Apple Logic Pro /LogicExpress Discussion

When it comes to converters, I have to agree with Pete. I have a Presonus Firestudio, 
Lynx Aurora 8/AES and RME DSP IO in my studio. They all sound great and I wouldn't 
say one is better than another when used as straight conversion of line level sources. 
I also have the IO in a Kore controller, a Guitar Rig controller and others and they 
all sound so similar that it really came down to convenience. As far as latency and 
sample rates go I really thought going 96/24 was going to make a big difference 
and it did...My sessions doubled in size, my track count went down and although 
latency at record was lower, my entire rig seemed more sluggish as it had to buffer 
a lot more audio to get going. Play-stop was more hesitant and plug-ins just felt 
more unstable in some weird way. I ended up going back to 48/24 for everything 
and am really happy. I have a two computer daw setup and so when I mix I go analog 
out of the the Aurora and Firestudio through a custom summing mixer and buss 
mastering set up. This all goes to the RME. For this I do run the RME at 88.2 or 96 
and master at the higher rate. I can definitely hear the difference in sample rates 
at this stage. I've really come to take advantage of the ability to create several 
aggregate devices and choose the one with the minimum channels enabled necessary 
for what I'm doing at that time. My biggest gains came with upgrading the integrity 
of the signals going to those converters.  Good Mic Pres, discrete input stages, 
transformer iso's and impedance matching various sources all made a huge difference. 
So my personal advice is to really consider just how many channels your are really going 
to need. I use 1-2 channels of A/D everyday for tracking. I use 8 channels or more only 
when tracking a band or recording a live gig somewhere. Knowing that every channel 
of A/D you have is only as good as the signal you feed it, consider the true cost of 
each of those channels. You may be better off with 8 channels of pro-sumer conversion 
and a couple channels of really well specified high-end channel strips than a lot of IO 
and pro-sumer signal processors or budget mixers.