Thank you, Mr.Mathias. I just started reading the manual to explore how best I can exploit this heavenly creature beyond the excellent ADDA conversion functions which originally driven my purchase decision.

More than the well-documented tech achievements your devices carry, it is the empathy in design in your products that I started falling in love with, I must admit: the conscious placement of 3/4 headphones output port away from the volume knob, instead of next to it where 1/2 sits now, defying the traditional order; and spiral-bound manuals instead of hardbound or paperbound that are not so page-turning-friendly (and super smooth high-GSM paper and color printing instead of industry standard monochrome prints) are just the two empathetic design decisions I noticed in the first 30 minutes after I opened the product from out of its box. I am sure this is just the beginning of a beautiful friendship with RME ecosystem for me who only used the basic Babyface till now.

Again, thank you for the great work you all are doing.

Even with external power supply, there's no way to control the gain on a digital mic here... There are also special contraptions in the market to be put behind and around microphones to block out ambient sound. Have never personally tried one, though. Lavaliers or so are another option.

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Thank you very much, KaiS and Daniel. I have decided to go with LDC mic at 5-10cm inside a portable sound-booth for dubbing dialogue in my garage and use shotguns and lavs only for field work. Also, at a later date, I might need to record 2 vocals and 3-4 instruments too simultaneously which necessitates proper studio gear. Presently I own Sound Devices MixPre-10-II that can handle field/studio recording and mixing. But,

1. is there anyway I can include ADI-2 Pro in my chain to improve the quality of recording in field/studio? I love the ADDA results coming from ADI-2 Pro but I don’t want it to remain a stand-alone singles champ and not be part of a bigger team for a bigger cause. DSD recording and headphone comparisons are two, although, rare, offside jobs it can do. Anything else, preferably in studio/field recording world, in the middle of a longer chain?

2. Were you saying, ADI-2 Pro with a mic-pre device, could work for studio recording? If so, could you suggest a good mic-pre from RME stables? (I am very sorry, I am a writer-director now trying to make possible home-recording of dialogue/SFX/sound tracks for a music student I might hire for recording/mixing and I am not able to compare well all the products on RME site.)

3. Or, avoiding 2 and 3, if I were to pick from RME shop just one single desktop/portable device that can handle studio recording (8 or more inputs) without needing another device in the chain - just my Mac and mics and this new device you would recommend, something of ADI-2 Pro calibre or more, what would it be?

4. Could you also, if you don’t mind, suggest 2 or 3 LDCs with multiple polar patterns that I can pick one from? Preferably a German product. Neumann M 149 is one. Please suggest  2 or 3 more.

Thank you.

It's hard for me to suggest an interface out of the RME stable.
No single interface gives you the minimum you need.
• USB
• Totalmix FX
• 8 microphone I/Os
• Monitor section with 2 independent headphone outputs.

The mentioned "RME UFX II +" comes close, only lacking 4 mic inputs.
Adding "RME Quad-Mic II" solves this, with the option to add one more if you need 12 mic inputs (might happen sooner then you think).

ADI-2 Pro can optionally be hooked to the UFX's digital i/o, to add some high quality converter/DSP/monitoring.
But the setup above is still complete without.

The mentioned ARC USB remote adds comfort and usability.

Microphone suggestions:

• Neumann U87, LDC,  for dialog - the global standard, can't do without.
It's fine for all types of instruments too.
Maybe get a pair for double voice over.
But quite costly.

• Neumann M149, LDC tube mic, for singers, warmer sounding alternative.
Not cheap too.

• 2 AKG C414 XL II, LDC, for (not only, but female) singers, universal instrument mic too, cheap, for an LDC.

• 4 Sennheiser MD521 dynamic, fits lots of instruments, e.g. all kind of percussions, horns ...

• 2 Neumann KMS105BK stage condenser, great mic for live or other close up vocals, and wind instruments, cheap.

• 4 Shure SM57, dynamic, instruments, and with it's dedicated foam pop filter, speech and (female) singers, super cheap.

• 2 Shure SM58, dynamic, universal standard.
Be careful with the Shure's, there are more fakes then originals.
You want the real thing.
Still super-cheap!

The dynamics are for special purpose, they have huge colorations of the sound, that's why they can be a perfect fit for some tasks and a complete fail for others.

The LDCs, even though they widely vary by price, are all kind of neutral, their sound difference does spread less then their price diff. might imply.
Each of them will deliver on every source.

Don't forget to add enough microphone stands, in Germany the Koenig&Meyer are pro standard.
There are 10kg extra weights available to mount, for use with heavy mic's, else stands will skip and mic's will break.

For singers and speach you need pop-filters too.