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[Brahmb]

Just starting to get my feet wet. I have a Pent III and Digi001 system for recording directly to hard drive. Works and sounds good on headphones, but amd using nothing but cheap mic, headphones and no mixing.
Digi has a mixer in Pro Tools LE and the I/O borad has phantom capability. I believe my Adaptec CDRW can burn to CD, but haven't made it that far yet?

What should my next purcahse be for recording voice, acoustic guitar, keybords and other accoustic instrmuments?

Decent Mic? Mixer? Studio monitor? Compressor? DI? I have no idea what half the things I'm saying are....

[regebro]

Definitely a good microphone, and good monitors.

That will go a long way for you.

[The New One]

Hi there,

Hey Man .... great to hear that you want to record acoust sound in this todays electronic sound world!

Now depending on your budget the things will very! I mean Neumaan mics are the best but may be too expensive for someone! So may be if you can write some more info about the projests you have in mind and the budget, may be not only I but many others can save a lot of your time by telling you several things!!

TNO

[Brahmb]

Here goes....
Right now I'm on limited budget, so I'm looking at the Rode NT1. Ihave no clue about monitors. I'm looking to record demos and also do shows (musicals) for local groups to perform. I definitely like the live sound better, that's why I bought the Digi001 (that and the fact that there ARE 2 or 3 instruments I don't play well enough that I'll have to midi)
Anyway, that's the gist of where I'm at. I do have the occasional friend who likes to jam, but my friends are diverse in their tastes- from Rock to Jazz to Bluegrass.
I guess I need to know what to get to help the recording process for two or more people at once. Do I need more headphones? Monitor system? Limited budget until I go back to work teaching in the fall.
Thanks in advance. Brahmb.

[AlChuck]

Brahmb,

When you say, "that's why I bought the Digi001 (that and the fact that there ARE 2 or 3 instruments I don't play well enough that I'll have to midi)," my ears perk up, because I've learned that folks that are just starting are often confused about the MIDI issue with this DAW hardware stuff. When a soundcard "has MIDI," this can mean two things -- it has a MIDI interface for sending and receiving MIDI data, or it has a MIDI synthesizer that actually responds to MIDI messages with audible sounds. Most high-end soundcards do not have any sound-generating hardware, only MIDI interfaces. Inexpensive soundcards like the Sound Blasters have both. There are software synths that actually model what synth hardware does in software and create a digital audio stream accordingly, but these will require CPU power from the PC to run.

If you already know all this, I aplogize... it's just such a common misconception I always feel compelled to jump in and explain...

-AlChuck

[Brahmb]

AlChuck... Thanks for jumping in. I'm not totally sure what midi is or does. I just know what my Boards do. The Digi001 card itself does not have the synth capability, but I didn't buy it for that (my Roland Sound Canvas does that well enough ). The Digi does, however, allow me to tap into either my Roland or the computer's own sound card from which it records midi tracks(more or less an interface).
But to take it a step further... I run the Roland from my Korg Digital 2000, for the wieghted keyboard effect, but I run drums from my YamahaPSR-530 until I can find a decent drummer who doesn't mind switching from venue to venue as quickly as I do.
Soooo, basically I was running everything Midi thru my old Power Mac when I decided enough was enough... get the sound card that can record live to my hard drive and I'll be happy. That's where I'm at with my Digi now. Now I just need to decide on a decent Mic and monitor system.....Any clues there(again...limited budget for a while).

Brahmb

[AlChuck]

Brahmb,

Sounds like you have the right idea.

Re mics, I have a RODE NT-1 which I can recommend as a very nice all-round condenser mic; it sounds very good on acoustic guitar. Cost about $180 new if you look around.

Monitors? For a limited budget, you might be able to get a pair of unpowered speakers for $300-400 that will be pretty decent, if you have a power amp of some kind lying around to drive them with. I decided to go for powered speakers for many good reasons, and the least expensive available seem to hover around the $500-600 range. Event has a couple of models, Alesis has the M1 Actives (which I bought), Yamaha has one now, and there's a bunch of others available.

-AlChuck