Nord User Forum

Hey guys,

My band (5 piece: 2 guitars, bass, keyboard and drums + 3 vocals) is looking at different interfaces for recording demos quality recordings of our upcoming album (we'll be heading to the studio to do a full fledged recording later on once we're satisfied with our arrangements).

We're in the market for USB devices that have at least 8 preamps. Additional lines in are a plus or Adat in for more lines. We're looking in the 500CAD$-1000$CAD range. I'd like your suggestions.

At the moment we're leaning towards the Scarlett focusrite 18i20, Scarlett Octopre Mk II, or the MOTU 8-pre but are having some difficulty making up our minds.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!
Dugrok

I don't have enough experience with this gear to help you, but I would only suggest to inclue the Roland UA-1610 Studio Capture in your shortlist (12 premium preamps, a very cool autosense feature...). I use one (10i10o) in my home studio and I love everything about it. I think it should be right in your price range.

If you are looking for something that has 8 preamps, my guess is that you mean you would like to be able to record the whole band at once, as opposed to one track at a time. You mentioned that your band has this lineup: (5 piece: 2 guitars, bass, keyboard and drums + 3 vocals). If recording the entire band all at the same time, I would guess you would need a minimum of 3 lines for the drum kit (2 condenser overheads plus the kick), 1 for each of the 2 guitars, bass, and keyboard, plus 3 for the vocals. That would be 3+4+3=10 lines. Even if you reduced it to just 1 instead of 2 overhead mics for the drum kit, you would still need 9 lines, if you were wanting to record the whole band at once.

But would I necessarily need to preamp all of the lines or just the ones that are going to be amplified?

Dugrok wrote:But would I necessarily need to preamp all of the lines or just the ones that are going to be amplified?

You will need enough mic preamps on your interface to cover all the actual microphones plus DI boxes you use at one time, but you can use line level inputs (ie no mic preamp required) for electric instruments like keyboards etc.

I'm going to assume that you're NOT going to record the lead and backing vocals live at the same time as the rest of the instruments, so that would reduce the number of mic preamps you need for a start. Ultimately, it's a matter of how many instruments you'll be recording SIMULTANEOUSLY that matters. You just need to decide exactly how you're going to do your recordings, and do the arithmetic about how many mic preamp and line level inputs you need. If you're intending to record your instruments mostly separately, that will reduce your need for mic preamps quite considerably.

Basically:

Drums - Recorded acoustically with mics. One mic preamp for each mic on the drum kit

Bass - Either mic up the speaker or DI the bass, one mic preamp needed. (You can do both simultaneously if you want. Some people do that to get the best possible bass sound, but it's not absolutely necessary).

Guitar - Usually mic up the speaker cab. Not usually DI'ed, but some guitarists do use amps or effects that can be DI'ed or have line level outputs.

Keyboards - You should know this one! Out the back to line level inputs.

Vocals - mics. 'nuff said.

If you can reduce your need for mic preamps to four, you can save a ton of money on your interface. Just thought I'd mention it.

Edit:

Another factor to consider when deciding how much money you want to spend is whether you're going to use the interface and other gear again in the future. The more use you need to get from your interface, the more it makes sense to spend the extra to get better quality stuff. If you're only really going to use it once for your demos, then spending a lot of money on high quality studio-grade gear doesn't make so much sense. In that case, it only needs to be "good enough" to get the job done.