New project studio setup - simple question :)

D

dekodesigner

New member
Hi there, new to using this site/forum and love it so far!

I’m about to upgrade from a tascam us-122 to a more advanced setup.

I have my studio equipment rounded up, all I have now is 1 slight question which is probably assisted by the most simple of answers.

I am purchasing a M-audio audiophile 2496 along with a Focusrite VoiceMaster pro and some KRK RP5’s to monitor the vocals from my Rode NT1.

I have a modern PC with 2GB ddr, a 26 inch monitor and 300GB SATA Hard drive capacity.
The sound card I’m using will use a analogue output to 2 ¼ inch to connect to both of my monitors and I will then use I believe a ¼ inch to analogue to connect the preamp (focusrite) to my sound card.
Am I correct on the preamp connection? If so, where upon this image would I connect the ¼ inch?

http://www.focusrite.com/index.php?...ge&productName=voicemaster_pro&imageName=rear
I would really like to conclude this issue, so any input will be very much appreciated.

Thanks, James.
 
 
dekodesigner said:
Hi there, new to using this site/forum and love it so far!

I’m about to upgrade from a tascam us-122 to a more advanced setup.

I have my studio equipment rounded up, all I have now is 1 slight question which is probably assisted by the most simple of answers.

I am purchasing a M-audio audiophile 2496 along with a Focusrite VoiceMaster pro and some KRK RP5’s to monitor the vocals from my Rode NT1.

I have a modern PC with 2GB ddr, a 26 inch monitor and 300GB SATA Hard drive capacity.
The sound card I’m using will use a analogue output to 2 ¼ inch to connect to both of my monitors and I will then use I believe a ¼ inch to analogue to connect the preamp (focusrite) to my sound card.
Am I correct on the preamp connection? If so, where upon this image would I connect the ¼ inch?

http://www.focusrite.com/index.php?...ge&productName=voicemaster_pro&imageName=rear
I would really like to conclude this issue, so any input will be very much appreciated.

Thanks, James.
 
Click to expand...
I don't think it's really much of an upgrade. What will it be used for? What's your budget?
 
upgrade

to say i had a tascam which cost me £100 along with mic, stand, shock mount and pop filter to spending £330 on a preamp, £150 on the monitors and £30 on the soundcard i'd say it's a light upgrade.

my budget is £1,000 to get the best possible sound for vocals and this is what I cam up with for well under that as the next step woulb be an Avalon VT-737SP, which with my level of experience with hardware and preamps, i don't think i would do it justice.

You seem to have a better option, i'd like to hear it..

James.
 
dekodesigner said:
to say i had a tascam which cost me £100 along with mic, stand, shock mount and pop filter to spending £330 on a preamp, £150 on the monitors and £30 on the soundcard i'd say it's a light upgrade.

my budget is £1,000 to get the best possible sound for vocals and this is what I cam up with for well under that as the next step woulb be an Avalon VT-737SP, which with my level of experience with hardware and preamps, i don't think i would do it justice.

You seem to have a better option, i'd like to hear it..

James.
Click to expand...
I'd agree that it's an upgrade, but i don't think you need the soundcard. The tascam is probably of similar standard to the m-audio. IF the m-audio is at all better, it will be a minute difference. Also, i'd suggest, for monitors, getting something with at least 6" woofers would be better. And what are your room acoustics like?
 
thanks for the quick response.. regarding the sound card, it has 2 analogue inputs, one for the pre and one for the monitors where as the tascam has only one, so i can't use both pieces of equipment with this interface.

on another note, i can easily upgrade to the rp6's as the monitors have not bee purchased yet.

when it comes to room acoustics, i'm in a 10 by 10 room with wafer thin walls at the moment, but i am looking into buying a small place to create a vocal booth and dedicate 2 rooms to my studio, for now i'm just working with what i have..

if i can work with the tascam and the preamp along with the speakers, please enlighten me. As I mentioned before, i'm pretty amuetuer when it comes to hardware but i'm looking to improve on that note..

