Just need advice on my setup.

[JerryD]

Hi everyone,

Any advice is highly appreciated.

I just want some good advice on how to improve my setup that I
currently have. Below are the things that I need advice on.

1. I need to know what I should look at buying to improve my equipment.

2..I need to know what I need to do to my living room to make it more recording friednly.



Current Equipment:

1.4 GHZ computer running cool edit pro
Lynx sound card
Mackie 1202 VLZ with the built in preamps.
NT1 mic
Headphones

Current Recording area:

I live alone so the living room is the recording area.
I drilled a hole through the wall to place the noisy computer
on the other side. The living room has no treatments at all.
The room is quiet but I'm not sure what treatments would improve the situation.

Thanks for any advice, Jerry

[Michael Jones]

Well, first, I'd have to ask:
1.) What are you recording?
2.) What do you hope to achieve with what you have now?
I don't know anything about the sound card you mentioned, so its hard to make any recommendations in that regard.
The equipment you listed is very respectable, you should be able to get some great results with what you have now.
Some simple things you can do to make it more recording friendly:
Turn off the AC when you record.
Do you have mini blinds or drapes on the windows? Mini blinds, especially the metal ones, can rattle dreadfully.
Any ceiling fans? Ever talk into a fan and hear the result? Turn those off too. Is there a particular time of day when the house is REALLY quiet? Schedule your recording times for then!
Have fun, make music!

[JerryD]

Hey Mike,

Sorry I wasn't specific. Yeah I've been turning everything off.
It's pretty quiet. However, I do have mini-blinds in the living room so I will lose those. I guess I should look around and lose anything that looks like it might produce noise at all.

I'm recording demos for songs I write. The quality doesn't have to be great, but I don't want to ever think it can't get better.

I'm thinking that I need to focus on getting some studio monitors. Right now I don't have anything except headphones.
I really feel like I'm not consistent on my recordings because of this. Every song I do sounds mixed differently. I guess my question is am I heading in the right direction if my next purchase are monitors?

Another question I have is should I buy external preamps to improve my signal vs what I have now which are the built-in XDR preamps on the Mackie?

My last question is should I put something in my living room like bass traps or something to improve the acoustics?

Thanks again.

[ambi]

Im not an expert, im learning everyday. What from what i have learned, the mackie board is excellent, with excellent preamps. (its the board i want to buy, possibly the 1402). So no, i don't think you'd need to buy other preamps. And yea, for god sakes get some monitoring speakers! Im working towards a very similar setup to yours, and monitors are very essential. Personally i think that monitors would be a good addition to your setup. The monitors i was lookin at were the Yorkville ysmip's, the Event 20/20 BAS, and the Mackie Hr824. They are all excellent monitors from what i've read, and the order of quality and price goes up as the list goes on. yorkvilles being cheapest, mackies being most expensive. The mackies are about 1100-1300 per speaker canadian (about 2200-2500 for the pair), the events being approximatly half that, and then the yorkvilles half of the Events. Is it worth paying double to upgrade from the yorkvilles to the Events? Or double the Events to go to the MAckies? I really don't konw, im still researching and trying to find out, but i do know i can't afford the Mackies.

[JerryD]

Thanks.

Since I don't have anything now the Yorkies would be a huge
step up for me. Have you found any good prices on those?

I think I plan on going with the monitors, then ordering some better MICs.

Thanks for the advice. I think I will start researching the monitor thing too. Let me know what ya find out.

[Wireneck]

When you decide what type of monitors your gonna go with, check out E-bay and see what they have on there. I got a set of the Event 20/20's plus an alesis Ra-100 poweramp for $350.00 including shipping. They were in excellent condition and I havent had any problems and that was over a year ago.

[JerryD]

Yeah.....

I like the Ebay idea.

Kinda of scared of it though.

What do you do if what you get is already destroyed.....Just don'w pay for it?

I've never done the Ebay thing so I'm not sure how all that works even though I have an idea.

[JerryD]

What category on Ebay are you guys looking at?

[Michael Jones]

This one for monitors.
http://listings.ebay.com/aw/plisting...786/index.html
I've bought a few things off of e-bay, never had a problem.

[JerryD]

THanks for the info