Advice on Lexicon Omega Studio??

[blue4u]

Hey all! Do any of you know about Lexicon Omega Studio? Have you used it or read reviews? I thought I read here once that it doesn't play nice with RiffWorks? I'm so fed up with my TonePort KB37. I'm looking for a higher quality audio interface. Can any of you make suggestions?? Thanks!

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Lexicon-Omega-Desktop-Recording-Studio?sku=245505

Rich

[dug]

What kind of problems are you having with the KB37?

Our tests with the Lexicon Omega showed that the drivers were reporting the latency incorrectly by several hundred samples. This is really bad. I haven't checked for a newer driver since then, but I plan to when I get a chance.

We've had good results with the Presonus products. The Inspire and FireBox are nice quality pieces of gear if you have FireWire (1394). These devices also include a power supply, so it isn't relying only on power from your computer.
http://www.presonus.com

For USB, the Digidesign MBox2 is a nice device, but it's a bit pricey.

If you're willing to install PCI cards, then I've always liked the Echo products:
http://www.echoaudio.com
Or the offerings from MoTU
http://www.motu.com

cheers,
dug

[gatorjj]

Rich, I'm using a Focusrite Saffire which I've been extremely happy with.

J.J.

[blue4u]

Great feedback guys!

Can you comment on the advantages/disadvantages of USB vs. Firewire vs. internal audio cards? Here's my setup:

Mostly, live recording of double miced acoustic guitar and vocals. I use RiffWorks for laying down song ideas and for the rhythm section (i.e. bass and drums). I record with Ableton Live and Mackie Tracktion 2 but use Audacity and Reaper for certain things as well (for their simplicity). I'm coming more from a singer/songwriter perspective. Once I have tracks laid down I will overdub some electric guitar and/or synth parts.

Ideally, I'd like to have up to 4 XLR inputs (or, tracks) going at once. I don't have an outboard (hardware) mixer but perhaps I should? The point is that I will have a matched condenser pair on the acoustic and two vocal mics for close micing and ambient micing.

The KB37 issues are too many to mention but if you are truly curious you can read all about it here: http://line6.com/support/message.jspa?messageID=12873#12873

Overall, the unit feels flimsy to me and the noise issues with usb 1.0 are problematic. Is this the case with many other usb-driven audio interfaces? I suspect it is.

Thanks for the input. It's very much appreciated

Rich

[blue4u]

I really like the idea of this here: http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=audiokontrol1prod_us

Question is, how would I deal with 4 microphones at once with this unit? I guess it shows my novice with computer recording! I could use a mixer but would lose the capability of individual tracks. Please help!

Thanks,
Rich

[gatorjj]

Hi Rich,

There's certainly interfaces that will record 4 or more inputs simultaneously, but not into RiffWorks. I expect Ableton and maybe Tracktion can handle this.

Here's a couple good interface examples (though there's many many others):
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Firepod/
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SaffirePro10/

I don't know that you need an external mixer or control surface but it sure would be a nice add!

FWIW in Cubase I usually record acoustic guitar with 1 channel on my mic and 1 channel on the Fishman pickup, each into a separate mono track. I can play around with blending the two or use the pickup track to add some effects and create a different ambience. Usually I keep the mic'd track more prominent and use the pickup one to add a little more texture or to make the overall sound a little bigger or more consistent if need be. The tough thing with micing is most people tend to move the guitar a little bit and that can change the mic'd sound. It's hard to stay still when you're trying to project playing your heart out!

[blue4u]

What I'm really trying to do is record guitar/vocals live to capture the room sound and an inspirational/spontaneous take of a song. I don't always want to record separate parts (one at a time). I'm not sure I absolutely need the control of 4 separate tracks though, it would be nice

Question: Could I get by with a mixer that has 4 xlr inputs and just output to the TonePort line inputs?

Thanks,
Rich

[gatorjj]

Absolutely! I used to do this with a Mackie Mixer into the PODxt. Nice thing about the tone port is you'll be able to get Stereo through it and into RiffWorks from the mixer. I don't know specs on the Toneport but typically small mixers provide unbalanced outputs which I expect is fine for it.