borrowing a 8-input audio interface (1 Viewer)

[JohnnyRaz]

Any of you folks have a 8 input audio interface i could borrow (mac compatible, ideally just usb class compliant)?
8x mic inputs, phantom power and all that good stuff.

I want to give it a trial to see if my ancient mac book will shit itself if I try to record more than 4 tracks at once.

no rush..

 

[ann post]

Any of you folks have a 8 input audio interface i could borrow (mac compatible, ideally just usb class compliant)?
8x mic inputs, phantom power and all that good stuff.

I want to give it a trial to see if my ancient mac book will shit itself if I try to record more than 4 tracks at once.

no rush..

How ancient?

 

[JohnnyRaz]

How ancient?

10 years old give or take..
Old enough to no longer be compatible with the latest versions of os

 

[ann post]

10 years old give or take..

I've totally run 8tracks plus live on reaper for hours on 12 and 14 year old macbooks
other programs might choke though

 

[JohnnyRaz]

I've totally run 8tracks plus live on reaper for hours on 12 and 14 year old macbooks
other programs might choke though

Aye - this particular model seems to be a bit shit however. Even new it was glitchy and took forever to boot up. I had the same model in work at the time and it was the same story.
Without been too wanky I think the ‘vibe’ and ‘energy’ of the current band lends itself more to live tracking with a few overdubs rather than full on separate tracking. Hence the need to double me inputs

 

[ann post]

Aye - this particular model seems to be a bit shit however. Even new it was glitchy and took forever to boot up. I had the same model in work at the time and it was the same story.
Without been too wanky I think the ‘vibe’ and ‘energy’ of the current band lends itself more to live tracking with a few overdubs rather than full on separate tracking. Hence the need to double me inputs

I think everything should be live tracked forever. overdubbing asks for a second skill that not all members of amazing bands might have. I digress... reaper tends to be super low loading anywhoo. sometimes a few tweaks in buffer settings stuff might be needed.

 

[sleepy]

Yeah, we’ve tried to send stuff around to each other that’s been recorded to click track and build stuff up that way but it never works as well. The stuff we’re playing varies in tempo a lot so we kind of have to just track it live.

 

[JohnnyRaz]

Yeah, we’ve tried to send stuff around to each other that’s been recorded to click track and build stuff up that way but it never works as well. The stuff we’re playing varies in tempo a lot so we kind of have to just track it live.

yeah...
we did some live demos with a very basic x/y +2 mic setup, with one of the mics for a guide vocal last year - which while limited in terms of what I was able to do in terms of mixing sound pretty decent in terms of capturing the 'sound' of the band.
currently starting on doing some multitrak ones.. which I'm less sure about.

also I've less time than I had at one point, setting the room up - getting a few good takes of a bunch of songs in one session vs multiple sessions is also attractive.

 

[ernesto]

Upgrading your hard drive to SSD will make a HUGE difference aswell

 

[JohnnyRaz]

Upgrading your hard drive to SSD will make a HUGE difference aswell

a quick google tells me that's not user upgradable for the model I have

I presume one of the 1001 computer shops around the place will do it for me?

 

[ann post]

a quick google tells me that's not user upgradable for the model I have

I presume one of the 1001 computer shops around the place will do it for me?

I walked into some place a few years back and just dumped my macbook on the counter and asked for an ssd and a day later it was handed back to me for about 160 bucks.

I know this is something that's easily DIY'd but it put years onto the life of that machine, which is still 100% a workhorse

 

[Anthony]

You'll be fine. I record via firewire on a 2007 iMac. Can handle a ton of tracks at once. I have to record into an old version of Logic though because the iMac has maxed out it's OS.

 

[Anthony]

But that's not what you asked. Sorry I don't have an interface like that to loan you. I wouldn't be opposed to recording you myself on my "rig".

 

[ernesto]

You'll be fine. I record via firewire on a 2007 iMac. Can handle a ton of tracks at once. I have to record into an old version of Logic though because the iMac has maxed out it's OS.

FireWire allows more data than old USB though

 

[ernesto]

a quick google tells me that's not user upgradable for the model I have

I presume one of the 1001 computer shops around the place will do it for me?

I did my own and it was a piece of piss.
I have a late 2011 MacBook Pro.

1TB SSD drives can be gotten for less than €60 now online

 

[Anthony]

FireWire allows more data than old USB though

Isn't USB 2 as good as firewire?

 

[ernesto]

Isn't USB 2 as good as firewire?

While both USB and FireWire are used for connecting devices to a computer, FireWire (IEEE 1394) generally offers faster data transfer speeds, especially for audio and video, than USB 2.0 (480 Mbps). FireWire 800 can reach 800 Mbps, while FireWire 400 offers 400 Mbps.

 

[Anthony]

Excellent

 

[ann post]

the main argument for firewire at the time - which might still be relevant is that USB isn't great at being aware it's dealing with audio, so the processor might see some other work to do and stutter the usb audio input because it's all just data to process.
Firewire's advantage at the time is that it treated audio (as data) almost like an analog line would.

 

[ann post]

is it 2 or 4 channell you have at present?