About to order a setup to record - look good?

snakeyez

snakeyez

New member
Hey guys, I've been reading up on this bbs for a few weeks now, and have learned a lot from the hours of reading. Thanks to all of you that continue to give advice and share your knowledge! :D

Little Background:
I play acoustic and sing, and I am looking to start recording. I have a baritone voice, and intend to fall on both ends of vocal dynamic levels. My music style is somewhat comparable to John Mayer / Dashboard Confessional. (Please no slamming if you dont like them :rolleyes: hehe)
I just built a new rig, Quad core 6600 with 2GB ram, so pc req.'s shouldnt be a problem.

What I intend to buy/use
- Audio Technica 4040 +pop screen
- DMP3 Pre
- Some sort of recording level sound card... Maybe E-MU 1820M?
- Reaper
- Fruity loops

I intend on recording one track at a time, (guitar, then vocals) and then using FL to add in some percussion and background. Would this be a good setup? It seems a little expensive for what I was hoping for. If the budget doesnt permit the above, I was considering:

- usb/firewire (maybe firepod?) box that has pre-amp
- Shure SM58 mic (to record both vocal and guitar)

I'm sure that would be a LOT cheaper solution... but I definately want some good quality sound. How big of a quality difference would it be going from the first setup to the second? (Assuming they are both in a nice sound room)
The vocals are probably the most important aspect to me, as I would really want the user to hear my voice.

Any advice would be appreciated!
Cheers
 
I would own a 57 or 58 regardless of owning a nice-ish condenser

I may get flamed for this but I dont care: the DMP3/Firepod/1820M is a sideways move in terms of mic pre quality. The firepod has a number of features to make it more convenient than pretty much anything in its target market, but quality control is so terrible at presonus that its like playing russian roulette to get one that works, and if you succeed at that, having it stay working for any length of time :( Its a shame, because the layout on the firepod and firestudio is second to none IMHO

I would probably start with a simple, cheap interface/mic pre combo and a 57 or 58 and just camp the stores and ebay till the condenser version of the sm57 (the AKG 414 :) ) shows up cheap enough.
 
I think EZDrummer + Reaper is all you need to get really nice drum sounds. EZDrummer goes for about $150 I believe, not sure how much FLStudio costs.

And if you're just recording 1 track at a time, I may go with the DMP3 + M-Audio 2496. DMP3 is a very clean pre with no noise that I can hear. That will give you the option of 2 tracks at a time in case you need the other one (and you probably will want it later on).

And the AT4040 is an excellent mic. I used one briefly, and heard a bunch of nice samples (there's also some on Audio Technica's website).
 
Yeah, i've been interested in EZDrummer, havent tried it yet though. I was just interested in FLstudio because i can add more then drum tracks w/ it.

What about the quality between the two setups I referenced though? I was planning on going w/ the dmp3, because like i've been reading everywhere, it's very quiet, and is comparable to more expensive models. (That statement being based on a "Sample A & B" test that a user did on here w/ a DMP3) But i'm wondering if the Firepod (or similar) would be quiet also, or comparable in quality?
 
Isn't the 1820m discontinued now? I just got one second hand and am very pleased with it. I wasn't expecting an upgrade at all, I got it as a space saving measure to replace my tascam control surface which I just don't comfortably have enough space for. But an upgrade is what I got, it just plain sounds better than the tascam. Not a huge quality difference but I was just surprised that I noticed a difference at all.

Before I'd used it I would've chucked it in the same camp as the other budget/prosumer stuff and would have pretty much agreed with pipeline. Having used it I'm very impressed. It uses quality components in both the digital and analogue stages, (the same A-D as the Lynx L22/Lynx Two cards in fact). And you get a couple of very respectable Ted Fletcher mic pres to boot.

