Digi 002 for guitars, $300 used a good deal?

[Vedder323]

I have a friend who upgraded to an HD system and is willing to sell me his old 002 rack for $300, is this a reasonable deal?

 

Ill be using it with an AKG 414 for acoustics and such

[Stoneball Jack]

Sounds good to me since they're over 1,000 new

[Riggins]

I second that. Almost $1300 when new. $300 is a pretty good deal.

[pewing33ny]

do you have pro tools already? that's a really good deal but the pres/conversion aren't really an upgrade from anything on the market. i had an 003 but mostly used it as a pro toolsdongle so i could record more than the 6 tracks that my mbox 2 would allow. i sold it because it's not worth it to track drums in a non-pro studio.

[flummox]

That's a GREAT deal if it works as it should. I have an 003 that's served me well for 3 years. As the others have said, eventually you'll likely want a couple good outboard mic pres, but the 002's onboard units are about as good as anything else's in the same price range. They're plenty useable and I've heard some very good stuff recorded with them. The rack units tend to go for $450-600 used these days - the desktop units fetch more.

 

I don't know that I'd pay full retail for one, especially with the Apogee Ensemble priced so close to it - but you're getting a very, very powerful tool for $300.

[kojdogg]

For casual recording I would think it would be more than you need as it is in stock form, but if you outgrow it the Black Lion Audio mods are really popular for those. They're expensive, but can result in a pretty drastic improvement in sound quality. A buddy of mine has a BLA modded MOTU 896HD and it sounds awesome.

 

You could also go with external pres and/or A/D converters. Another one of my buddies runs some real nice Vintech and Focusrite pres into Apogee Rosetta 800 A/D Converters and into a stock 002R. That also sounds awesome.

 

One way or the other the acoustic environment you're in will make at least as much (and most likely a lot more), as will mic placement and things like making sure you don't clip the A/D converters on the way in will probably do more to determine whether or not your recording sounds good-- particularly since you have a nice mic to start with.

 

Check out Massey plug-ins if you go with Pro Tools (no affiliation, they're just great for the $).

[flummox]

I've got a pair of Golden Age Pre-73s. Stupid cheap at $300 apiece, they're a very good Chinese knockoff of the Neve 1073. Everything that comes out of them sounds bigger, more complex, and more musical than what went in. Very very good with a 414, tremendous for vocals, and the bass DI from God.

 

002s also have the ADAT lightpipe input which lets you do things like add 8 more mic/line inputs with the ridiculously cheap Behringer ADA8000. The pres in the 8000 are at about the same level as the onboard 002 pres - usable enough. So now you've got a total of 12 mic inputs and four more line ins.

[crowguitar]

i'd say do it..