cheapest way to add inputs??

[bosone]

i'm finding that the limit of the pulsar/luna system are the number of basic inputs provided with the board...
i'm going to buy a cheap drum machine (8 single ouputs + 1 stereo mix out) and perhaps, in the future, also an cheap external synth/expander.
but how will i connect all to my pulsar+luna??
for now, i have a POD guitar preamp (connected to Pulsar) and a sound blaster Live which i use for streaming audio/video (mp3 playing and General Midi listening) connected to the luna. the pulsar out is going to my monitor system, and i don't use the soundblaster input. Luna Out is free, and so are the Adat/SPDIF in/outs

what are my choices to add some more inputs???
what are advantages/disadvantes of the choices: an external mixer (analog; a digital one will be too expansive) or AD/DA converter like LunaBox, Fostex VC8, Creamware A8 or Alesis AI3 ?? why I should choose one or another??
i'm just an amateur musician, so i don't have high budgets, nor requirement for "The Perfect Recording System" just fun!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: bosone on 2002-06-18 07:32 ]</font>

[subhuman]

Cheapest is not always the best sounding.
Most expensive is not always necessary for a high quality sound...

AI3/A8 are both good enough for a clean sound...

[King of Snake]

and the Luna 2496 I/O is pretty good value too.

[astroman]

I use a Korg 168 RC digital mixer.
2 Adat IOs like Pulsar. Works great for a budget system (mine was 400 bucks 2nd hand).
8 analog IOs, though Mic pre isn't that hot, but one could add a good channel strip later for high end recordings, completely midi controllable, can be abused as a big faderbox no hazzle with syncing. Digital master out, word clock IO.
Lot of fun instead of pulsar main mixer via the adat IOs.

cheers, tom

[subhuman]

We had a 168RC (actually still have one, anyone want it cheap? $300 and its yours, email me), the sound quality is eclipsed by the AI3/lunabox, but you would be missing the faders (they send midi), screen, and FX, for about the same price...

I've also got a 03D, and a Spirit 328 here for sale We went all A16 Ultras over here after doing some comparisons...

[garyb]

if you REALLY want to be cheap,you can get a junk adat for $0-100.ther're lots o them.(16 bit only!)

[Michu]

Marian ADCONs are pretty cheap, i have no clue about sound quality tho'.

[bosone]

On 2002-06-18 18:09, garyb wrote:
if you REALLY want to be cheap,you can get a junk adat for $0-100.ther're lots o them.(16 bit only!)

what is this?
can you expain better? i cannot understand!

[wayne]

i think garyb means the old blackface alesis adat - 8 analogue i/o, + of course adat optical i/o. I hired one a few weeks ago to dump some sessions to disk, and couldn't get it to record/sync with cubase thru lightpipe - ended up routing adat analogue out to A16 - sounded great anyway. the adat machines are 16 bit, 48k only, which is a little inconvenient

[ernest@303.nu]

Friends of mine have a couple of Fostex VC-8 convertors in their studios, and they really like them, although the 20-bit AD/DA conversion might not be fully up to today's standard. I'm considering getting one myself pretty soon, as they're nicely priced here in Europe (247 Euro at musik-produktiv)

[astroman]

a junk adat is one where the mechanic is worn out and which cannot record any more, like the example above.
It can still be used for A/D conversion, for example to extend your inputs.
I wouldn't mind the 'non-24 bit' too much.
They certainly have quality converters and were used in thousands of professional (chart hitting) productions.