It's a lot of inputs for your needs though, if you do go with the 1820M then I'd skip the DMP-3 as the 1820m has a couple of very usable mic pres anyway. Or you could look at the E-mu 1212M (which uses the same converters as the 1820M) and use that with the DMP-3. In fact with the AT mic this would be a sweet little set up for your needs in my opinion.
 
snakeyez said:
- Some sort of recording level sound card... Maybe E-MU 1820M?

If the budget doesnt permit the above, I was considering:

- usb/firewire (maybe firepod?) box that has pre-amp
Click to expand...

I would definitely point you towards something FireWire-based over something PCI-based. PCI is essentially a defunct standard. While you still see it in a lot of PCs, it is on its way out; its successor is PCIe, which is not compatible with existing PCI cards. There's a reason that few (if any) new high-end PCI interfaces have come on the market for a while, and there's a reason that the old ones are being discounted so heavily....

FireWire is also much better because it doesn't involve adding hardware inside your computer, which means that it is easy to move from one machine to another. You can carry it and a hard drive with you and record on somebody else's machine.

FireWire is also better because you can use it with laptops. Also, PCI limits you forever to Windows (or Linux), while FireWire works with (current) Macs, too. Its a good idea in the current environment to leave your options open, and a legacy bus like PCI just doesn't.

Besides, the 1820M costs almost as much as my MOTU 8Pre but offers less of the functionality that most people would want (only two pres instead of 8, no lightpipe x2) and a lot of what is IMHO legacy stuff that isn't as useful for most people (S/PDIF, extra outputs).

Just my $0.02. BTW, I would definitely recommend MOTU hardware over Presonus for much the same reasons other folks have mentioned.
 
i do everything with fl studio, I prefer it over any other software based mixing or composing software

you can achieve any sound you desire with fl studio, you can also shape it in any form you little heart desires, can't wait for the new releases to see what new goodies it has
 
Alright, yeah i thought that sound card was a bit pricey too. Maybe i'll either look at something PCI-e or firewire.
Another question though.....
Am i going to need a compressor? Do some of those firewire boxes have a compressor, or software compressors perhaps?
 
snakeyez said:
Alright, yeah i thought that sound card was a bit pricey too. Maybe i'll either look at something PCI-e or firewire.
Another question though.....
Am i going to need a compressor? Do some of those firewire boxes have a compressor, or software compressors perhaps?
Click to expand...
First things first.

Get set up and learn to get good clean tracks recorded into your computer. Your current priorities should be acoustic treatment, monitoring, and basic signal chain (mic pres, A-D and mics).

Then worry about processing. At this stage I wouldn't worry about hardware processors at all. Plenty of perfectly good software out there (much of it freeware). It's a myth that you 'need' to track with compression. A lot of experienced engineers process on the way in because a) they have really sweet sounding compressors, EQs etc. and b) they know their gear inside out. I wouldn't recommend it at this stage though.

I wander about the PCI thing, people have been saying that for a couple of years now. Of course if you really want to future proof your set up then more current solutions are obviously better.

But surely it'll be some time yet before they stop putting regular PCI slots onto mobos? (Yes this is more of a question, I'm no expert with computer stuff).
 
pipelineaudio said:
I would own a 57 or 58 regardless of owning a nice-ish condenser

I may get flamed for this but I dont care: the DMP3/Firepod/1820M is a sideways move in terms of mic pre quality. The firepod has a number of features to make it more convenient than pretty much anything in its target market, but quality control is so terrible at presonus that its like playing russian roulette to get one that works, and if you succeed at that, having it stay working for any length of time :( Its a shame, because the layout on the firepod and firestudio is second to none IMHO

I would probably start with a simple, cheap interface/mic pre combo and a 57 or 58 and just camp the stores and ebay till the condenser version of the sm57 (the AKG 414 :) ) shows up cheap enough.
Click to expand...

The FirePod doesn't have very good quality? Everyone suggests getting one... I own one and it has done pretty well so far. Of course I don't move it around very much, or beat it up. But, yes, the interface is awesome...

Hope mine doesn't take a dump. *crosses fingers*
 
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