Best second investment (after mic, lots of newb Q's)

H

hiphop24360

New member
I record hip-hop vocals through a Rode k2, into an EMU-404, into Cubase.

My small home studio consists of one decent sized room in the basement, cement floor, wood panelled walls and a pretty thick ceiling.
I have actually had no complaints about the sound of the room, but my ears are not professionally trained or anything.

My Question is what would the next step you would take to improve sound?

So basically I have a good mic and bare minimum everything else, I have around 800 dollars to spend and I am leaning towards a preamp... particularly either the daking one, or the chameleon labs 7602 w/EQ.....but lately alot of people who know what theyre talking about have reccomended using the money on treating the room, or buying a vocal booth.......or should monitors be the next step? I hear alot of people say they mix in headphones mostly anyways?......or maybe a groove tube brick and a nice compressor dbx160a or something.

I realize ultimately there isn't much new info to gather without physically hearing myself through the gear, but I have no way of renting.....and it took me about 6 months to pay off the damn k2, so I have to be real careful with my budget.

any thoughts
 
First off...what about your current setup/sound don't ya like?

And if I had it to do over again...I'd start with learnin to setup (and then buy) my acoustic treatment. Makin the room tell the truth.

2nd on my list would be monitors once the room was truthful to me.

Then the best mic I could afford.

Everything else after that.

I don't use headphones for mixing. They're too hyped to give you an accurate representation of what's really goin on in the mix. For panning checks or general, sure. Not for critical tho.

Just my 2c man. :)
 
Best second investment (after mic, lots of newb Q's)
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Your *first* and far and away most important investment is your monitoring chain (including the room they're in, of course). Everything else is secondary by a long shot.
 
Ok, First of all Thank you for the replies, I really appreciate it.

dogbreath, I have actually been pretty happy with the sound coming from my current setup.... But I don't feel like im getting the most out of my mic without having a quality pre-amp to drive it (amongst many other issues I plan adress one at at time as money arises)... And a little of the right kinda color never hurts with vocals. oh yea and I admit completely to "kid in a candy store effect" with all of the different mid to high end pre's out recently.. It *Seems* like just the ticket to that added warmth and clarity I seek.


But all in all it sounds like monitoring chain and acousics should be my next issue, better to run the emu 404 preamps and have good acousitics and well, some decent monitors, than to have a great vocal chain but no accurate way to hear or record it.

shit now im in the wrong forum to ask, but whats a solid pair of entry level monitors to invest in?
 
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But all in all it sounds like monitoring chain and acousics should be my next issue, better to run the emu 404 preamps and have good acousitics and well, some decent monitors, than to have a great vocal chain but no accurate way to hear or record it.
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You will never regret saying that.
shit now im in the wrong forum to ask, but whats a solid pair of entry level monitors to invest in?
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Any particular budget in mind...?
 
Thank you for the reassurance. I really appreciate it, I was in the wrong direction completely

budget, 600 ish, if I can get a decent pair for that, if not I'll have to save up a little longer. And I need a power amp to drive these monitors as well right?

cuz I can only gather 800, and thats on a payment plan.

It seems like monitor chain is really important so if I can't get (decent) quality for that much just let me know and Ill wait.
 
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