Hey GSlutz,

I want to start up my own little live recording and production company that i can do part time soon - its just a matter of completing my setup!

I have at the moment a sturdy MBP, a Metric Halo ULN-2 and a Steinberg MR816x.

That only gives me 10 preamps which will be too limited!

I was thinking of adding a MH 2882, which will then be 18 preamps (2 uln-2, 8 2882, and 8 mr816) which will all be running through MIO Console and Record Panel. Will this be possible? ANyone familiar with Metric Halo please Chime In

As far as i'm aware if you chain 2 Metric Halo devices together through AES they will be recognized as one and then I can just throw another 8 preamps in via ADAT on one of the MH interfaces.

Regarding stability I know its better using hardrive recording, but I'm just trying to utilize what I have already rather than spending on new.
I am lead to believe the MIO Console Recording is pretty darn stable and doubt it will crash - Its a Laptop so if power trips or is pulled out I still have hours of battery also perhaps I can record via a DAW as well as MIO Record Panel so if the DAW crashes, then it will still be streaming. For now that is stable enough

Which Brings me to my Last Question:: What Else would I need? what about Splitter Boxes? What is the Policy behind them at live shows? Any suggested brands?

Or do i just bring my own leads and take inserts out of the mixer?

Will really appreciate the response!

Daisy chain the ULN2 and 2882 via firewire, and ADAT the MR816x into either of them.

I would look into maybe a BLA microclock, I think it has three wordclock outputs? And synch all the units together.

Get an external USB3 or thunderbolt external HDD, one that you can possibly put a Western Digital AV drive into. They are designed for constant read/write cycles and perform well in live recording situations.

I use Whirlwind SB16T11G's, transformer isolated splitters, take two lots of looms and tap into the mics coming off stage either at monitors or FOH, take the direct side and give the in house the isolated side and then remember to have them turn phantom off on their end as you will be responsible for phantom, otherwise do it the other way.

As you expand with more preamps coming in through ADAT, buy more splitters.

Possibly look at going complete MH with digitally controlled preamps that can be configured via the software panel, so you can run a firewire over ethernet extender and put the preamps on stage whilst you monitor with your laptop in another room.

If you want access to both MH interfaces from the MIO software, you need to daisy-chain them via Firewire; this lets you do routing, set bit depth and sample rate, clocking, etc.

To pass audio between the two, you can use AES or ADAT; in the setup you describe, it's probably easiest to have the 2882 be connected directly to your computer, and run the ULN-2 in through AES and the Steinberg via ADAT.

It would be a good idea to also make word clock connections on all three boxes. I don't know the Steinberg's preferences on this; if it can slave to one of the MH interfaces that would probably be best. I run two ULN-2s together, and slave the one connected to my computer to the second one; you might be able to go:

ULN2 clock out -> 2882 clock in
2882 clock out ->816 clock in

As far as the MIO Console being stable - yes, it is, but it's still software on a computer.

I don't think you'd gain anything by running a DAW as well; it would probably just increase your chances of trouble. MIO Console does support mirroring, so you can record to two drives at once, but if the MBP operating system has trouble it would likely affect both.

Backup is one of the tricky aspects of live recording; do a few searches here and you'll find many perspectives. A lot depends on how much room for error you have. On my 4-channel setup, I grab the SPDIF signal off each ULN-2 and capture them on handheld recorders. This means I have to sync them up if I needed the backups, but it's better than nothing.

I'm considering swapping out one of my ULN-2s for an RME UFX, which has onboard recording capabilities (to a USB drive). That would create a fully outside-the-computer recording path. If you're doing this sort of thing for money in can't-fail situations, it might be worth considering the UFX rather than the Steinberg (though it is a lot more expensive).

Good luck!

Exactly. Backups are a critical aspect of mobile recording that is easy to overlook. For this reason the UFX is hard to beat for mobile rigs. The direct to USB recording feature alone is an incredible feature that works very well and has saved me more than once. The pres are also very good. If I were in the OP's situation I would seriously look at swapping the ULN-2 for a used UFX and then picking up an 4-8 unit pre to go along with the Steinberg.

Great info thanks man... Never thought about using the spdif outs into a backup that is quite handy indeed... I guess I could just create a bus and firewire outs in console to route all the input channels to come out the spdif via firewire sends, wouldnt be able to mix them again, but as a last resort backup i guess better than nothing.

The thing is I already have the MR816 so its a case of considering whether to sell it (at quite a loss) and forking out alot more for something else.. plus i really like the preamps in the unit so i reckon its worth keeping.