Got my new Equipment

[Dracon]

Yep,

UB802, E835, Blueberry cables and a mic stand.

A Y cable from 1/4" to 1/8"

Yeah the UB802 puts in some noise on the line but I can clean it out with the software. It makes it a little dry but the background music has a lot of stuff going on.

Oh! With the Mic boom, and the 20' cable plus the Y Cable everything went to $230 - That includes tax. By the way my wife heard the recording and she was floored by the resluts.

[Dracon]

Yeah I know no one cares, and I'm sure plenty of you have rolled your eyes when you read that my wife was floored by the results and all I have is a UB802 with an integrated soundcard.


Anyway, I wanted to thank everyone who helped me to stay in budget (although I did $50 over my budget, but it was due to boom stand & cable length and $19 for good old Uncle Sam).

Maybe I'll post a sample of what I turned out last night. Very pleased with my first track.

[scrubs]

I don't think people are rolling their eyes. You purchased equipment that worked for your needs and you are happy with the results. That is all that really matters.

There are a lot of people on this board who have been recording for decades, have tons of experience and seriously awesome gear. Most of them have discovered, by trial and error, that buying inexpensive gear is usually a waste of money if your goal is to make the finest recordings possible. No doubt that some of their recordings are exceptional. These folks will often suggest saving your money and buying better gear, as you will eventually outgrow your cheaper gear (i.e. - your ears will get better and you will hear the limitations of lesser gear). This is probably good advice. However, for people getting into recording for enjoyment only, or those (like yourself) who have very specific recording tasks, it may not always be the best advice. It is sort of like telling your kids not to drink or do drugs because you have been down those roads and want to prevent them from making the same mistakes.

For many people on this board (myself included), recording is a hobby only. It is something I do because I write songs and want to have a way to document them and distribute them to friends and family. I don't do this full time, nor will I ever. I have never recorded anyone else's music for distribution either. I have a job outside of music and have a limited budget to spend on this hobby (which I keep exceeding!). Telling me that I should save my money for "this" preamp or "that" mic or "x" guitar may or may not provide me with useful information, depending on my budget. It's kind of like telling a budding pilot to forget about that Cessna and save up until he/she can buy a Gulfstream IV, because that is the only way to fly. Doesn't make much sense, does it? And we're just talking about sound recordings here, kids.

I value the advice of people on this board, because most of them have a lot more experience than myself. I have made several purchases based on recommendations of people here and, overall, am quite pleased. However, I also know my own circumstances better than anyone else and must live with the decisions I have made. If you have read this far, I appreciate you listening to my rant.

Happy recording, all.

[Dracon]

Originally Posted by scrubs

I don't think people are rolling their eyes. You purchased equipment that worked for your needs and you are happy with the results. That is all that really matters.

Hey scrubs I wasn't my intention to come accross as not appreciative of the advice, in fact I was trying to thank people for their advice. I know that there are folks out there who have top of the line equipment, and probably think I'm half deaf, if I think that the Behringer UB802 can actually make anything sound good.

$230 It's really not that much money for me (in fact I have a whole load of crap in my garage that has cost 6 times the amount of money and I have not touched it in 9 years). The whole point is that I don't know if I'm going to use this for three or four months and never pick it up again, or if this will turn out to be something we want to get deeper into.
If it is something we want to get deeper into, I'm only out $50 (UB802), but if I only use the equipment for four months and never pick it up again. I don't want to be out $400. I can always go out and buy me a $100 Yamaha and a $50 soundcard instead of using an integrated sound card.

I do appreciate the advice of all the folks in here, and without them I would be listening to something that was recorded on a hand held tape recorder, with music comming out of the stereo.

My wife and I are actually very picky when it comes to sound quality. I know it's not professional quality and that if I actually had bought some software along with a decent mixer that I could probably make it sound much better.
I spent about 2 hours playing around and trying to take the line noise out. However, the line noise is so low compared to the background music we are adding in, (for our application) that it is negliable.

