[Badmuts]

If you had to choose between Presonus Firestudio or Focusrite Saffire Pro
26, which one would you buy and why?

Prices are similar. Focusrite has a reputation for its preamps, Presonus has
a nice looking remote control and aux in (is the aux in connected to a/d or
is it just for mixing with the monitor outs?) and separate inserts on the
first 2 channels.

I'm looking for a more or less portable 16 or 24 track firewire solution for
use with a T7700/4GB/320GB dell vostro laptop i already own to do both
studio and live recording.

I don't really want to go the HD24 way as i often make recordings that i
want to mix and edit directly afterwards, with the artists present, i don't
want to be losing time on transferring tracks from a hardware recorder to my
laptop DAW so recording straight to the DAW seems the way to go.

I already own a behringer ada8000, a fostex d108 and a fostex d90, i'll
probably sell the the fostexes to help finance my investment in something
new. I'm now using these for a/d only and have to drag a large soundcraft
studio mixer along just for the mic preamps. I also want to get rid of the
soundcraft for its size, and the fostexes are pretty large and heavy too (i
have a bad back). Further, there is a lot of cabling to connect the fostexes
to the soundcraft. I'm looking for something simpler, more straightforward
and compact.

I was thinking of combining the ADA8000 with a focusrite or presonus to
start out with 16 channels with mic pre's and phantom power, and take it
along with me in a small 2HE box. Only thing is, i'm afraid i will not have
as much control over level and signal quality as with the soundcraft mixer
and headphones. Do the presonus and focusrite solutions have some kind of
software pfl and metering?

Should i also be looking into mixers with firewire interface like mackie
onyx, alesis, phonic etc to have more control? I liked the Alesis IO26
specially for its level meters consisting of more than one led, however it's
not possible to daisy chain 2 of those (according to alesis tech support)
and they don't have ADAT out, only ADAT in (so how do i sync devices like
the fostexes or the ada8000 then?). I think with the other solutions i will
depend on software for proper leveling and monitoring. Coming to speak of
that, how is the quality of drivers and software from both presonus and
focusrite? What about latency?

Are there any other options i'm overlooking or should be considering?

I've also been looking at a solution based on M-Audio ProFire lightbridge.
This box is cheap and will give me 48 channels of i/o max. I could combine
it with two behringer ADA8000's for starters, but then i'd have to buy an
extra ADA8000. If i add those up, for just a bit more money i'd probably be
better off with the focusrite or presonus solution, right? And i suppose the
preamps in those devices will have better quality than the behringer
ada8000's, right? On the other hand, the Lightbridge solution seems more
straightforward: it's more clear which box does what, and i'll have the
option of upgrading to 32 channels (i hope to do some large live recordings,
like a large choir with band, orchestra, solists etc). or 16 channels 24/96.



Could someone help me make a decision?



Thanks,

Theo

rocktech audio - the netherlands