Interface upgrade around $1500 - suggestions?

Anything about hardware musical instruments.
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Hey guys,

I'm looking to upgrade my interface from a Saffire Pro 40. I've got $1500 and need 8 i/o. What are you recommending? I'm looking at motu at the moment mostly because of driver stability. Any other recommendations? The motu 8m looks like it would work but what would be the quality difference between running the 8m vs the mk4 and a 8 i/o radial dI step?

Thanks,
Kevin
Win 7 | Dual Xeon x5680 | 48 GB RAM | Saffire Pro 40 | Yamaha HS50 monitors |Cubase 8.5 Pro|
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Kevin DiGennaro

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I got a RME Fireface UC and highly recommend it. Rock solid drivers, only 2 crashes since 2009 (because of 2 nasty plugins). The best piece of hardware I ever bought.
Last edited by e@rs on Sun Feb 26, 2017 8:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

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RME for me every time.

I've had a couple of MOTU interfaces and their customer support ain't that great.

RME driver stability is second to none. A UC/X falls within your budget.

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+1 on RME , got a fireface 400 and it's rock solid since 8 years.

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Do they make an 8 i/o unit? I've heard great things about RME but only seen 8+ i/o with TRS no XLR.

Thanks,
Kevin
Win 7 | Dual Xeon x5680 | 48 GB RAM | Saffire Pro 40 | Yamaha HS50 monitors |Cubase 8.5 Pro|
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Kevin DiGennaro

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I don't think they do actually, that's reserved for their OctaMic A/D converters.

I would still rather have an RME interface and add XLR's via ADAT than go with MOTU tbh.

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Further thought - whst should probably be asking is if I went with something like the fireface 800 or 802 since the inputs are balanced line level could I just hook that up via patchBay? So an xlr input patch with TRS output?

Thanks,
Kevin
Win 7 | Dual Xeon x5680 | 48 GB RAM | Saffire Pro 40 | Yamaha HS50 monitors |Cubase 8.5 Pro|
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Kevin DiGennaro

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tehlord wrote:I don't think they do actually, that's reserved for their OctaMic A/D converters.

I would still rather have an RME interface and add XLR's via ADAT than go with MOTU tbh.
Over looked this post - not a bad idea. The fireface 800 is around $750 used not sure I need to have the 802. What preamp would you pair with the 800 with the left over budget?

Thanks,
Kevin
Win 7 | Dual Xeon x5680 | 48 GB RAM | Saffire Pro 40 | Yamaha HS50 monitors |Cubase 8.5 Pro|
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Kevin DiGennaro

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theEmbark wrote:Further thought - whst should probably be asking is if I went with something like the fireface 800 or 802 since the inputs are balanced line level could I just hook that up via patchBay? So an xlr input patch with TRS output?

Thanks,
Kevin
I don't see why not, but don't take my word for it. It's not something I've ever done....

Incidentally, I have a 10 year old FF400 here and it works flawlessly and RME still support it with the latest driver/software package.

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If you're on Mac, go Motu. If you're on PC, go somewhere else. Just about all of the negative reviews about Motu are those who are using it with PC. Very few issues with Motu on Mac.

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donato wrote:If you're on Mac, go Motu. If you're on PC, go somewhere else. Just about all of the negative reviews about Motu are those who are using it with PC. Very few issues with Motu on Mac.
That's good info I'm using PCs these days.


Edit:

Further looking into things look the best option in my budget for maximum inputs would be the fireface 800. That gives me 4 xlr and a line or 5 line on the front (or any combo). Then 8 of the inputs could go to something like a radial rack di with decent pres like this:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ProD8

That'd give me a total max of 12 xlr or up to 13 balanced lines in.

I guess I could even adat out to the pro 40 to use its preamps if I needed. Thathe would be plenty for my needs.

Can someone run through that thought process and make sure it makes sense? :-)

Thanks,
Kevin
Win 7 | Dual Xeon x5680 | 48 GB RAM | Saffire Pro 40 | Yamaha HS50 monitors |Cubase 8.5 Pro|
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Kevin DiGennaro

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I would go for a USB unit just for convenience, specially in Windows.

The fireface UC, UCX or 802, expand via adat or use the line inputs. You already have some way to take advantage of the adat
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rod_zero wrote:I would go for a USB unit just for convenience, specially in Windows.

The fireface UC, UCX or 802, expand via adat or use the line inputs. You already have some way to take advantage of the adat
Thanks for making that point,

You are right, USB is a million times easier to get to corporate with PCs. Looking at the prices I am seeing for 1500-1600 I could get a 802 vs the UCX at 1300. Might be worth the extra couple hundred long term.

I actually really like focusrites preamps so really either would work using adat since the pro40 can be used in manual mode basically as their Octa pre.

Are there are other selling pointo between the 802, uc, and ucx worth exploring that set them apart from each other?

Thanks,
Kevin
Win 7 | Dual Xeon x5680 | 48 GB RAM | Saffire Pro 40 | Yamaha HS50 monitors |Cubase 8.5 Pro|
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Kevin DiGennaro

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You could always go this route too ???????? 1. RME PCIe aio , 2. RME breakout cable and 3. Focusrite 8pre with Adat out .... It'd get you right under $1400 ..... I plan on getting 1 and 2 soon ... Here's it all in a shopping cart . https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HDSPe9632

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fedexnman wrote:You could always go this route too ???????? 1. RME PCIe aio , 2. RME breakout cable and 3. Focusrite 8pre with Adat out .... It'd get you right under $1400 ..... I plan on getting 1 and 2 soon ... Here's it all in a shopping cart . https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HDSPe9632
Thanks for the suggestion,

Doesn't look like I mentioned this but it's for my mobile rack rig which I run off a clevo laptop system so no space for the card. :(

But thank you!

If focusrite could get their software act together it'd be a game changer. At least compared to motu I prefer the pres focusrite uses.

Thanks,
Kevin
Win 7 | Dual Xeon x5680 | 48 GB RAM | Saffire Pro 40 | Yamaha HS50 monitors |Cubase 8.5 Pro|
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Kevin DiGennaro

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