What Would You Upgrade Next?

[doctorfungi]

Hey guys,

I'm having a bit of a dilemma. I am planning to upgrade my recording setup, seeing as I have a bit of cash coming in soon. Now I know that knowledge and experience are the best steps towards improving the sounds I'm getting, so I've already invested in a selection of reading materials and I'm making my way through them. With that being said though, there are some weaknesses in my equipment that I'd like to improve on.

My dilemma, however, is that there is nothing that immediately sticks out that should be my first priority of upgrading. Here's my gear list:

• 1x Phonic Helix Board 18FW MKII Mixing Desk/Interface
• 1x Pair of Samson Resolv 40a Monitors (cheap...)
• 1x Steinberg Cubase 4 (I want to upgrade to 5, but I'll leave that for much later)
• 1x Audio Technica AT4040 Large Diaphragm Condenser (mainly used for vocals/acoustic)
• 1x Beyerdynamics M201 Dynamic Microphone (snare, guitars, etc.)
• 1x Audix D6 Kick Microphone (kick, sometimes for bass guitar)
• 2x Audix F15 Small Diaphragm Condensers (overheads/acoustic)
• 3x Audix F10 Dynamic Microphones (toms)
• 1x Audix F12 Dynamic Microphone (floor tom)
• 10x 20ft XLR Microphone Leads
• 10x Microphone Stands
• 1x 8 Channel XLR Recording Snake
• 1x Behringer Headphone Amplifier (does the job)
• 1x Behringer D.I Box
• 1x Behringer B2 Large Diaphragm Condenser (never gets used/possibly broken)
• 1x PC (Quad Core, 4gb RAM, 320gb HDD)

The way I'm leaning, is firstly upgrading my monitors. I'm not sure what I want to get yet though, but I've heard good things about KRK.

I was also thinking of upgrading the Phonic Helix 18FW to a Mackie Onyx 1640 Firewire desk. Part of me wants to go with something more along the lines of a pre-amp + firewire interface route though. I'm not really sure how well any recordings will benefit by using a Mackie over a Phonic though, so it's a big investment for a potentially minimal improvement.

I also want to get some Audix D1, D2 and D4 microphones for the toms. The F10/F12's work alright, but they tend to have a bit of a dull sound to them.

So if you were in my shoes, what would you single out for replacement first?

Thanks
Doc.

[Ethan Winer]

Bass traps and other acoustic treatment will do more to improve the quality of your productions than anything you could add / replace in that list.

--Ethan

[doulos24]

a couple quality mic preamps

[Dogbreath]

Hey Doc...

My first question would be...
Is your room treated? Bass traps, diffusors etc...?

Great monitors in a bad room won't help much. Takin care of my room was the best investment I could have done for tracking and mixing.

[doctorfungi]

Yeah I forgot to mention the room because it's all sorted. It was the first thing I took care of

[formant74]

Doc,
If you're wanting to replace your Phonic, is it because there are not enough inputs or that it doesn't sound good? If it's due to inputs have you thought of upgrading to the next size?
Someone just turned me on to the Helix24 and as it I read the specs it pretty much fit everything I wanted in a mixer to computer interface.
Here's the link I was given if you want to check it out.
http://www.zzounds.com/item--PHOH24FWMKII

[SouthSIDE Glen]

One can never have enough high quality microphones, IMHO. A nice AEA R92 or Mojave Audio can - along with a real preamp - to run it through...

G.

[doctorfungi]

Thanks G

formant,
I don't really mind the Phonic, but I'm wanting to get some experience on a different interface. More inputs would be nice too, and it would just give me an opportunity to expand into different brands and see what's on offer. I guess that's not really going to provide any major improvements in audio quality, but it would be nice to work on something new. I'll probably hold off on upgrading the interface now that I've said that out loud (or typed it anyway :P). I'll eventually get something with better pre's though.

Thanks again guys.

[COOLCAT]

how do you like those monitors? I'd do that upgrade.
that and room treatment, a good layout and all that.