"budget" mixing desk....

[mong00se]

Hey, im a starter buildin my first home recording studio n im in need o some advice.
Im on a pretty tight budget of about £200 which is i dunno $350 with swich to choose my desk. A friend of mine who claims to have expertise says the Peavy PV-14 is likely the best bet. Is he right? If not what other ones have got good reputations?
Any help appreciated

oh by the way my im gonna be usin the desk for 3 miks recording guitars, drums etc

[distortedrumble]

Yamaha Mg 16/4 $279 US

[Garry Sharp]

Yes, second the above. The 16/4 is in your budget and is great value for the money.

[apl]

Another vote for the MG.

Where is your signal going from the mixer?

You can record with your computer and not need a mixer.

[mong00se]

cheers for the advice guys
im completely new and this seems a bit more complex than i first thought so i'll just tell you the whole situation

basically im looking to set up a studio in my room to record my band
i already have a decent enough computer with cubase and sound forge. The friend of mine who suggested the mixing desk told me everything he thought i needed which was

2 shure sm58s
AKG C100s mike
peavy pv-14 mixing desk (which i now know should be the yamaha!)
'rattlesnake' cables for the mikes
a bunch of mike stands
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZX Platinum Pro sound card

his recommended setup was to use the 3 miks to do the drum kit with the AKG mike in the bass drum and the sm58s overhead at either side. Then to use to the SM58s for doing the guitars and vocals. Wouldnt i need the desk to plug in the 3 mikes and then run the output from the desk to my sound card?
If anyone can suggest a better setup/parts then i'd be very thankful!

[vestast]

I would trade the 58's for a couple of 57's and I don't think the AKG 1000 is a mic that is usefull on kick drums. Someone else here is more qualified than me to recommend a good kick mic.

I'd also get rid of the Soundblaster and go with an Maudio 2496.

[guitarfreak12]

I totally agree that you should not get the soundblaster, they're mostly for non-serious people that aren't going to be doing any real recording, and I think most people here think that. My thought is any card that you can get at Best Buy isn't going to be serious. You don't see Best Buy selling condensors and mixers, you want serious recording stuff, get them from serious recording suppliers. I personally have 2 m-audio delta 44's
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/...se_pid/701346/

One of these will work perfect for a session that will benefit from more than one simultanious track. I'm not sure but I think the Yamaha MG 16/4 has individual channel outputs, (someone correct me if I'm wrong) so what you can do is take up to four individual outputs from the mixer and make 4 simultanious tracks in Cubase. That way you can have 4 tracks to mix after recording so you won't have to get it all perfect while recording because if you have only one out to your computer thats only one track, with all your band. Plus you can add effects/comp each track by themselves.

That's my honestly unworthy opinion, hope it helps, but at the least do take the other guys advice about getting a different sound card. Also someone else might be able to suggest a mixer that has individual outs.

[mong00se]

ok, thanks
i found a spec of the mixer here

cant see anything about individual digital outputs there, but i cant say i understand everything im reading there so if anyone could clarify...

also, if the c100 isnt a good microphone for the kick drum, then could anyone suggest a possible alternative?

[apl]

Originally Posted by mong00se

ok, thanks
i found a spec of the mixer here

cant see anything about individual digital outputs there...

That doesn't have digital outs but you can use the inserts to pick off the signal after the preamp to send it to your soundcard.

[mong00se]

excuse my ignorance but what exactly does that mean? would that method still be compatible with the inputs on the delta 44 to get individual tracks on my sound editing software?

[apl]

Originally Posted by mong00se

excuse my ignorance but what exactly does that mean? would that method still be compatible with the inputs on the delta 44 to get individual tracks on my sound editing software?

Yes. The mixer channels have inserts. These allow access to the signal after the gain and eq sections. If you run a cable from the insert to a 44 input that channel will be recorded. You can recorde four MG channels simultaneously. You can also create mixes of channels in the MG and send them to the 44 using the MG outs.

[bluesrocker1212]

I've use the Audio Technica Pro 25 as a kick drum mic. Not expensive, and works fine for me.