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!