[Nate Najar]

It looks like after the new year I'll be in a position to afford to upgrade my DAW setup (thank you soundexchange!). I am anxious to do so in the interest of having a more accurate picture of what I'm working on. At home I mostly edit and mix, or do minor overdubs on production projects. I also do scoring work with virtual instruments. The majority of my real recording is done either on location or at a proper studio, but nearly everything comes back here for editing and mixing.

I have an maudio profire 2626 which has served me well and sounds pretty good too. I haven't upgraded because I don't want an incremental upgrade just to blow money on a shiny new piece of gear- I want to upgrade only if it is going to be a night and day difference. I am very happy with my True Precision 8 preamp, but i rarely need it at home- it generally is used for location recording or the one or two channels I need for an overdub here at the house. My computer will last another few years no problem (8 core mac pro 2008-ish with 16gb ram) and I have a euphonix 8 fader control surface I cannot live without. I'd like another 8 faders, but I don't NEED them enough to spend that money that could be better spent. I have K&H 0110 monitors and I'm very happy with them.

SO... the first thing I will be spending money on is room treatment. I don't know how to measure the room modes and comb filtering, etc... so I cannot comment other than I know there's some funny stuff happening. It is the spare front bedroom in my condo- 12x11x8. windows on one wall, bookshelves on another, closet on the back wall. Ethan Winer is getting about $1500 of my dollars, I figure he can best decide what to sell me and where to put it.

So I always think I would like a converter upgrade. I just don't know what and I don't really want to audition 3 or 4 pieces- I know at a certain level they'll all be good, but I need to weigh value against price. I keep thinking if I get a prism orpheus I'll be done- that's all I'll need and is a simple one box solution. But I also consider a mytex 8x192 but then I need a way to get it into the computer- aes pci card? usb? fw? and then there's the metric halo lio8 (remember, I already have preamps) and the RME ufx...... the benefit of the rme ufx is the front panel usb recording (for remote work) and the addition of a remote control for monitor control. But I understand it is probably a step down in converter quality from these other options.

What I want is an elegant easy to setup solution that is the absolute best sound I can get and easy to use. If I go with the mytek, it's a slippery slope of interface cards and monitor controlling, etc..., the orpheus seems like the most elegant solution but also a bit spendy. The RME has the most features and is a super elegant solution but may be not in the same class sonically as the other units mentioned.

I use Logic Pro mostly. I use Pro Tools to convert sessions to go between my place and proper studios. I'm still on PT8 although I may update to 9 or 10 to take advantage of the ADC and start mixing in there sometimes. So whatever I get has to play nice with all of the above.

I'm very much open to opinions here. thank you!

N