Ableton Forum

Id like to hear the difference between these "high end pres" and the ones on a Zed R 16 to see if i can tell the better quality.... Everything sounds fantastic on the zed r 16 to me and i have read how these pre's sound as good as RME and hold there own against much higher priced units.

Analogue isn't just about sound to me its about that feeling you get whilst using the hardware (quality) instrument.

The ZED r16 is decent enough but don't expect it sound like an SSL etc. Ditto Mackie VLZ etc (and I say this as a former Mackie VLZ 1604 owner, nice enough and has some character).

You could buy an analogue summing mixer such as a Neve 8816 in conjunction with your audio interface for good 'analogue' style results.

Or if you have some money to burn, The Toft mixers are great, the EQ is exquisite (this desk is based on the legendary Trident A80 large format console)
http://www.toftaudiodesigns.com/atb.html

There is an optional firewire 24/192 interface available with this.

The TL Audio tubetracker is good too, but only has 12 inputs.

Just to stoke the fires of gearlust a little, I recently replaced my rme fireface 400 with a metric halo uln 2, moving in the direction of less, but better quality gear. The rme is a fantastic unit no doubt, had an 800 before that too but I just didn't need that many channels i/o and the pres are good, but nothing like the uln2, plus the extra uln controls on the front are great. Also, a/b ing the 2 together I was quite surprised how flabby the rme bottom end sounded, though I'd honestly never noticed it until a/b ing them. The metric halo comes with some wicked built-in dsp (part of the built-in 2d setup) which includes the channel strip subfunk mentioned as well an amazing 'character' set. For what I do the extra dsp option on top of this isn't necessary and it was actually again refreshing to go for less than more. A recent bike crash means I haven't been able to get downstairs for a few weeks to test it yet but the metric halo internal summing is also supposed to be noticeably better than in pretty much any daw.
What am I saying....I've found that looking at what I really need as opposed to maybe need, selling some redundant stuff and getting the best within reason that I can has given me more physical and mental space and a much better sound. Still room for toys too and I'm def. interested in seeing how you go with a euphonix.