Thanks for the rant, and yes I read your whole post.

[manning1]

dracon. i think its great that you got into recording.
next - if you dont have a decent sound card - the "heart" of quality sound
is the sound card convertors. so - just something for you to think about.
the maudio sound cards are very popular like audiophile 2496.
also - if younwant to get more serious about this demo a ranems1b or
fmraudio.com mic preamp sometime. i dont know how your placed for mics , but look at cad and beyer sometime. ive never tried a beyer i didnt like.
also look around for old electrovoice dynamic mics in good condition.
peace.

[Dracon]

Originally Posted by manning1

.... if you dont have a decent sound card - the "heart" of quality sound is the sound card convertors. so - just something for you to think about.
the maudio sound cards are very popular like audiophile 2496.
also - if younwant to get more serious about this demo a ranems1b or
fmraudio.com mic preamp sometime. i dont know how your placed for mics , but look at cad and beyer sometime. ive never tried a beyer i didnt like.
also look around for old electrovoice dynamic mics in good condition.
peace.

Hey Manning - The integrated soundcard it's okay specially for now.
I don't know what a ranems1b is, but I can look on the internet.
I'm not sure I understand the mics question - but I bought a Sennheiser E835 and I'm very pleased with the sound.
If I really get into this, I'll probably want to go with a condenser mic since it's strictly recording voice (speach). However, if we really do get into this we will probably end up at a Pro Studio and put in the money and time there initially. That will be when we are ready to market our product.

Right now, we are doing some testing, writing our scripts and I'm learning how to EQ (not very well I may add). All in-all my very first track that I turned out last night (has some issues yeah - proximity & poping from me wanting to eat the mic- that need to be resolved) but it's actually pretty good.
It's like anything. The first time I built something out of wood, I knew it wasn't perfect, it had too many screws took me too long to do, but it worked for that application. Eventually, I will learn from the recordings errors that I made. However, when I go to the Pro Studio it will not cost me thousands of dollars because we did not test our scripts, and because we didn't know what combination of music would work.

[Dracon]

For those of you who care ... ha ha ha ha .... okay.

Anyway, just a quick FYI. Due to popular demand and high availibility I have upgraded (yes, yes I went to the Yamaha MG 10/2) my mixer. In addition, I have also upgraded my trusty, handy dandy integrated soundcard for a Delta 44.

Yes, you were all correct. I can actually hear my own voice when I record. Anyway, now that we've settled that I have outgrown my equipment in a couple of weeks.

You are free to post and tell me "I told you so..."

Thanks to everyone for all the advice.

[deepwater]

I'd send the Yamaha back for a Sondcraft M8. You'll hear a big differance between the pres. The EQ in the Soundcraft is also out of this world.

[noisedude]

Oi!! He's catching up way too fast!! I've spent three years waiting to go up to the proper pres in an M12!! He's already got my soundcard, monitor mixer and one of my Sennheiser mics ... I can't afford to keep ahead!!

[distortedrumble]

.... um......well damnit I still use my UB802 and you know what!!!!? I LIKE IT!!! .....well its more like I'm used to it. but yeah I'm slowly saving up for the M12 myself. i had to divert 550 of the saved money to buy a new computer. so now its like starting over from scratch. ah well.

[traidma]

Holy shit.. that M12 has so many buttons and holes in it

[distortedrumble]

yeah...its pretty.........so whats the big red button do?... :-)

[traidma]

you dummy... there is no big red button

[Dracon]

Originally Posted by deepwater

I'd send the Yamaha back for a Sondcraft M8. You'll hear a big differance between the pres. The EQ in the Soundcraft is also out of this world.

Well, I'll trade you my Yamaha 10/2 for your Soundcraft M8. I'll even pay for you to ship me the M8. If you tell me that guitar world has it for $50 more than the Yamaha I'm game.

I just checked the price $640 Holy Crap Batman, I think my wife just fainted.

