8pre right for me?

[Zombie]

I'm really interested in the MOTU 8pre. I would most definately buy this product if I knew for sure that I can get more than one monitor mix out of the unit without buying more gear. I'm obviously going to use the main outs for my amp so that leaves me with the headphone jack. How, if at all can I get more than one monitor mix through this single output?

I've been highly debating between the MOTU and the Presonus Firestudio. I've read good/bad things about both but what really turns me off to the FS is the fact that alot of people have to really crank the gain to get a decent signal? But, the FS has 8 outputs which gaurantees more monitor mixes.

If I can get a good step by step on getting multiple headphone mixes from the 8pre I will buy it but I NEED those extra mixes.

I'm building a small in home studio to offer punker kids a chance to record demos and be excited about recording. I will eventually beef up the gear but as for now these are my practicle purposes. That, and of course for my own music.

[BradLyons]

Welcome to MOTU NATION, and I love the new look--by the way (that's an internal thing). The 8Pre is a great product, but so is the Firestudio. I can't tell you which is better because well, everyone's needs are unique. What are you using right now in terms of hardware, software, the computer, etc. What gear do you have in terms of mics and pres? You said to record punk groups, are 8-inputs enough including mic-pres?

[Zombie]

Welcome to MOTU NATION, and I love the new look--by the way (that's an internal thing). The 8Pre is a great product, but so is the Firestudio. I can't tell you which is better because well, everyone's needs are unique. What are you using right now in terms of hardware, software, the computer, etc. What gear do you have in terms of mics and pres? You said to record punk groups, are 8-inputs enough including mic-pres?

Firstly I don't consider myself an engineer, I am savoy on recording philophies and mixing but have years to go until I can say I'm worth any weight.

I'm a student so my budget is very low. Right now I have an old, unreliable Korg d16 that I've had for 9 years. It was a nice little box at the time and I was dumping into an older version of Vegas but that is soon to change as well. All of these things met my needs; at the time. Right now I'm using a souped up Dell Precision WorkStation 380 P4, running xp. My mics are basic ones: couple of 57's, a couple of low end condensers and a Beta 52. I also have some crappy tom mics but choose the Glyn Johns' method to record most drum tracks. So I rely on a more global approach to the drum set. I know overdubbing guitar and vox is what is going to have to happen until I build my mic reptoir. As for pres I would rely on the 8pre alone for that would be my only piece of gear available to me. Like I said, I'm student and have little money at all times so the 8 mic ins would suffice. My main concern is how I can get 4 (at the very most) monitor mixes out of the box with only 1 trs out? Or, if possible to run the lightpipe for multiple monitor mixes without buying another piece of expensive gear. The Motu is my very first choice but if I can't make the monitor mix happen rather cheaply then, well, who knows.

Thanks for the reply.

[mcoyles]

You have the main outs (stereo pair or use as 2x independant mono outs), the headphone outs (again use as stereo pair, or as 2x independant mono outs using a stereo > 2xmono cable), and then 8x ADAT outs via optical. So that's 4x ANALOGUE OUT, and 8x DIGITAL OUT.

The ADAT outs can be run into a Behringer ADA8000 (for instance - get em off eBay cheap enough these days) to convert them into analogue mono outputs, thus giving you:

MAIN L/R (2x mono)
HEADPHONE L/R (2x mono)
8x MONO OUT (via the ADA8000)
(So effectively 12x mono outputs)

However, the ADA8000 will also (at the same time) convert 8x Analogue input channels to ADAT, which can then go into the 8PRE's ADAT Input.

This will give you a total of 16x ANALOGUE IN and 12x ANALOGUE OUT.

To be honest, for the total price of both an 8PRE and an ADA8000 you could probably pick up a used 896MkII which gives you 8X ANALOGUE IN and 8X ANALOGUE OUT all in one unit... without needing to use the ADAT buses.

[Pappy725]

I'd go with the 828mkIII. 10 analog in, (8 are TRS) and 8 analog out. You also have sends on the two front mic pres. It gives you a lot more ins and outs.

Pappy