Topic: use my saffire pro?

[growltiger]

Hi all - brand newbie here, looking to start taping -

I already have a Saffire Pro firewire interface that I use for recording/producing with my macbook pro -- I was wondering what people thought about using that as my preamp/converter for open taping? I really like the preamps on it and see no reason why I couldn't use them??? Assuming I could take the mics into the saffire and that into the macbook pro (or take the digital out into my microtrack then I could blow my wad on mics and not have to worry about a preamp and a/d converter. Only problem I see for larger venues or venues where I'm not friendly with the manger, etc is that I don't have battery power and need to plug-in somewhere

Ideally I'd like to buy mics for about $400-600 (max, $300ish preferably) that could be used either stealth or open. (though I'd have to pick up a church preamp for stealth), but I forsee close to 90% of my taping being done open, so i was wondering if buying larger mics at the same price point (or actually a bit more expensive) would yield better sound. So basically I can spend $300-500 (maybe stretch to $600) on stealth mics + preamp, or just spend the money on larger mics only.

Currently I'm looking at
Core Audio stealth cardoids or high-end binaurals
the Church Audio cardoids
AKG C-1000 (open only setup)
Rode NT-4 (open only setup)
AT 813 (open only setup)

--

so my questions I guess, do any of you use or like the Saffire Pro (I could also take SBD + AUD feed through the Saffire into the Mac Book and do a post processing matrix mix later which would be nice). Is using AC power a deal breaker? Does it make sense to max out an open taping setup if I forsee that being the majority of my taping or can I get the same sound quality through stealth mics on a stand for the open taping shows?

Thanks!

[growltiger]

anyone? anyone?

I suppose I am dumb and lots of people are using gear that they had to make a battery pack for, so I could always use a battery for the saffire - but would still be interested in folks opinions of it as a preamp/converter to feed out via SPDIF to a small recorder or via firewire to a laptop....

Seems like all the mics I mentioned have been talked about quite a bit so I will read through the mic forum.

[TNJazz]

You mean use the Saffire as both preamp and A/D without the computer?  You might want to check and see if the Saffire will allow routing of the analog inputs to the SPDIF out and store it.  A couple of the higher end units on the market (Metric Halo for sure) have this option, but many do not.  The Firebox, for instance, can be used standalone but only as an analog preamp.  There's no way to save the routing to SPDIF without it being connected to a PC.

To answer your other question, I wouldn't touch any of the mics you listed with a ten foot pole with the possible exception of the Church Audio mics (they are the only ones I've never used on this list, but I've heard lots of people praise them).

[growltiger]

yeah, it actually doesn't appear the saffire can be used standalone at all, though the new 10 and 24 can be used as a standalone preamp. This isn't really a big deal since if I was using it, it would be for a show where I could use my computer as the recorder. I will do some tests this weekend and try to figure out how long the MBP can bus power it when running on batteries when I am using the preamps.

Thanks for the mic opinion. I'm going to keep listening on the LMA and see what I like. Any more opinions about using the Saffire as a preamp + converter would be nice