Gimme the inputs...and more inputs!

[Greg_L]

Lol Jeez. That's insane.

Option 2 is exactly what I'm doing.

[JD01]

Tad, if you don't mind the floor damage, option 1 sounds easiest to me. I hate transferring files between computers.

[JD01]

On the two at the front 6 at the back thing.
I think the focusrite stuff is generally aimed at home studio amateurs like me.
3 and 5
Keyboard in stereo
5 and 6 guitar cab mics
7 bass
8 emulated out from my amp.
1 and 2 are used for things I chop and change a lot, vocals and acoustic guitars.
In my small space it suits me having 3-8 out of the way never getting touched.

[Armistice]

Option 1 doesn't factor in the cost of making the floor good at some stage in the future... Or the arguments with your wife.

Transferring files ain't so hard.

[Armistice]

I think there's an assumption with small box gear, that the people using it don't have, or want for reasons of space or otherwise, a rack. I've only ever had two full rack pieces, both in a box somewhere these days.

My RME has 2 x combo XLR + 2 line on the front and other inputs on the back that I've never used, but it has no hardware controls so it gets the extra 2 line ins on the front panel.

Obviously once you have drums and multiple spaces, the equation changes.

[Bill L]

I've been using a Behringer X18 R for about 5 years now with lots of gigs under it's belt. I love it so much that I bought another for back up. I also have an X32 Rack (16 channel) but I also bought a 32 channel stage box. My buddy just bought a X18 and only uses it as an interface. I have used them all to record shows and they work great. Their quality went up shortly after they purchased Midas. In fact, Behringer boards are almost identical to the Midas boards. The exception being the preamps. Which are basically the same but the Midas are usually slightly better quality (and also more expensive). Behringer has been shedding the image of them as shit gear for a while now. I highly recommend these boards as an interface simply because they are versatile and easy to use. Especially the X18.

[Greg_L]

I've been using a Behringer X18 R for about 5 years now with lots of gigs under it's belt. I love it so much that I bought another for back up. I also have an X32 Rack (16 channel) but I also bought a 32 channel stage box. My buddy just bought a X18 and only uses it as an interface. I have used them all to record shows and they work great. Their quality went up shortly after they purchased Midas. In fact, Behringer boards are almost identical to the Midas boards. The exception being the preamps. Which are basically the same but the Midas are usually slightly better quality (and also more expensive). Behringer has been shedding the image of them as shit gear for a while now. I highly recommend these boards as an interface simply because they are versatile and easy to use. Especially the X18.

Yeah one of my bands had an XR18 we used as a PA head. It was great! And it could sync to our phones and shit, I could control my monitor mix from my own phone, so cool. Very clean and powerful and dependable little unit.

[Bill L]

I've been using a Behringer X18 R for about 5 years now with lots of gigs under it's belt. I love it so much that I bought another for back up. I also have an X32 Rack (16 channel) but I also bought a 32 channel stage box. My buddy just bought a X18 and only uses it as an interface. I have used them all to record shows and they work great. Their quality went up shortly after they purchased Midas. In fact, Behringer boards are almost identical to the Midas boards. The exception being the preamps. Which are basically the same but the Midas are usually slightly better quality (and also more expensive). Behringer has been shedding the image of them as shit gear for a while now. I highly recommend these boards as an interface simply because they are versatile and easy to use. Especially the X18.

Yeah one of my bands had an XR18 we used as a PA head. It was great! And it could sync to our phones and shit, I could control my monitor mix from my own phone, so cool. Very clean and powerful and dependable little unit.

Exactly. And the fact that it be used as an interface as well, with 16 XLR-1/4-TRS inputs and 2 - 1/4" inputs, makes it a great $500 - $600 investment.

[vomitHatSteve]

And it could sync to our phones and shit,

Via bluetooth? A mixing board that could sync a bunch of phones could be super helpful for practice. No more "you forgot how that part went? Let me queue it up on my phone and hold it to the mic"

[Bill L]

And it could sync to our phones and shit,

Via bluetooth? A mixing board that could sync a bunch of phones could be super helpful for practice. No more "you forgot how that part went? Let me queue it up on my phone and hold it to the mic"

Through the wireless router, not bluetooth. I can have a couple of iPads and/or tablets connected as well as any number of phones. The phone app only allows you to connect to 1 mix bus at a time. And you can customize your mix from that. iPads and tablets have more functional programs for greater control of the main outs.

[Greg_L]

Via bluetooth? A mixing board that could sync a bunch of phones could be super helpful for practice. No more "you forgot how that part went? Let me queue it up on my phone and hold it to the mic"

I think it was WiFi. It had it's own wifi network.

