2882 for orchestra?

C

Chai T

Logician
i'm getting a 2882 in a month and plan on using it on an orchestral recording gig.

my conundrum is that i will be using an 11 mic set up so that means 3 more preamps than the MIO has. i will use focusrite's octopre(without ADAT I/O) for the extra channels. my recording medium will be an alesis HD24. does have anyone have any suggestions on how to route this without me having to rent an extra mixer for monitoring utilizing just my MBP and the MIO monitoring software?

also, will the preamps of the MIO be capable of producing enough gain to maje a good representation of the whole dynamic range of classical music? my four main mics will be DPA 4006 in an AB config and U87's as out riggers on the far side of the stage.

thanks
 
Chai T said:
my conundrum is that i will be using an 11 mic set up so that means 3 more preamps than the MIO has. i will use focusrite's octopre(without ADAT I/O) for the extra channels. my recording medium will be an alesis HD24. does have anyone have any suggestions on how to route this without me having to rent an extra mixer for monitoring utilizing just my MBP and the MIO monitoring software?
Click to expand...

If the HD 24 has AD conversion, you could just route three of the focusrite channels diretly to it. Not sure about monitoring these though ...

Chai T said:
also, will the preamps of the MIO be capable of producing enough gain to maje a good representation of the whole dynamic range of classical music? my four main mics will be DPA 4006 in an AB config and U87's as out riggers on the far side of the stage.
Click to expand...

The 2882 pres are certainly nice sounding, the converters are also more than up to the job. You may find though that the pres may be lacking a little gain. Again, external preamps maybe the easiest solution for you, then you just switch the 2882 inputs to line. If you use three focusrite pres for channels 9 - 11, you would still have 5 left, so you could use 4 of these these for the 4 main mics you mention.

FWIW, on a recent classical recording I did of a choir, orchestra and soloists, I used this 14 mic setup:

Metric Halo ULN 8 and 2882 were set up as an aggregate audio device in AMS.
Logic running (on my now pretty ancient) 1st generation core duo Mac Book Pro. I use the ULN 8 for the main mics - earthworks QTC 40s set up as a Decca tree, two Sennheiser MKH 40 and two Neumann 184s on the choir, then a Brauner VM 1 for soprano and alt. That used up the 8 ULN 8 channels



The signals to the 2882 all ran through an 8 channel Otztronics preamp, so the 2882 channels were accepting line level and only dealing with conversion. These were a Neumann TLM 103 for tenor and bass, then some more spot mics - a 414 on Piano, AT 4050 on a small church organ, TLM 170s on woodwinds and contrabass.

That isn't to say that the 2882 can't do this - you should try to experiment with it beforehand and during rehearsals with the orchestra.

BTW - record as much of the rehearsals as possible, you never know what might be useful later!

kind regards

Mark
 
thanks mark.

the HD24 does not have A-D.

because of all i've read about the lack of gain on the 2882 i'm having second thoughts about using it on a critical application as an orchestra. i'll be recording late 19th century music so the dynamics will be rather exaggerated.

so is there a way to use the MIO as a monitor matrix after going to the HD?

the signal flow i had in mind was:

mics->2882 & octopre->HD 24 (via trs jacks)-> back to the MIO via ADAT for the monitoring. can anybody from MH enlighten me if this is doable.

thanks in advanks
 
Chai T said:
the HD24 does not have A-D.
Click to expand...
The HD24 has 24 channels of A/D and D/A conversion, but no mic pres.
so is there a way to use the MIO as a monitor matrix after going to the HD?

the signal flow i had in mind was:

mics->2882 & octopre->HD 24 (via trs jacks)-> back to the MIO via ADAT for the monitoring. can anybody from MH enlighten me if this is doable.
Click to expand...
Yes. ADAT carries 8 channels, so you'll have to route 3 channels back into the 2882 via analog.
 
Nobody has answered the other part of my query. The one regarding the quality of the preamps for orchestral recording.
 
Chai T said:
Nobody has answered the other part of my query. The one regarding the quality of the preamps for orchestral recording.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you want to read my answer again? Have you been able to try the 2882 with some orchestral instruments yet?

kind regards

Mark
 
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