Am I looking at the right DAW? Focusrite 18i20

Vintage-T

I've been using the Focusrite 2i4 for our band demos, but programming drums and playing individual parts is really disjointed for our band, so we were looking at something that could do all tracks at the same time recording as a full band, giving us options to overdub vox at a later time too.

I've looked and settled on the Focusrite 18i20 as the DAW that I'd need for all drum mics, 2 guitars mic'd up and vocals. Prefer to get the 3rd gen, but 2nd gen is pretty reasonable.

Is this the right kit for the job or are there better alternatives. Price of about £400 seems very reasonable. I record into a macbook pro running Logic. 

My other guitar player insists this is the way, as we're way more dynamic live and in terms of just getting good demos recorded it seems like the way to go.

Any advice more than welcome.

PolarityMan

I have the 18i20, it's fine and Ive tracked drums through it before. Also easily expandable via lightpipe for an extra 8 channels.

Personally I prefer the saffire pro40 which is basically identical but firewire instead of USB as the latency seems a touch better but this isnt giong to matter for live tracking and firewire cards are getting rarer and rarer.

Personally though Id be surprised if you get as good a quality result tracking everyone at the same time as you would tracking individually to a click. 

Vintage-T

I think the main focus is being able to track the drums live, just good to have the option of being able to lay everything down. Can retrack individual parts later. Just finding the stop start nature of solo parts especially without proper drums slightly soul destroying. For the cost of a few plugins, it's worth a go.

PolarityMan

The 18i20 will definitely do it.

andy_k

The cheapest option I have experienced is the Zoom R16, which is multi purpose, records onto SD cards, and also works as a USB interface, with 8 mic inputs.
I found it good for recording rehearsals, and would be great for getting a good basic drum track done as the basis for overdubbing to build up a full track.
If I was setting something up permanently, as in a studio, I would be looking for something more pro, such as Focusrite stuff.

Musicwolf

For recording in a practice room I use either;

Zoom Livetrak L-12 (c £415) and record direct to SD card then transfer to DAW.

Very easy if you are playing and recording as it has physical faders, it stores each take to a different folder and it has 5 aux mixes each with own headphone amp.

or

Behringer XR18 (c £360) and record to laptop.

More mic inputs, nicer over all mixer but the faf of a laptop (both for recording and mixing) and 6 aux buses (6 mono or up to 3 stereo) but you need headphone amps.

No latency problems with eiether as you are direct monitoring.  Unless you have a nice studio live room (which would imply that there is already a recording set up) then the AI quality will not be the limiting factor.

Legionreturns

I'd personally go for the XR18 as mentioned above. It replaces two bits of kit as you can also use it for live shows. It's tiny, and the monitoring options are superb with 6 sends, all with different mixes. 

Vintage-T

I've ordered the Focusrite one, if it doesn't work as desired I'll defo check out the Zoom offerings

PolarityMan

We have the XR16 which only does stereo recording but it is a really great mixer. We're actualy talking about upgrading at some point to the XR18 to get stereo monitor mixes and it would mean I can take my audio interface out fo the rack for field recording too.

Def worth considering if you use a PA as well. 

PolarityMan

On balance i still prefer the focusrite as an audio interface though. 

paulmapp8306

Depends if your in a studio environment or in the field.

A field recorder then transfer files to daw is better for field work.

PolarityMan

paulmapp8306 said:

Depends if your in a studio environment or in the field.

A field recorder then transfer files to daw is better for field work.

For me I think its more about whether I will ever want to DI and monitor through an ampsim. In that scenario the XR is pretty useless.

Luckily the band rack has both in for different purposes

We have also wired up the outputs of the focusrite into the behringer so we get 16 channel recording with customisable IEM mixes but its a bit of a faff..updating to the bigger XR would definitely be nicer in that scenario. 

WiresDreamDisasters

Just a note - Logic is your DAW. You're talking about audio interfaces, and both are components of a recording system.