[WhiskeyJack]

That's crazy. What a time to be alive.

remeber fighting with four tracks back in the day. Imagine going back in time and trying to explain all this to our selves 25 years ago !!!

[Greg_L]

That's crazy. What a time to be alive.

remeber fighting with four tracks back in the day. Imagine going back in time and trying to explain all this to our selves 25 years ago !!!

My first taste of home-brew digital recording was in late 1998. I was working in an auto shop, also playing in bands, and one of the guys that delivered parts to the shop knew of my moonlighting as a local punk rock dummy and told me about his home studio. I'm like "yeah yeah I got a 4-track too big deal". He's like, "no man, I'm all digital. It's in the computer". And then I'm like "I don't do techno dance music dude". And he's all "fuck no man, just come check it out".

So I did, I went to his house one night, and my mind was sufficiently blown to smithereens. His shit was primitive by today's standards, but it was indeed all digital computer based DAW stuff. He had drums, amps, everything, so I tracked a song all by myself in his little home studio and left with a copy on a CD that same night. Un-fucking-believable. I was floored. I'd been to real studios, no big deal. But I couldn't believe that level of recording was now available to regular pissants. It changed my life.

[WhiskeyJack]

That's crazy. What a time to be alive.

remeber fighting with four tracks back in the day. Imagine going back in time and trying to explain all this to our selves 25 years ago !!!

My first taste of home-brew digital recording was in late 1998. I was working in an auto shop, also playing in bands, and one of the guys that delivered parts to the shop knew of my moonlighting as a local punk rock dummy and told me about his home studio. I'm like "yeah yeah I got a 4-track too big deal". He's like, "no man, I'm all digital. It's in the computer". And then I'm like "I don't do techno dance music dude". And he's all "fuck no man, just come check it out".

So I did, I went to his house one night, and my mind was sufficiently blown to smithereens. His shit was primitive by today's standards, but it was indeed all digital computer based DAW stuff. He had drums, amps, everything, so I tracked a song all by myself in his little home studio and left with a copy on a CD that same night. Un-fucking-believable. I was floored. I'd been to real studios, no big deal. But I couldn't believe that level of recording was now available to regular pissants. It changed my life.

NO shit! That would be pretty remarkable though really. going from one extreme to another. I think my first experience would have been around the same time. Maybe 1999-ish actually. My buddies and i passed around and muscled around with an old Fostex 4 track, some mixer boards and other random cassette based gear that we jury rigged together and we got on o.k. None of our recordings were any good at all. Like at all. Then our one buddys who was first on board with a grown up career type job, bought a console based digital recorder "with unlimited tracks". It wasn't unlimited. It was 16, but you could bounce anything off those 16 to any of the "unlimited virtual tracks". Which again wasn't unlimited because there was "only" 2GB of hard drive space. If i recall correctly the 4GB upgrade was another 600 dollars!!!

I thought that thing was so bad ass. I was at his place every weekend and we made noise of any sort. it even had a handful of "amp sims" on it. I remember us looking at each other in wide eyed astonishment and he was like " DUDE I CAN SELL MY AMP NOW !!!" He didn't though. that amp was fantastic. The unit was a RolandVS of some variety. Sadly it wasn't CD burning ready, the CD burner you could get for it was just another insane investment and it never got purchased. We had to write it all to a zip drive and then take it to someone else with a better computer to do something to it to get it on CD. I remember it being a huge pain in that guys ass because all the files we exported out of it were all written in some lame Roland proprietary format. But then we later figured out that we could do all our recording and mixing and then just bounce it down to cassette from the RCA outs on the back of the thing and then eventually a streo mix out to a computer to burn onto CD. even still. that really changed everything for me. I was hooked at that point.

[Greg_L]

NO shit! That would be pretty remarkable though really. going from one extreme to another. I think my first experience would have been around the same time. Maybe 1999-ish actually. My buddies and i passed around and muscled around with an old Fostex 4 track, some mixer boards and other random cassette based gear that we jury rigged together and we got on o.k. None of our recordings were any good at all. Like at all. Then our one buddys who was first on board with a grown up career type job, bought a console based digital recorder "with unlimited tracks". It wasn't unlimited. It was 16, but you could bounce anything off those 16 to any of the "unlimited virtual tracks". Which again wasn't unlimited because there was "only" 2GB of hard drive space. If i recall correctly the 4GB upgrade was another 600 dollars!!!

