• Registered: 2020-08-25
  • Posts: 17

Topic: basic RME setup for drums

What's the cheapest way to get RME + 16 XLR Inputs? If I purchase an 802 and an ADAT 8 ch, I'm wasting 8 TRS inputs, of which I would only ever use 2. My main concern apart from inputs is monitoring for drums. I have used RME before  - quality is not the issue. I've been using a live rack mixer to track drums because the DSP monitoring is so good and there's no issue about latency or routing. I want to go with Firewire or USB as I'm using Cubase on a PC. Are there any drummers on the forum who could describe their recording setup? I once owned an RMI PCI card - it went from Mac to Windows and back to Mac again effortlessly; but I was not recording live drum drums then, which I now do every week. I have been considering finding a decent mixer and using the direct outs with an 802 but that will only give me 4 RME pre-amps and the rest will be line in. It's a large range of products now, I'd love to hear from any drummers with their setups. Thanks for your time, it's much appreciated.

Fireface 802, Octamic II, UAD Quad, Midas Venice 320, Cubase, Windows 10.
  • Marc S
  • RME Developer
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2019-06-11
  • Posts: 110

Re: basic RME setup for drums

The new 12Mic might be worth a look (https://rme-audio.de/12mic.html). Together with an 802 you'll get 16 RME Mic preamps and 3 phones outputs.

Before the 12Mic had been released I would've suggested Octamic II, but two of them (in order to get >= 16 channels) are in the same price range as one 12Mic, which has a bunch of additional benefits, like remote controllable and recallable gain and phantom settings, additional MADI I/Os and AVB (if you want to expand your setup later on).