Advice required...

[MonkeyMan]

Again I seek the advice of the many wise ones...

In the next couple of days I am picking up my new studio (yay!) - but I am at a bit of a cross roads. My core studio will consist of : -

Apple Mac Dual-Core G5
2 Gig ram
Logic 7
Access Virus TI (61 key)
Various software (Spectrasonics/Native Instruments)

I will be producing electronica and maybe the odd dance tune (odd being the operative word) I was thinking of adding either an RME FireFace 800 or an Apogee Rosetta 200.

What I am looking for is the highest affordable quality of sound. I will not use all of the ins & outs which the RME caters for. I may plug in my Juno 106 occasionally but apart from that I will not be using any other instruments.

I will be keeping my music production within the Mac as much as I can. I fully appreciate that RME is very well engineered and that it offers a superb quality of sound and features- the best in its price range. But it has a wealth of features which I will never use.

The Rosetta was recommended to me by a friend as a must have. He reckons that the sound quality is pretty much as good as it gets. Having researched this it appears that generally speaking he may be right.

In an ideal world I would have both. Any thoughts or opinions would be much appreciated. What would you purchase or go for looking at my set up? (it may be something else)

[Tomer=Trance]

apogge are the best when it comes to convertors,im sure you wont regret buying one.
the RME is a superb piece of electronics and software aswell.

[Timo]

Yes, but whwhwwhwwhwhhwh hww whwh whw why would you buy a Fireface when you don't need all the inputs?!

Aren't there decent-sounding soundcards that have just four (or so) top-quality inputs, or whatever?

Maybe have a look here: http://www.lynxstudio.com/

Buying the Fireface, in your case, you'll probably be spending a lot of money on the different technologies that you'll never likely use. The Fireface is a multi-channel audio interface, for interfacing with the real world. - That's its role. I suspect it might possibly be best to use that same amount of money on fewer, but super-high quality ins/outs?

How many analogue inputs/outputs would you need?
How many digital inputs/outputs would you need?
Do you need Mic-Pre's?

Think about any possible future needs, too.

etc...

[Doc Jones]

Timo raises some good questions regarding the fireface. That is an aweful lot of money if you aren't going to utilize most of its capabilities. But then again, you do have 3 stereo (analog) outs on the TI, so that 6 ports used there, plus your juno, plus you might want to do vocals at some point . . .

[Tomer=Trance]

there are very few pci cards which offer high-end convertor quality.
same quality outboard Adat or firewire convertors offer.

[MonkeyMan]

T-T-Tim-Timo. My point exactly. I will NOT use all of the features which the RME offers - but what else offers the same (or better) sound quality/headroom for the price of the FireFace 800? (the extra features would just be a bonus - although it does seem a waste)

Doc - that was what I was thinking along the lines of - just seeing what other options there are available. Tell me, if you was to use all of the audio outputs from the Ti - can you also use the Virus Control instances as well?

PCI is not an option for me as the new G5's are PCI-Express.

[ZEBASTIAN]

what about the metric halo uln-2+dsp?....i keep hearing great things about metric.....im thinking of picking up one from ebay to replace my firebox/central station Dac. i figured since i just bough a pair of genelec 8040 i might spend money in good converters as well.

[MonkeyMan]

...oh oh. I think I may just go for it and buy the Apogee Rosetta 200.

PS

Anyone need a kidney to buy?

[Tomer=Trance]

i could always use a spair. :D
how many hours of use do you have on that unit? :twisted:

[Timo]

Ah, yes, you're quite right about the inputs, the Virus has the six outs and the Juno two; = eight, my bad.
Somehow I still had it in my head that the TI streamed loads of audio channels via USB, but it's not as higher bit/sample-rates as the analogue outs. And of course there are fewer channels digitally via the USB, too.

[MonkeyMan]

Tomer. Not as much wear and tear as George Best's - but its an ongoing project!

[Tomer=Trance]

may i ask whats your poison of choice? lol :D

but for real,the apogge is just pure gold im sure its worth every cent and they realy hold up their market value.

[MonkeyMan]

phew... that was a close one. No need to sell a kidney now. I'm just going to pimp out my lovely girlfriend for sex with dirty old men a couple of nights per week for some extra income.

Ahhhh... the versatility of Rohypnol.