What Equipment?

[DMBand427]

I have a the Boss BR-532 digital recorder and a couple of Mics. I play guitar, sing and write my own stuff. I'm looking to record it and have it sound the best I can. I was just wondering, what can I possibly buy to make a good setup out of what I already have. And could you possibly tell me the prices for these things as well? And in what order should I get these things (priority wise)? Thank you guys so much, your help would be great.

-Pete

[Jeff_D]

budget?
what mics do ya have?
what type of music are ya trin to do?
im pretty sure that recorder only does 2 sim tracks of recording and it has only one built in mic pre-
with what you have now you could... record vocals from one mic and plug a guitar into the other in. or you could do a stereo drum track if you had another outboard mic pre- my singer bought one of these right befor i joined the band- its basicly a hi-fi sketch pad of sorts (for us anyway) but if your a one man accoustic act it could be fine-

need more info

-jeff

[tdukex]

There are at least 10,000 threads on this subject (budget mics and pres) in the last month alone. But I think you should only buy mics and pres with names that begin with the letter "N".

[DMBand427]

I'm a solo acoustic act. Um, the mics I have are fine for now, I know what I want to get in that depertment, but I don't know anything about the other stuff. So what other equipment should I get to make my recordings smoothe and clear? Thanks for this help guys

Pete

[Richard Monroe]

Pete, among other things, I use a Korg PXR4, which has many similarities to your BOSS. You don't have phantom power, and your internal preamps are fairly weak. Problem is, most preamps put out +4 line level, and your BR-532 is looking for -10. I'd say start with a kickass dynamic mic which you can use without phantom power, and concentrate on learning to play and sing as separate processes. And get a good set of closed headphones for tracking. Consider a Sennheiser MD441 or Shure SM7B, which are among the best dynamic mics made. I like Sennheiser HD280 Pro headphones, but everybody has their preferences. That's basically a $100 set of headphones, and a $300 mic, give or take.-Richie

[SteveMcB]

If you're happy with your mics, then I would say the next steps are (probably in order, given my personal experience with roland preamps):

1) Preamp:
Cheap Behringer mixer (eg 602, $60US, 2 pres, or 802, 4 pres, $80US)
OR
M-Audio Audiobuddy ($80) or DMP-3 (not sure of current best price) (2 channel, nice)
OR
Studio Projects VTB-1 $129 (1 channel, tube)

2) Compressor
FMR audio RNC $175 - very nice
OR
CHeap Behringer, reputedly not nearly as good, but my composer pro works for me at the moment

If you don't have phantom power, are you using condensors? Most of the battery powered versions don't have a good rep here, so you might want to consider:
Pair of MXL 603's - fantastic for acoustic/piano/drum overheads $140
Studio Projects B1 - $80, good on vocals/acoustic/lotsa other stuff
MXL V67B - $80, similar applications to B1

A pair of Mxl 603's and a large diaphragm (B1 or V67) (or a pair of large diaphragms as well) will let you do nice stereo recordings of your acoustic, plus nice vocals.

You can upgrade the choices plenty from here, but those are good relatively cheap starters...

Steve

[DMBand427]

thank you guys so much, that's so cool of you! If any more suggestions come to mind from anyone please add or give your opinion, this is really cool of you all.

-Pete

[Richard Monroe]

Steve, you listed a bunch of perfectly good mics and pres, but I'm not sure you got what I said above. DMB's recorder is not impedence compatible with outboard pres without line level shifting! It is, however compatible with the "tape out" RCA jacks of most mixers, which are generally -10dBV. This means that you can use any good mixer to provide phantom power if needed, then go from the "tape out" RCA jacks to a stereo miniplug to the "line level" ins on the BR532. The +4 outs on a mic preamp will clip the shit out of that BOSS. The alternative is to run the +4 dBu line outs of a pre into a line level shifter, such as EBTECH LLS2 (a $50 unit), which will change the output to -10dBV. I think you'll have better luck with a good mixer. I use both methods with my Pandora, and they both work. Jacking a pre into the BOSS won't.-Richie

[SteveMcB]

Sorry, I did miss that. I guess you could ignore the meters on the pres and set the level by the meters on the recorder, but you're right, a mixer may well suit, both because of output levels and because of the routing flexibility it gives. I have a roland vs840ex, and use a mackie 1402 for pres and routing, and it works great for me.

So, point taken - the mixer may well be the way to go. And it also lets you take advantage of any outboard effects that you have much more easily at mixdown (or indeed on recording).

Steve

[DMBand427]

sweet deal, mixer it is than haha.

Pete

[chessparov]

DMB, another good informational source is to go to www.vsplanet.com
They have a BBS forum for your Boss.
Great search engine there BTW.

Chris

[DMBand427]

thank you for the link, I'll definitely check it out!

Pete