Topic: Focusrite Scarlett 8i6 (NOW WITH RECORDING SAMPLES!)

[virtualmert]

Hi all, brand new around these parts, did a lot of searching and either I am a moron, or I just cant find the info I am looking for.

I have been out of the taping loop for a few years, marriage>baby>life>etc, but I am taking some small steps to get back into the game.

I am a purely amateur taper,  at my "height"  I used to tape my friends band every night they played using my matched pair of Oktava MK-012's, MAudio Duo and Sony M1 DAT recorder.

I wanted to start taping my wife's, uncle's shows when he plays using my laptop and apparently my DUO is not going to work with Windows 7 from what I have been reading.  I am looking at the Fast Track Pro as a simple, cheap, preamp and USB interface.  Anyone have anything horrible to say about it (besides driver issues)?  I realize its not the best device, but this is going to be just a family fun thing so I dont wan to spend a gazillion dollars.  Battery power is not an issue because I will have full access to plug in wall warts galore, and I would also like to use it to get some of my DAT's of my buddies band onto the computer for us.

I am not a noob to forums, active member on Expresso Beans (rock poster site) and others, so I fully understand if you move/delete my thread and a call me a noob.

Thanks for any info, great site you have here. 

[morst]

The Fast Track Pro looks like it should work well. The issue with M-Audio is that they are now the same company as Avid (which makes protools) and so they might require you to use their software.

As long as the Fast Track Pro works with your choice of software, it seems like an ok choice. I would definitely buy it somewhere you can return it if you can't make it work though.

[illconditioned]

Fast Track Pro does not sound as good as the Duo.  The difference in the analog circuitry is that many newer units use a very cheap power supply - typically just the 5V from USB port.  Preamps are not as clean as if they have an internal step-up voltage, run on something like a +/-12V or +/-15V supply.  You can get better computer, usb or firewire, interfaces, but it is best to investigate first.

For simplicity I would just use a flash recorder.  The current best-buy is the Sony PCM-M10, for something around $220 USD at most mail order places.  Start with internal mics, then get something good in front of it.

  Richard.

[tcf]

If you still have the latop and microphones get the focusrite saffire. It was the purchase of the year for me last year. It is used more than anything I own including my higher end gear. I use it as my daily listening soundcard, great headphone amp, 6 ch laptop recording and two ch standalone backup rig. I can power the box off of any 12 volt lithium battery. Mine is FireWire based but the new ones are USB. I'd contact focusrite for info on win 7 compAtability for the older FireWire version. I'm sure the newer USB box is current with 7

[virtualmert]

hey thanks for the replys!  I'm looking into the Focusrite, which appears to run on USB power? That is a bad thing?  I still have my DAT so I could just use the old setup but I was hoping to take out the whole transfer step.  I would have to get a different soundcard or something anyways because I have no digital inputs. 

[virtualmert]

So I just bought a Focusrite Scarlett 8i6, thanks again for the comments and I will be sure and let you know how everything turns out! 

[virtualmert]

Nice little unit!  Used it to transfer some DATs the other night, worked great!  Taping my wife's uncle's band tomorrow night, I shall report back!





neat little feature if I ever need to tape something out of country!

[virtualmert]

So things went great last night, turns out I had a broken shock mount so I had to use my pair of ADK A51's, always been happy with the performance of these "cheap" mics though.

Ended up being:  ADK A51>Scarlett 8i6>Soundforge on my laptop, worked flawlessly, only problem was the bright screen in a dark room, but I put a towel over it so WIN!  These are just  some samples, didn't do anything to it besides tracking it out with CD Wave editor.

http://soundcloud.com/virtualmert/mark-unruh-with-dave-poland

http://soundcloud.com/virtualmert/mark-unruh-and-dave-poland

WOOT!