ADA8200 Ultragain : Simple, professional, cheap.

The ADA8200 is a fantastic way to expand the inputs and outputs from an existing interface (provided you have ADAT in / out on your interface already). I'm using mine paired with a Behringer UMC1820, which brings me to a total of 16 XLR inputs and 18 outputs, the pairing works exceptionally well and i'm yet to discover any flaws.

The Midas pre's are really really clean and have plenty of headroom. There is no colouration to the sound, so you get a nice transparent signal straight from the mic. Some sound engineers prefer a more textured preamp to get some character in the mix, but personally I prefer working with a clean unaltered signal. These pre's leave you with a blank canvas to cultivate any sound you want from the signal source. They provide ample gain for my RB500 ribbon mics without any unwanted noise.

Very simple to set up, currently working flawlessly in Windows 10 with Reaper, Just plug it in and and play! Syncing to my interface's clock was easy, I just set the clock source to ADAT In and the two units sync automatically.

If you already have an interface with ADAT and you want an easy and cheap way to get a few more channels, I would highly recommend the Behringer ADA8200. Please don't be put off by the brand... Behringer are good now!