my budget. I can’t say what they will do for you, but I lucked up and got a good friend on the inside and he treats me very well. This is just one option, but this is a great bridge between affordability and quality. It is a good medium. If you have more in your budget I would suggest going a different way. I hope you enjoyed the blog this time and learned something from it. Check out the links to see some of the gear I found and make your own mind up about it. Until next time…


http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/5012DuoMicH
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar10/articles/focusriteoctopremkII.htm
http://www.focusrite.com/products/saffire/octopre_mkii_dynamic/

Finance...no, that is not an audio term...

Before we begin with this installment of The Summing Amp I must clear the air for all of my faithful pro audio followers. I am aware that there are some discrepancies between what this blog is supposed to be about and lately what we have been supplying to you. I have received some confused emails asking me, “What does this have to do with pro audio?” Well, I will first apologize to you for all of the confusion. I am required to write about specific topics for the completion of my Master’s degree and those topics are very rarely about pro audio. I do hope we only have one more of these unrelated topics to write about and then I should have total control over the content of “my” blog. After that it will be all and only pro audio related topics, thank you all for your continued support.
Ok, now that that has been cleared up we can talk about financing; yes that is what I said. There were ten websites I had to review and answer some questions about. On these websites financing is directed towards the Clinton administrations goal of providing financing options for distressed communities across our nation. These vehicles are called CDFI’s or Community Development Financial Institution Funds. In 2002, the CDFI’s moved from Philadelphia, PA to the nation’s capitol in order to maximize the organization’s visibility with federal policy makers. They also established independence as a nonprofit charitable organization and elected its first Board of Directors and officers. Some of these institutions represent over 100,000 loans directed toward low-income and low to moderate-income borrowers.
There are two more specific institutions, namely First Nations and the Oweesta Program that focus specifically on the Native Indian community. Regardless of what is offered to any other special interest group, for whom I believe should be on the same level as the rest of the nation, this particular group is the only one that deserves this special treatment, taking their and our history into consideration. All opinions aside, these institutions wish to boost local and global economy. Most of these loans and investments range from $100,000 to $3 million, in terms lasting from 3 to 10 years.
For those in my audience who are interested I will list the sites at the bottom of this blog. On these sites you can find the terms, mission statements and history of each site. You must fit one of their profiles to be considered for funding. To reiterate what I said in the beginning of this blog, only a few more and we are back to pro audio. I do appreciate the emails; even of they were not so complementary, trying to redirect me toward the title and topic of this blog. At least I know you are reading if you are complaining. Stay in touch with any more ideas, questions, or improvements you may have. Until next time…


Here are the sources that were supplied to me:

www.opportunityfinance.net
www.microenterpriseworks.org
www.cdfi.org
www.cfed.org
www.cdvca.org
www.ncif.org
www.natfed.org
www.eda.gov
www.firstnations.org
www.oweesta.org