[Dracon]

Originally Posted by distortedrumble

.... um......well damnit I still use my UB802 and you know what!!!!? I LIKE IT!!! .....well its more like I'm used to it. but yeah I'm slowly saving up for the M12 myself. i had to divert 550 of the saved money to buy a new computer. so now its like starting over from scratch. ah well.

You should start a not for profit charity to collect money for your M12.
So what computer did you get, or did you build your own?

[noisedude]

rumbleman - it's all good! I can thoroughly recommend the M series ... a league above what I've had before ... but it's only now that my Behringer's going off to recoup funds ... it's actually a lot more flexible for monitoring than my Yamaha, but I have to sell one, and well ... yeah.

[deepwater]

I did a little shoot out between the Soundcraft M series and the new Mackie Onyx and the Soundcraft won. The pres on the Soundcraft sounded richer and the EQs did just what you asked them to do.

I've always thought Mackie was over rated and over priced. There is so much differance between a Soundcraft Live 4 and Mackie 32-8 that you can tell the differance in live sound. The Mackie pres seem very thin when compaired to the Soundcrafts

[distortedrumble]

i built my own comp. this is the 5th computer I've built but my first time using an SATA hard drive.. its not too bad.

[EdWonbass]

Originally Posted by distortedrumble

yeah...its pretty.........so whats the big red button do?... :-)

DON'T TOUCH THAT!!!!!


Too late.

[Dracon]

Originally Posted by distortedrumble

i built my own comp. this is the 5th computer I've built but my first time using an SATA hard drive.. its not too bad.

Why the heck do you need a SATA? Do you have that much data in your hard drive or do you run a webpage of some kind?

Unless you have like an insane amount of data (1TB) or you are running at webserver or any other type of server at your house. There is no need to get either a SCSI or a SATA drive. It's a HD not a sports car, and the SCSI and SATA are very valuable for the IT industry (no more file servers chugging along) but 10,000 rpm are useless to homeusers.

Now if you told me you had like 3GB of RAM (DDR1), I'd be the first to bow down and say 'I'm not worthy'. The RAM and the processor are the only two things that really increase the performance of your computer. When data is traveling at the speed of light from your computer to the user interface (mouse, keyboard, speakers, and monitor) what is the difference between 10 miliseconds and 5 miliseconds? Nothing, you can't even tell.

A lot of people get caught up in the hype of all this techno stuff, especially computer geeks who work in the industry. I know I argue with them all the time and they always end up telling me the same 'I just wanted it'. I knew this one guy who had a rackmount with an Exchange Server, a SQL Server, and a Domain Controller (nice guy but he was a Major Geek). I asked him why the heck he had all that crap (which took up like a 1/3 of one of his rooms) in his house, and he looked at me like I was from another planet. Anyway, sorry for the rant. I'm sure you have a very good reason to want the SATA drive. I'm just jealous of your SATA (not really).
Hope you enjoy it!

I hope you understand is nothing against you, I see people (especially old ladies) getting ripped off and they get sold the Lamborgini of computers, when all they need is a dumb terminal.

[Dracon]

Originally Posted by EdWonbass

DON'T TOUCH THAT!!!!!


Too late.

I didn't do it!

[christiaan]

Originally Posted by Dracon

Why the heck do you need a SATA? Do you have that much data in your hard drive or do you run a webpage of some kind?

Unless you have like an insane amount of data (1TB) or you are running at webserver or any other type of server at your house. There is no need to get either a SCSI or a SATA drive. It's a HD not a sports car, and the SCSI and SATA are very valuable for the IT industry (no more file servers chugging along) but 10,000 rpm are useless to homeusers.

Hold your horses.
I know you're in IT (and so am I) but I think you should look into this a bit deeper.
SATA drives are just like ATA drives with a somewhat different interface, a slightly higher price (maybe 10% more) and comparable performance. Most SATA drives are mechanically the same as their ATA counterparts and run at 7200rpm.
In time ATA will be replaced by SATA. Whether or not to go for old or new at this point in time... well, there is something to say for either choice.
But difference in cost is hardly an issue, that's for sure.

