hello everyone, this is my first post. i'm a longtime reader and thought people on here would have some good insights.

quick background: i have a 32ch ghost that goes into a motu 24i/o and logic7 on a g5. not much outboard, just a few pres, comps, effects.

i record myself mostly, the most at one time being 6-8 tracks for drums.

i'm thinking of selling the console and interface and buying more pre's to bring the total to 8 and also getting an apogee rosetta 800.

i was also thinking of getting a summing box like the dangerous 2 bus and a presonus central station for monitoring.

could i actually improve my sound by running high end pre's straight into the computer?

i feel like i'm not even taking full advantage of an analog board and definitely am looking to simplify my studio.

thanks in advance for any comments!

I think, yes, you could definitely improve your sound with better/nicer pres.

I would ask yourself, does the sound in the room which I record sound good?

If not, then I would sort this out first.

my room sounds good, i'm satisfied with that.

my main thing would be simplifying. am i giving too much away by selling the console?

IMO, definitely not...unless you have eleventy billion dollars for a nice neve/ssl/trident board, the sound of the board is negligable vs. what you could have in the form of nice preamps or nice mics. if it were up to me, i'd make sure i have a decent space in which to record, at least a couple decent mics, nice pres in which to plug them in, and a high quality A/D box...then the nicest plugins you can buy/download.

best of luck

a.c., ontario

Dammit, I just asked the same question on the Tape Op message board.

I'm in the same boat: ditch the Mackie and buy nice pres or deal with the so-so quality of my board?

I do all of my mixing in the box, so I basically only have the board for the pres. But the thought of NOT having a console is frightening.

You can always find a use for even the most shitty console. Even if it means running your home stereo through it.

Mixing in the box rarely sounds that great. I heard there was a whole ZZ Top record (one of the newer ones) recorded and mixed in Digital Performer...."in the box".

I haven't heard it though. Just heard of it.

I'd keep your console unless you were getting a new one (i.e. upgrading). But to limit yourself to just "in the box" sounds scary to me too.

MajorEverettMiller wrote:Dammit, I just asked the same question on the Tape Op message board.

I'm in the same boat: ditch the Mackie and buy nice pres or deal with the so-so quality of my board?

I do all of my mixing in the box, so I basically only have the board for the pres. But the thought of NOT having a console is frightening.

Well, there's a fair amount of ground between a Ghost and a Mackie. The Ghosts Ive heard have sounded rather good -- so that's 32 channels of good mic pres right there, even without taking into account using the board to mix. I dont know how many channels you need to track a session, citystate, but I think no matter which way you slice it youre going to lose a lot of channels if you sell yr Ghost to get some standalone pres.

Trading in a Mackie on some standalone pres might not be as big a loss from that perspective.

ironic. im moving my whole setup right now pretty much to GET a console. mxing in the box just doesnt do it for me, and I have great plug ins along with avalon/trident/grace design pres.
i desperately want a nice console. analog mixing, especially summing is worlds bigger to my ears, IMO.

ha! ill take your ghost if you dont want it!

thanks for the replies so far...

what about going without a console but mixing thru a summing box like the dangerous 2bus?