However, for redundancy and also for the sake of trying new and different things, I went ahead and ordered a PreSonus Inspire 1394. Why did I choose it?
Well, first of all I've had a wonderful experience with PreSonus' midrange FireWire recording interface, the Firepod (since renamed FP10). It also has two features that I really like:
-Everything is software controlled, there are no knobs and buttons on the device. Not only does this make me less nervous about throwing it in a backpack and kicking it around, it also allows the software to store and recall different configurations on command. Also, since I'm recording in stereo with a matched pair of mics, it makes it trivial to ensure that I have both preamps at the exact same level, since it displays the precise amount of gain, whereas with knobs it takes a magnifying glass and some "feeling" to match them up.
-An analog clip limiter for both preamps. This is important to me because I am always torn when setting levels between my desire to maintain the dynamic range of the performance, and my knowledge that the recordings I make in Italy will end up in the iTunes libraries of the teenage performers, next to Soulja Boy et al. I've often tried to recover from digital clipping with a limiter plugin, with varying degrees of success. Analog clipping sounds a whole lot better than digital clipping so I'm really excited to have a hardware limiter in the signal chain BEFORE the A/D conversion.
Coming soon, maybe today, the promised Equipment selection part 2 post, where I'll discuss how I chose to power this setup.
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