[Dracon]

Originally Posted by christiaan

Hold your horses.
I know you're in IT (and so am I) but I think you should look into this a bit deeper.
SATA drives are just like ATA drives with a somewhat different interface, a slightly higher price (maybe 10% more) and comparable performance. Most SATA drives are mechanically the same as their ATA counterparts and run at 7200rpm.

I'm not arguing that SATA will eventually replace ATA, just like DDR replaced SDRAM, and SDRAM replaced SIM.
The key though as you mention is the performance increase having hardrive in Serial versus a Parallel. However, 30 times faster performance does not mean much for the home user, unless like I said they are running a Server or something else that requires really high performance. However, in addition you would also benefit from dual processor, more memory.
Granted being that you are building your own computer, perhaps you want to be in-line with the technology trends, so that you will not suffer in the future, in the event you want to upgrade or replace a HD.
Anway, it does not matter either way. It's your computer and your project, I guess I was just on the rag last night as I was up posting at 2:00am.

[fraserhutch]

SCSI drives are nice in that I can share them with my synths, and in that I am not limited to 3 (realistically, you need a DVD drive). I have at times had up to 6 scsi drives on one bus.

I always share scsi drives between my audio system and my Kurzweil synths. I figure I have about 10 SCSI drives here, and I use them all. I use 3 for synths, one in my firewall system (IPCOP), another 4 for my linux systems and the rest are general storage in other systems, etc.

In systems where you want one DVD drive, one DVD read/write drive, and maybe a IDE zip drive, well, then you are limited to a single IDE drive. This is fine if you can affords to replace you current drive when you exceed its storage requirements, but why other when I can just toss in another scsi drive, partition and mount it? Not to mention, this way, I do not have to sdisturb my current intallation.

AND do not forget the cardinal rule that you, as an IT guy, should know - no matter how much CPU, RAM, disk space, whatever you have on your system, we will QUICKLY find a way to consume it all and need more. I have more RAM on the system I am typing on than I had RAM and ALL storage on my first PC.

Anyways, I do believe SATA drives will very quickly become indispensible on top-end systems, IMHO. As will, in time, 64-bit cpus.

My $0.02.

[Dracon]

Originally Posted by fraserhutch

In systems where you want one DVD drive, one DVD read/write drive, and maybe a IDE zip drive, well, then you are limited to a single IDE drive. This is fine if you can affords to replace you current drive when you exceed its storage requirements, but why other when I can just toss in another scsi drive, partition and mount it? Not to mention, this way, I do not have to sdisturb my current intallation.

I agree with you if you are buying a computer off the shelf or a barebones system. However, (and this was two years ago) I was looking at building my own system then and I found a motherboard that could handle upto eight devices at one time. It had four IDE connectors on the Motherboard, and at the time the board only cost $200.
So if you are building yourself a computer you can find them, but if you are doing all that then it's probably easier to find (I don't know I have not looked around) a Motherboard that supports SATA or add a controller card to a regular motherboard.

Originally Posted by fraserhutch

........ I have more RAM on the system I am typing on than I had RAM and ALL storage on my first PC.

Well my 1st pc had a 50MB HD. I had went all out, and gotten the new 3.5" Floppy drive, along with an outrageously fast modem (300Baud).
I remember the local BBS sysgod used to have 1GB of HD space and he had 100 HD.

Originally Posted by fraserhutch

Anyways, I do believe SATA drives will very quickly become indispensible on top-end systems, IMHO. As will, in time, 64-bit cpus.

Oh! No! Here we go again. What is 64-bit going to do for you? All that means is that the processor can read upto 64-bits at one time.
I agree with you efficiency is great, especially in such a workhorse that the computer is. Look, in my opinion the single best leap that has been done, has been under utilize. That is asyncronous processing.
No one writes, programs for it and it has invented a long time ago. Actually I lie, the Digital rendering software developers (The guys that made Monsters Inc. and a Bugs life) write their programs for mulit asyncronous processing.