Looking to upgrade some of my gear

L

liberty610

New member
Hi guys,

I'm new to this forum, but have been a member of other home recording forums that has helped me get where I'm at right now. Looking for sine gear to upgrade to...

Let me explain a little bit about my current setup, and the things that I am thinking about upgrading.

I am currently recording on a self built custom PC running Windows 7 64 Ultimate. I have a six core processor from AMD, 16 gigs of ram, 7 internal hard drives, and my boot drive is an SSD drive.

I just recently updated to Reaper version 4.77 (64 bit) for my Daw. I have several plugins from waves, Sony, and line 6. My current audio interface is the line 6 ux8 which is an 8 channel USB interface. I am using an Alesis DM 10 pro studio electronic drum kit for drums, and I am using that to trigger audio in Superior Drummer 2.0.

I am currently lacking some decent headphones, and I am looking to upgrade my studio monitors. Right now I am using a pair of Samson 40a studio monitors. I bought them in 2007.

For headphones, I am looking for decent pairs to track with, and possibly mix with. I know that mixing with headphones is not the best solution, but I currently do not have a proper room setup for mixing with monitors.

I was currently looking at buying a couple pairs of the AKG K 240 headphones. Does anyone know about them, or have any recommendations for a different pair? I would like to keep it close to $100 a pair if possible, and I would use them for tracking and mixing. So isolation for live mic/vocal recording would be best...

Also, for studio monitors, I am looking for an upgrade or maybe a pair to add to the two that I already have. The back of my line 6 UX 8 unit has several different outputs. I currently only use the main outputs for the monitors I currently have. The outputs in the line 6 unit are all quarter inch outputs. Here is a link to the back of the unit.


https://www.zikinf.com/_gfx/matos/dyn/large/line-6-toneport-ux8_2.jpg

I was looking for a decent pair of powered monitors that would work well with this unit. PreferableI was looking for a decent pair of powered monitors that would work well with this unit. a set that is an upgrade to the Samsung 40a set that I currently have.

My studio is nothing more but a spare bedroom in my house where I keep all of my gear. I am working towards getting the room remodeled, and putting some acoustic foam and trappers where it's needed. But until then I'm just looking for decent gear to upgrade to before I get to that point. I record a lot of acoustic guitars, a lot of vocals, and my main projects right now are my own metal bands. So if someone could point me in the direction of some new items to look up, I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you, and I look forward to the replies!
 
I would recommend that you have a pair of SONY MDR-7506 headphones somewhere in your arsenal. They are an old standard and I really like them for tracking, mixing, and mastering. They are closed, so when mastering, I usually start with these, but use a wide variety of phone and monitors to continually check myself. You should be able to pick them up for under $100US.

For monitors, there are a number of monitors on the market in the $250/ea that are based on an 8" speaker that are pretty nice. Again, while I use a variety of different monitors (of current generation, the Presonus ERIS 8" sound really good to me) , I also use some high end commercial speakers to do reality checks - they are all set up a bit differently and are powered differently. The commercial speakers run through a commercial audio amplifier, while the monitors run either direct through the digital interface (powered) or through an amplifier (passive).

As an FYI, my interface is a Presonus AudioBox 44VSL, which I really recommend, especially for tracking with near-zero latency.

We use Studio One Professional, which we find extremely comfortable for everything from the creative end of song construction and tracking to mixing to mastering, all without leaving the DAW. This includes using Melodyne and EZ Drummer - no need to leave the DAW for either. Note that I run on a Win7 Pro system and my recording partner runs on a Mac. No issues working collaboratively via DropBox with either an entire song or track by track (.wav files). The computer you have sounds awesome - I suspect that there is no need to make any changes on that front.
 
Hi Dino,

Thanks for the reply!

The line 6 ux8 interface I use also has near zero latency. I've never had issues with latency on it with the pc I built, and I've had drummers recording through it with electronic kits attached to superior drummer. So for the interface, I'm good for now.

However, I just learned the importance of an external pre amp fore mics, which I never have used in my home studio before. I just used the built in pres the ux8 offers, but from what I've read, a separate mic pre might be worth looking into.

I can budget one into my shopping list as long as it stays between $700 and $800. I would like it to be $700 minimum so I can grab a free financing deal for 3 years...

Is an external pre amp something I should look into for vocal/guitar micing?
 
While I have no experience with the line 6, with the preamps in the AudioBox 44VSL, which have a reputation of being quite good, we were able to stop using external preamps. We have access on the AudioBox to inputs with and without preamps, so passive and active instruments all seem to be handled quite well for a home studio. We have released several CDs, and have not had any issues where we would even consider (re)acquiring a preamp for vocals or guitars. We haven't had anyone note anything that could be traced back to a lack of an external preamp. I would urge a lot of caution before investing in a good quality preamp compared to other options for that kind of cash.
 
Thanks again Dino.

The line 6 UX8 has 60+db on the xlr inputs. With my current mxl v63m, it does a good job. But I keep seeing 'pre amps make things better' everywhere. Wasn't sure if I needed one.

There is software with the line 6 stuff that works pretty well. They have software pre amps and effects that can be applied to the mic for tracking. Then, you can either record the track(s) your doing with those processes on the actual track, or you can record the mic straight by itself, and then use the line 6 plugins to re-add the processes later, ava even tweak them on the fly.
 
We have certainly heard the same. In terms of relatively inexpensive preamps, we did a lot of internal testing and sold our preamp :-) Now, in terms of an expensive preamp, that's not clear to us using our setup. However, I can tell you that it is hard to believe that something is missing when we ask knowedgeable and professional studio folks or top billboard recording artists. I'm going to ping my son (we work collaboratively at a distance and have nearly identical setups - differences in mics, guitars, and a few plug ins) and see if i can get him to jump in here with a bit more technical details than I have at my fingertips as we made these decisions 1.5 or so years ago.
 
DinoRock is my father and recording partner, he asked me to take a look at this thread. As he said, we have no experience with the Line 6 UX8 system but from what I'm reading, it is great for guitars, and only decent for mics.

What you have to understand about preamps is that all Digital Interfaces have preamps built into them, and some do it better than others. Presonus is renowned for their XMAX preamps which deliver crystal clear, absolutely transparent sound. Nothing is colored in any way, which leaves me all the creative room to play once it hits the DAW.

If you're going to choose an external preamp you need to decide what the purpose is. Is it to get clear, transparent sound reproduction? Is it to get a warm, tube like sound? Is it for extra gain with good noise floor ratios? Many external preamps have a distinct coloration to their sound, and everything you run through it will attain that sound. So if you choose one make sure that it's precisely what you want.

Personally as a home recorder, I prefer to have high quality transparent preamps, like we have in Presonus, so that I can do any coloration in production rather than stuck with it on the way in.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top