needing economical way to get 8 preamps on motu 828es

[madmetal]

My names Timmmy, a drummer and new on the forum. I have an 828es on an avb network using winders 11. My drum kit is set up with dynamics shure 57s, beta 52 for kick and a couple of condenser overheads. I'm at that stage in life where i play for the joy of playing, to old to move gear or to be a rock star. I do appreciate playing well and trying to get good recordings.
A current dilemma I am wrestling with is most economical way to get 8 preamps on the motu 828es routing matrix for my drum set. The Motu solution is way out of budget for me, I came across a used Focusrite Scarlett 18I20 which has the needed 8 preamps. My thought is to use adat to connect the Scarlett to the motu. I must say i am not a big fan of the solo's which i have used more as a sound card\monitoring thing however the reviews of the 18120 sounded like it was a good match for drum recording.
I am a little suspect that drivers may get into conflict as well as if the Scarlett will passively slave to the 828es.
Any thoughts or experience or better part of the forum to post to?
Thanks in advance

[mikehalloran]

The question: Do you need those 8 Analog inputs in the back of the 828es for anything else? If the answer is no, I would use the Scarlett 18I20 in stand alone mode with a set of 8 TRS cables from the Analog outs to the 828es Analog Ins. No drivers or sync'ing to deal with as the 18I20 is acting as analog mic pre's only.

For this use, I like a colored cable set and line them up in alphabetical order to correspond with the channels 1–8: Blue, Brown and so on. Hosa makes sets in a few lengths—not sexy, I know but they work.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/search ... r+cables+8
If you want sexy, Sescom will build to order—through Markertek for the best price. Usually takes 1–3 weeks.
https://www.markertek.com/product/sc3sz ... ite-3-foot

All of the 828s have a way to set the input levels to match nearly anything. You'll find this in the manual. Likewise, the Scarlett 18I20 manual is found on the Focusrite web site.

If, however, you need to network the Scarlett 18I20 separately from the 828es, you'll be dealing with a number of issues and, being Windows, I can't offer any advice except read the 18I20 manual and see if there's a solution.

[HCMarkus]

Cheap but functional Litepipe 8 Channel Mic Pre: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... one-preamp

[mikehalloran]

Cheap but functional Litepipe 8 Channel Mic Pre: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... one-preamp

I like the looks of that. Cirrus Logic makes the chip sets for most of the interfaces released since 10/2019.

The thing to remember is that Lightpipe handles 8 channels @ 48k/24 but only 4 channels @ 96k/24. I see this Behringer is 44.1/48k only.

[stubbsonic]

A pricier (non-B-word) alternative is the Focusrite Clarett+ OctoPre 8-channel ADAT Preamp.

A potentially cheaper/better/bigger option would be to find a used mixer with 8 mic pre's, and either 8 buses or at least inserts on the 8 mic channels.

[madmetal]

Hi Mike,
I must have missed that in the manual about the stand alone mode being able to "pass thru" like that. That would certainly be ideal. I was thinking that the focurite 'command center" still wanted to be in control. something about set it up\save to the unit then do a recall in stand alone mode. So many times they leave out the fine print requirements..

All 8 of the motu inputs have direct lines in from the 57's mic'd to toms, hit hats, snare, conga's etc. I thought the same thing on the gain levels but they really dont bring up the sensitivity. The 18I20 showed up in the used store for $100 plus number and is certified to work. Motu's answer was buy the 8-pre for $600 or so, still doing "backwards" tech link with Adat having the described 8 channels @ 48k/24 but only 4 channels @ 96k/24..so like whats the point there?
I thought about the mixer route but then my understanding is the feed into DAW would be just 1 stereo channel instead of splits for all the drum and room sources. Again, wtf did i spend the money on twp 828's if i'm implementing hacks to get all my tracks to DAW...ugg
And yes, i live and die by the color coded "snakes" as well as my dyno gun...lol. My roland v-drum set feeds the other motu but really dislike playing e-drums.
The other stuff feeding in as well is all the band pa stuff; 3 sounds amps 1) feeds the old bose 802 which require the old bose eq's 2) feeds a set of gifted by music store peavey sp-2's 3)floor monitors and then 4) feed from pc\spotify stuff to carver Klipch stereo.
Finally got it all mapped and working - however 1 wrong click on the matrix and it all goes to hell. It was kind of the driving factor behind my initial "rant" post - it was a bad motu routing night. Sure would like that undo function as once clicked, theres no going back.

I have never owned a mixer, and honestly, would love to just start playing music again instead of spending time becoming a "earn your degree at home" sound engineer. But, is it common for a mixer to take x number of inputs, preamp the signal and then be able to send x number out on their own bus to route into the motu?

Again makes me wonder why i bought the motus other than the "they look cool" factor...lol
Thanks again for everyone's help and knowledge and understanding of my somewhat sarcastic humor
Timmy