Question: MOTU vs. Digi vs. Roland vs. Behringer vs. ....

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Greetings,

I was wondering if anyone could give me some pros and cons about these
various manufacturers of home recording/mixing/mastering/etc. gear.
I'm researching a possible home studio and while I have my eye on a
Digi 002R system for right now (the factory bundle clocks in at around
$1,500 while the full-blown 002 bundle is nearly three grand!), but I
also read a nice review of a Roland all-in-one,
even-burns-the-CD-for-you unit (VS2000CD) in a recent issue of
Recording magazine, I was wondering if I could get some feedback and
"what's the fuss?" about some of these other systems.

To give you an idea of why I am looking at Digi, for starters, I bought
a brand-new 2.2 64-bit hyperthreaded Alienware system back in December
of '03. It's still smokin', and not only do I have a 250GB C: drive
but also a 110GB Western Digital outboard for backups, plus a nice big
LCD screen. For the money I paid for it, I'm assuming that that will
be the end of my platform for archival and storage and for the
CD-burning portion of the equation. Therefore, I don't need a unit to
burn CDs (already have that) nor do I need an internal drive on a unit
(already have that) nor do I need a tiny LCD display that's hard to use
and read (I already have a real monitor).

So I think I just need "something" to get my signals (audio + MIDI)
into the computer. I started thinking that Pro Tools is the way to go
(for a number of reasons, not the least of which are the number of
studios and recordings it's involved with, plus the portability of my
Pro Tools skills should I ever get involved with an enterprise that
uses Pro Tools).

Enter Digi. They are the makers of Pro Tools and at the level of
complexity of these systems, there's no way on Earth I'm going to try
and mix the hardware of one manufacturer with the software of another
(Digi). Furthermore, since there are software transport controls,
track sliders, etc. I think it would be...a bit of a waste maybe?...to
get the unit with the hardware controls. (But I'm just guessing here.)

Also, despite these pros and cons, let's suppose a user decided they
just wanted to buy the product "sight unseen". Shouldn't buying such a
top-end recording package give you fantastic results for the money you
pay? I mean, when closing in on two grand for a unit, after a while,
unless you do this for a living, day in and day out, how would the
average Joe detect the differences between a MOTU setup, Roland setup,
etc.?

Now, I also hear a lot about mixers, etc. and it makes me think
momentarily that you can't "get it all in one unit". But looking at
multiple diagrams, documentation, etc. it appears to me that a Digi
unit would have all that stuff in it, and that Pro Tools would allow me
to take signals in and complete mix and master it down to a format that
could then be burned to CD. What more HW would I need in that case?

Please discuss; I'm interested to hear the group's feelings one way or
the other.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

You really can't tell the difference in most cases between DAW's. To
me, Radar is more analog sounding, but the rest sound really similiar.
I use both PT and Digital Performer. I prefer DP because I do a lot of
MIDI work along with my audio and PT is somewhat lacking in the MIDI
department, IMHO.

However, if you want to use PT you will have to use Digi's hardware.
The 002 is okay, but if you want cheaper, look at the MBox. More
limited in the I/O dept, but the same software and less $$.

If you want all the Pro bells&whistles, however, then you'll have to
invest in TDM. More spendy - maybe in the area of $20k. Do some
research. For more Pro Tools info, ask questions at the DUC - Digi
User Conference: http/duc.digidesign.com/