Waves Maserati ACG and Studio Update

    I've been using the KPA for the past few Acoustic recordings. Even so, still "muddy" in the mix like it is with my microphones (AKG C100S, TLM 103) So I recently got on-sale the Waves Maserati ACG which really does help clean up that Acoustic. Now a sound engineer would laugh at this, but for a home recorder who wants to spend more time being creative and less time being the engineer, this is a well done plugin for Acoustic. At least it's made me stop wanting a Neuman K84 (K184 whichever) for now.

    BTW, my entire studio is dead it seems. First up:

    -Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP which needs fixing still. Not enamored with Focusrite, but truth be told, I kinda hate the mix software. Every time I go between SPDIF for the KPA and Analog for a microphone the sound goes bye-bye and I gotta figure it out. Bottom line: More complexity, Less Creativity Time. Why are all these Audio Interfaces going this route? Cheaper than hardware routing I guess. My Apogee One I got meanwhile just plugs-n-plays. Choose INPUT 1 and you start recording. Easy Peasy. I want MORE of that, lol. I hear the Clarett series has a much better software mixer.

    -iMac died (horrible Seagate drives, btw, run from these drive!! worst failure rate in the industry bar none) So I got a 1TB SSD and an iMac kit from OWC to install it. Brain surgery for my studio on Saturday. Then 650GB transfer of my last backup, so hopefully Sunday I'll be back up and running. Or buying a new iMac... Wish me luck!

    Kind of underscores how good the KPA is, Quality-wise. Not a hiccup in 3 years with daily usage.

    So in 2016 it looks like perhaps another Audio Interface:
    I want a 2 INPUT Audio Interface that is as easy to setup as that Apogee One. I had the Duet II before, sounding good, but setting levels wasn't as easy as the One for some stupid reason. Maybe I should chain another One? But these don't have SPDIF. Any standalone SPDIF's units?

    I don't know easy was Apogee cause I hadn't one, but I have Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 and it's easy peasy to use. I have KPA hooked by SPDIF, it has 2 inputs in front and 2 more line inputs in the back, +48V for cond mics, 2 HP outputs, sexy red housing <3 I had Saffire 24 Pro DSP and sold it because I wanted USB. Mixer software is easy, because I don't use it :)

    Fixed my iMac. Got an SSD and replaced the Harddrive with my backup, did a new backup to the SSD, then booted from that. I'm up in 10 seconds and backups take 5 minutes now. Nice! (all stuff from OWC)

    Only issue is third party hard drives don't work with Apple's proprietary heat sensing technology (another way to keep you from upgrading at the time in 2011 before they just hard wired components) but OWC has a fix cable for that which I'll get this week sometime.

    I decided on the Clarett 2Pre. So let you know what that's like.