A-designs p-1 and AT4050

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 6:58 am

I'm thinking about upgrading my mic collection and with it my pre amps. Right now I have an Audio Technica AT 3035 and a presonus tube pre with 2 inputs. They have both gotten me plenty of decent recording but I'm now looking to upgrade. I've been doing a lot of research and I feel pretty dead set on getting the A-designs P-1 pre amp and the AT4050 mic. I use Mbox 2 and protools. Does anyone see a problem with either of these investments, seeing as I'm doing mostly personal acoustic recordings.

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:04 pm

By all means get a fancy mic and a fancy pre-amp, but you are not going to see much return from your investment until you get a better recording interface than the Mbox 2.

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 6:35 am

Would a presonus firestudio make the fancy mic and preamp sound good or would that still not bring great returns

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 11:36 pm

Yes, the FireStudio would give much better results than the Mbox2, but it won't work directly with ProTools.

You have two ways you can make PT work with external gear and not have Digi hardware in the analogue chain:

(1) use the S/PDIF inputs on the Mbox 2 or (Mbox2 Pro), and get a high-quality external pre-amp that has S/PDIF outputs. Examples of these are the API A2D, Neve 1073DPD and Audio & Design DMA2. The S/PDIF restricts you to two channels.

(2) upgrade to a Digi 002(R) or 003 (R) and use the ADAT lightpipe input to connect a multi-channel pre-amp that has ADAT outputs. Single-box examples are the RME FireFace 800 and the Mackie Onyx 800R, but having separate units for the pre-amps and A-D conversion also is possible.

I've not used a PreSonus FireStudio, but it may be possible to configure it for stand-alone use such that the ADAT lightpipe output carries the digitized pre-amp outputs instead of the output from the DAW. The FireStudio manual on the PreSonus website is damaged and won't open, so I can't check this.

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 6:19 am

But I could still record the files onto cubase, which is the program that comes with the firestudio and just transfer these files to protools as waves without losing any of the audio quality right? It would just be a pain in the ass.

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 6:57 am

Or could i do S/PDIF from the firestudio into my mbox and have the audio go into protools?

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