Quote:
Originally Posted by alohachris
For example, did someone put together the Mic X/ Preamp Y combo because the other mic's in the locker don't work as well with that preamp. Stuff like that.
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As you know, I'm not a huge believer in magic, although clearly if you find a certain combo works well together, great. But at a more pragmatic level, there is certainly some planning for compatibility that helps once you get beyond a basic level. One benefit of keeping it simple with some of the all-in-one solutions, whether it's a Zoom H4n, or some sort of firewire preamp/A-D/computer interface, is that you know everything will work together.
Since my setup uses individual components, I have to make sure they all play together, and that starts with how the audio gets into the computer. After messing with some USB and firewire interfaces, I ended up basing my setup around an RME AES-32 card, which gives me 16 channels of raw AES digital in and out, and that sort of dictates the rest - I can then easily connect and route any interfaces that are AES-based. So I ended up with 2 digital converters, (Cranesong HEDD and a Mytek Stereo-96) that both have AES outs. I run preamps into each and I'm done, and I can control and route it all from the RME TotalMix software. So my basic choice sort of rules out USB/firewire/ADAT/lightpipe devices. I have to look for AES for any digital devices.
Another example of one choice driving another is getting an AEA R-88 ribbon mic. That mic needs tons of quiet gain, so I got an AEA RPQ preamp, designed to work well with ribbons (lots of gain, quiet, with a dedicated, no-phantom power input, and also some basic shelfing EQ that helps with the ribbon). It works just fine with other mics, but if I'm using a ribbon mic, that's the preamp I'll use, not because it's some magic combo, but because it has the feature set I need for the ribbon.
To your basic question, nothing in my chain has really changed since you last had one of these threads 6 months ago, except I picked up a Bricasti M7 reverb. Still experimenting, but it's definitely a nice sounding reverb. (and it has AES IO, of course!)