Ok I was not sure whether you want to keep or not and assumed keep.
Are you aware of, that the RME Mic Pres are of high quality and are working "transparent"?
Which means they capture the sound of the Mics in high quality "as is", but are not adding any Mojo or character to the sound.
Some people buy separate preamps and want to get a certain preamp sound additionally.
I, personally, prefer (like many other using RME products), that nothing becomes modified and to capture the original sound from the musicians and the mic being used.
Before you sell your old gear you should check, whether you like the results.
I think it would be best to contact a good seller and align with him to test drive UFX III, 12Mic and M-1610 Pro.
Then you can connect and test your Mics with the old preamps and with the UFX III and 12Mic.
A 12Mic based environment would look very similar:
PC---USB---ARC USB
|
| USB3 (optional: dedicated USB3 PCIe card with FL1100 chip)
|
| +---------ADI-2 Pro FS R BE----AN1/2---Active Monitors
| | \----AN3/4---Headphones
| | AES, ADAT or SPDIF
| |
| +
UFX III---------4x Mic Inputs in the front
| 2x Analog IN for keyboard
| 1x DI-Box for Bass
| MADI 6x Analog IN free for future demands
| (up to 2km) 8x Analog Out free
|
12mic---------12x Mics
In total 4+12=16 Mic inputs // 2x Analog in for keyboards // 1x Analog In with DI-Box for Bass = 19 Ports
Maybe 1 Mic port missing in this solution?
Solution: You could add a 4-Port Mic Preamp to the UFX III still .. see below (++)
PC---USB---ARC USB
|
| USB3 (optional: dedicated USB3 PCIe card with FL1100 chip)
|
| +---------ADI-2 Pro FS R BE----AN1/2---Active Monitors
| | \----AN3/4---Headphones
| | AES, ADAT or SPDIF
| |
| +
UFX III---------3x Mic Inputs in the front
| 1x Mic Input as Inst/Hi-Z for Bass
| 4x Analog IN for Mic Preamp ++)
| 2x Analog IN for keyboard
| MADI 2x Analog IN free for future demands
| (up to 2km) 8x Analog Out free
|
12mic---------12x Mics
In total 3+4+12=19 Mic inputs // 2x Analog in for keyboards // 1x Mic input as Inst/Hi-Z for Bass = 22 Ports in total
Seems that we have now a few more mic inputs compared to your actual demand of 20 analog ports in total.
The Test installation would look like this
With this setup you can compare dedicated preamps vs RME solution.
The preamps of UFX III and 12Mic are very similar, but if you are getting 12Mic and M-1610 Pro,
then you can better decide which setup to keep and then you have only to send one device back and get money back.
But then you know exactly what you like most.
UFX III with M-1610 Pro, 12Mic and ARC USB = $2444 + $2333 + $2333 + $144 = $7254
Optional: including ADI-2 Pro FS R BE $1539 (for studio work) $7254 + 1539 = $8793
PC---USB---ARC USB
|
| USB3 (optional: dedicated USB3 PCIe card with FL1100 chip)
|
| +---------ADI-2 Pro FS R BE----AN1/2---Active Monitors
| | \----AN3/4---Headphones
| | AES, ADAT or SPDIF
| |
| +
UFX III------------------4x Mic Inputs Front (1 as Instrument input (Hi-Z) for bass)
| | 8x Analog IN and OUT
| | 2x Phones Out
| |
| + M-1610 Pro----16x Analog IN
| | 10x Analog OUT
^ |
| + 12Mic------------12x Mic In (1-4 also useable as Inst/Hi-Z input)
| | 1x Phones output
| MADI (*)
| |
+---+
(*) MADI with OM4 multimode fibre
You see that the MADI devices are chained serial "one after the other". According to the standard, up to 2 km between each of the devices is allowed, patch cables are available from around 0.2m up to 60m).
Clock Master = UFX III, MADI devices are getting clock synchronized through MADI
Remote Control - RME COnnector
12Mic can be remote controlled through MADI (using RMEs "MIDI over MADI" feature)
by the RME Connector application, see screenshot below (in my setup together with Octamic XTC)
It's very nice to be able to store a few setups and to be able to reactivate them with by only one mouse click.
No additional MIDI cabling required, all remote control commands are being sent through the MADI cable using some unused bits in the MADI protocol header.
A few pictures of my setup you can see in this blog article.
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ent … iii-en-de/
A few recording examples:
Here an overdub recording (mix of tube mic and SM57), my guitar on the right side.
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/attachme … orrow-mp3/
(from this blog article: https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/Ent … DURec-DE/)
Here an example of how a Gibson L5-CES sounds when plugged in straight into the Inst (Hi-Z) input of UFX+ (now UFX III).
No amp VST in use, pure guitar:
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/attachme … -320b-mp3/
(from this blog article: https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/Ent … Ie-EN-DE/)
For the MADI cabling
Do not forget to order an SFP for 12Mic and M-1610 Pro (in total two)
https://www.rme-audio.de/de_sfp-module.html
Reason for RME using SFPs in some products, you as customer can decide, whether you want multimode (the default). In rare cases customer needed even longer cabling up to 10 km, then single mode could only be delivered by a special order. With the SFPs you can use multi-mode or single-mode as you need by simply replacing the SFP module.
For connecting the devices you need different types of Multi-Mode cables, because the devices use different plugs.
UFX III uses the larger SC connectors
12Mic and M-1610 use SFPs which need LC connectors
With the following two duplex cables you can create the necessary connections
https://www.cablesandkits.com/mc/fiber/ … /fp-11302/
https://www.cablesandkits.com/mc/fiber/ … /fp-10080/
UFX III--SC-----OM4-----LC--M-1610 Pro--LC-----OM4-----LC--12Mic--LC-----OM4-----SC--UFX III
Cables: SC/LC LC/LC LC/SC
#1 #2 #3
Recommendation: I would order spare cables to be on the safe side and one SFP, just in case one becomes damaged.
Careful with cheaper 3rd party SFPs, you need to look very closely that they support the same wavelength and have no special firmware for special devices. I didn't look closely and ordered the wrong one as well, shit happens
BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13