I thought that thing was so bad ass. I was at his place every weekend and we made noise of any sort. it even had a handful of "amp sims" on it. I remember us looking at each other in wide eyed astonishment and he was like " DUDE I CAN SELL MY AMP NOW !!!" He didn't though. that amp was fantastic. The unit was a RolandVS of some variety. Sadly it wasn't CD burning ready, the CD burner you could get for it was just another insane investment and it never got purchased. We had to write it all to a zip drive and then take it to someone else with a better computer to do something to it to get it on CD. I remember it being a huge pain in that guys ass because all the files we exported out of it were all written in some lame Roland proprietary format. But then we later figured out that we could do all our recording and mixing and then just bounce it down to cassette from the RCA outs on the back of the thing and then eventually a streo mix out to a computer to burn onto CD. even still. that really changed everything for me. I was hooked at that point.

That's pretty funny....bouncing out to cassette then back into a different computer. Good ol days!

[WhiskeyJack]

NO shit! That would be pretty remarkable though really. going from one extreme to another. I think my first experience would have been around the same time. Maybe 1999-ish actually. My buddies and i passed around and muscled around with an old Fostex 4 track, some mixer boards and other random cassette based gear that we jury rigged together and we got on o.k. None of our recordings were any good at all. Like at all. Then our one buddys who was first on board with a grown up career type job, bought a console based digital recorder "with unlimited tracks". It wasn't unlimited. It was 16, but you could bounce anything off those 16 to any of the "unlimited virtual tracks". Which again wasn't unlimited because there was "only" 2GB of hard drive space. If i recall correctly the 4GB upgrade was another 600 dollars!!!

I thought that thing was so bad ass. I was at his place every weekend and we made noise of any sort. it even had a handful of "amp sims" on it. I remember us looking at each other in wide eyed astonishment and he was like " DUDE I CAN SELL MY AMP NOW !!!" He didn't though. that amp was fantastic. The unit was a RolandVS of some variety. Sadly it wasn't CD burning ready, the CD burner you could get for it was just another insane investment and it never got purchased. We had to write it all to a zip drive and then take it to someone else with a better computer to do something to it to get it on CD. I remember it being a huge pain in that guys ass because all the files we exported out of it were all written in some lame Roland proprietary format. But then we later figured out that we could do all our recording and mixing and then just bounce it down to cassette from the RCA outs on the back of the thing and then eventually a streo mix out to a computer to burn onto CD. even still. that really changed everything for me. I was hooked at that point.

That's pretty funny....bouncing out to cassette then back into a different computer. Good ol days!

Oh lord no. I forgot some punctuation or gooder-ly formed sentences. sorry dude. We figured out to bounce to cassette and did that for a while. Then, eventually we then figured out we can do the same thing into a computer and burn cd's from there. No mo' casettes.

[Greg_L]

Oh lord no. I forgot some punctuation or gooder-ly formed sentences. sorry dude. We figured out to bounce to cassette and did that for a while. Then, eventually we then figured out we can do the same thing into a computer and burn cd's from there. No mo' casettes.

Well still....cassettes!

I remember the first time I was on an actual CD. 1994. It was a big deal for me. We had made cassettes willy nilly like it was nothing because it was actually nothing. But at that time CD burners weren't really a common thing and no one recorded digitally. We went to an actual studio with an actual budget and recorded actual material and had a fucking CD. It wasn't some homemade thing. It was legit.

And I don't even have one.

[Tadpui]

Tad, if you don't mind the floor damage, option 1 sounds easiest to me. I hate transferring files between computers.

Option 1 doesn't factor in the cost of making the floor good at some stage in the future... Or the arguments with your wife.

Transferring files ain't so hard.

Honestly, that's where I'm leaning. I think that I could make a clean hole that's as small as possible. I'm seriously willing to cut all of the connectors off of a snake and re-solder them back on after feeding it through, just to keep the hole diameter to a minimum. Add a grommet, or whatever you call those things that make a hole look tidy, make sure to locate said hole behind the couch, and I honestly think it could work.

I hate transferring projects and files that much. Although I've got a pretty solid home wireless network, so transferring files at least wouldn't involve physical media. But still, it'd be so much easier to be able to record to the same computer from both locations.

[Greg_L]

Hold on a minute...LOL....far be it from me to discourage an awesome home studio project like this....but you're talking about drilling a hole through a floor and ceiling, removing and replacing the ends of a snake, just so you don't have to wait the few minutes at most of transferring files from one computer to another? That seems a little excessive to me.

[JD01]

Hold on a minute...LOL....far be it from me to discourage an awesome home studio project like this....but you're talking about drilling a hole through a floor and ceiling, removing and replacing the ends of a snake, just so you don't have to wait the few minutes at most of transferring files from one computer to another? That seems a little excessive to me.

[mention]Tadpui[/mention] really hates transferring files.