James.
 
dekodesigner said:
thanks for the quick response.. regarding the sound card, it has 2 analogue inputs, one for the pre and one for the monitors where as the tascam has only one, so i can't use both pieces of equipment with this interface.

on another note, i can easily upgrade to the rp6's as the monitors have not bee purchased yet.

when it comes to room acoustics, i'm in a 10 by 10 room with wafer thin walls at the moment, but i am looking into buying a small place to create a vocal booth and dedicate 2 rooms to my studio, for now i'm just working with what i have..

if i can work with the tascam and the preamp along with the speakers, please enlighten me. As I mentioned before, i'm pretty amuetuer when it comes to hardware but i'm looking to improve on that note..

James.
Click to expand...
Doesn't the us-122 have 2 preamps and 2 line-in? If so, then the new preamp can input on one of the line-ins leaving you a free input. You output to monitors. You have 2in 2out. 2ins are used, but you still have the 2 out. And yeah, I'd upgrade to the rp6's if i were you.

Also, square rooms generally have bad acoustics. I'd suggest that you'd probably see a bigger benefit sorting the room acoustics(read this) than getting a new preamp, although a preamp would be good. If you're gonna be upgrading the preamp later, then I'd save your money. Sort the acoustics, get the monitors, and save for the more expensive gear. If you upgrade to preamps worth over £1000, or even £300, then you should have a high class interface(soundcard, better than the m-audio), monitors(probably better than the krks, although they are good budget monitors), acoustics, mics, and recording source as well.
 
i can move to a 10 by 8.5 room if your talking squarness literally, or do you mean you should create a vocal booth in a room more like 10 by 6, or is the 10 by 8.5 better than a straight 10 by 10?


I've started reading ethanwiner.com and will get back to you once I have done. Maybe i will hold out until i can afford to dedicate 2 rooms to my studio. Thanks for the help so far.

James.
 
If you have £1000 budget I'd get the EMU1212M soundcard. The converters are slightly better than the M-Audio. I'd then consider these pres over the Focusrite:-

Safe Sound P1 - http://www.safesoundaudio.com/
M-Audio Tampa - http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/TAMPA-main.html
SPL Track 1 - http://www.spl-usa.com/trackone/in_short.html
Joe Meek 6Q - http://www.joemeek.com/sixq.html

I've used the Focusrite Platinum range and wasn't too impressed. I prefer both my Tampa and DMP3. If you don't need the channel strip features then you could consider :-

M-Audio DMP3 - http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/DMP3-main.html
Rane MS-1b - http://www.rane.com/ms1b.html
ART MPA Gold - http://www.artproaudio.com/products.asp?id=93&cat=1&type=79
 
dekodesigner said:
i can move to a 10 by 8.5 room if your talking squarness literally, or do you mean you should create a vocal booth in a room more like 10 by 6, or is the 10 by 8.5 better than a straight 10 by 10?


I've started reading ethanwiner.com and will get back to you once I have done. Maybe i will hold out until i can afford to dedicate 2 rooms to my studio. Thanks for the help so far.

James.
Click to expand...
10x8.5 would be better, but you still need to treat it acoustically. And what height is the room? (cause square is bad at any dimension)
 
dickiefunk said:
If you have £1000 budget I'd get the EMU1212M soundcard. The converters are slightly better than the M-Audio. I'd then consider these pres over the Focusrite:-

Safe Sound P1 - http://www.safesoundaudio.com/
M-Audio Tampa - http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/TAMPA-main.html
SPL Track 1 - http://www.spl-usa.com/trackone/in_short.html
Joe Meek 6Q - http://www.joemeek.com/sixq.html

I've used the Focusrite Platinum range and wasn't too impressed. I prefer both my Tampa and DMP3. If you don't need the channel strip features then you could consider :-

M-Audio DMP3 - http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/DMP3-main.html
Rane MS-1b - http://www.rane.com/ms1b.html
ART MPA Gold - http://www.artproaudio.com/products.asp?id=93&cat=1&type=79
Click to expand...
Ohh how's your T.Bone RM700 ribbon mic? I was thinking of getting one of those later on.
 
I only had a quick try with it last night. I'm totally new to using Ribbon mics so am not a good judge. It certainly smoothed out the top end but needs stacks of gain! I tried it with my Tampa with the impedance set on 300.
It wasn't a fair test because I used it on a very quiet airy female vocalist and there was a fair bit of hiss due to the high gain (I was probably using around 50dB +). I'm gonna experiment with positioning a bit more to see if I can reduce the hiss. Also I realize that a ribbon would not be a good choice for this particular style of voice/singing. I will be trying it out on different vocalists soon to see how it fares with these!
 
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