There are a million factors but I’ve found I can track a live band with at least 16 channels. I don’t have a budget but I don’t want price to weigh too heavily here but a 6-figure console isn’t happening. I mainly record my own projects and for friends. I like gear with personality so colored pre’s are cool, mainly heavy types of music (think Black Sabbath and Sleep). I have some special pre’s for vocals and such but I’d like some keepers so probably not the bargain brands like Behringer or even Warm Audio. Some companies have pre’s in sets of 4 and 8 which I like the idea of, I also tend to like the cohesion of using the same pre’s for a full drum kit or all of the guitars/bass. 500 offers some flexibility but I’ll take a one trick pony, singular sound over a Swiss Army knife, cover all your bases philosophy all day, everyday. I’m also not a Neve, API etc purist. I’ve recorded in a number of different studios and had results I’ve been super happy with.

If a price max is helpful then let’s say a semi-flexible $15-20k. Gear lust will never go away but I’ve found when I stick to the buy once/cry once philosophy, I’m pretty good with that. It’s the buying cheap gear that always gets replaced that bothers me.

I’m as interested in hearing your philosophy for starting from near scratch. I’ve got a lot of mics so don’t worry about factoring that in but I do love ribbons especially for my guitars on very loud amps.

Seventh Circle Audio is one option.

- Neve style
- API style
- Others
- DI

Reverb has a box of eight N72 (Neve style) right now for $3200. No need to blow a huge wad on preamps, when they aren't exactly critical to the finished product compared to room and mics and talent and things like that. With your budget you could get the whole enchilada, like API the box.

AML 1058's? 16 pre/eq's?

Audio Maintenance Limited (AML) New - ez1058-500

Dude, you have definitely posted in the wrong Forum!

You're talking 16 preamps at around $1,000 per channel.

Go straight to High End. Do not pass Go. Do not stop in 'So Much Gear'. Do not collect $200.

The folks there are much better qualified to help you blow $20,000 on preamps.

Personally, for "tracking live bands" I'd 100% be looking at a console for that application and with that kind of budget, but I'm old school.

Yeah do you prefer a console or no?

Get a used Midas Venice (not F or U, the first version). That will give you a lot of quality preamps, usable EQs and even the possibility of grouping, latency-free monitoring, etc. Then you can use the rest of your budget for more important things.

Call Don Larking and say Cadac J.

I'm curious what others have to say as well, but... Two of the Phoenix Audio DRS-8 units would be about $6k, fantastic mic amps and DIs!

Sixteen channels of Seventh Circle would be great too, I'm sure, and that should come in under budget. One of the best producers I know leans heavily on those.

On the cheaper side, but still probably great quality, I've been hearing very good things about the new SSL PureDrive units and I'm tempted to add a four-channel into my own space. ADAT and all that.

What are 1058s exactly, and how do they compare to 1073s? I have an ez1073 that I love, but the single space for a pre/eq is tempting.

They're early Neve clones.
Germanium Preamp + 3 band EQ.

Not the typical 1073 sound from what I heard in the demos... but in a good way.

Michael Beinhorn loved his 1057's because of their excellent transient response and accuracy. Pretty sure.

Don even racks up the Cadac J channels, PSU included.
Less features than a console but smaller and less expensive.

Pssssst, all preamps are analog. Even in a digital mixer. And the digital part, the control, is actually super handy for recall and remote adjustments (Neve 1073 OPX comes to mind), especially if you're working out of a one-room setup and/or playing/engineering, as most of us are these days.

2 X Phoenix DRS8's = 16 chanels.

Depending where you are that lot will cost between 6.5 to10k.

15-20k is a hell of a lot of money for Pre's. That's high-end territory.

First things first: what mics do you have? What room? Do you have a dedicated recording space? How's conversion and monitoring happening?

Let's consider all of the above is in good shape and you really want to spend 15-20k on pre's. In that case I'd advocate for a good mix of different flavours allowing you to cover a lot of sonic territory for guitar, bass, drums and vox. Spend two thirds of the money on character pieces with good resale value and the other on great clean pre's.

For heavy music - which I make and record too - my preferred pre is the Chandler TG2. Amazing on guitars but also on everything else. 500 Series or 19" doesn't matter but two channels of these cover a lot of ground.

Second choice would be API. With your budget a 3124 with four channels is doable.

Third option A-Design's Pacifica. Either 500 Series or the 19" rack version. Again two channels. Amazing amp for guitars and great with ribbons. Some people say it's in-between Neve and API but I think it has a unique sound. Colin Marston records almost all guitars through a Pacifica.

If you buy new - which you shouldn't - that is ca 9-10k for 8 channels of high-end pre's with unique and different sound characters. You could add two channels of Neve (clones) for another 2-3k. I'd go for the 1084 over the 1073, but that's my personal preference.

For the remaining channels and clean option I'd simply buy an RME 12Mic. Gives you 12 channels of very good, clean remote controllable pre's including conversion. It would also leave you with some money left for mics, compressors or something else. The 12Mic is great for drum recordings: you can mic up almost the complete kit and use character pre's for snare/kick/overhead to you liking.

fwiw, seventh circle works here for neve-like. i have a pair of neve 1079 on deck as well and i never blink when they’re beside the 8 sc n72s.
if shopping for neve like, good to keep in mind rail voltages. the o.g. s run at 28v. great for headroom. hard to find that kind of spec in any 500 format!
the other thing worth noting is the sc don't have hp filters … input gain, output gain, phantom, polarity only.
after 15yrs or so of use, still lots o love for the sc here.

Germanium? That's just plain silly - noisy, temperature-sensitive, and useless for anything other than guitar fuzz boxes (though there are better ways of getting "that" sound these days).
I had the misfortune to have to repair a lot of early Neve stuff (in the broadcasting world) when they were new. The Calrec and Audix options were much better built!

I'd get a Burl mothership and 4 of the b4 card with the 4 mic pres. Sweetwater would probably do it for 10K

You'd have 16 great preamps with top notch conversion, with more slots available if you wanted or needed D/A

I believe you'll find our TEC Nominated, Pueblo Audio LAGUNA 4 meets your criteria. 16 channels along with their power supply will come in under your budget. Flexible input features and dual output technology with each channel providing both transformer and transformer-less paths simultaneously. You can't go wrong.

A best-in-class, no regrets ensemble to be sure.

O.
K.

A Trident 68 16 channel is $14k. A 24 channel is around $18k. Not exactly low end but since you ask...