Bassman Brad
New member
Howdy, gang. OK. After hanging out at this and other sites for a couple of months to get some answers to my basic questions, I've finally went ahead and made some purchases to get me started in home recording. I've been writing a lot of new songs recently, and want to work them up as demos before I forget them. I have put in quite a bit of time in a commercial recording studio as an engineer, producer, and session musician, but that was way back in the 1980's (the EARLY 1980's at that!) and there wasn't much digital recording being done in those days. In fact, I still remember listening to the "Whitney" album in the studio, most of which was recorded by Narada Michael Walden using Sony DASH recorders which were so new that they were actually PRE-production models that he was beta testing. In those days, nobody could even DREAM that eventually everybody would be using their PCs as a personal DAW for home recording. But, anyway... I have tried to stay abreast of developments in recording technology, but I don't have any hands on experience with DAWs. So, while I have a good understanding of mic techniques and basic recording concepts, I'll pretty much be learning from scratch when it comes to digital recording and DAWs. I've ordered a Presonus Firepod (with Cubase) from Musician's Friend, but was one day too late to get the free firewire drive. DAMN!!! (I still get the AT2020 mic, though.) I guess I'll still need one of those (a firewire hard drive, I mean), since I certainly don't have enough memory on my drive to do much recording. Besides, I've read about the need to have separate drives for the programs and media.
I've got a small collection of various mics and processors to get me started. But, like so many people who are just getting started in home recording, most of the gear that I have is stuff that was purchased with live performance in mind, rather than recording. Most of the mics, for example, are dynamics (various SM57's, Beta 57's & Beta 58's, and one Beyer 201) with only a few condensers (a pair of MXL sdc's for overheads and location recording, and a Beta 87 for female vocals, plus the new Audio-Technica ldc that MF is throwing in with the Firepod). Most of the outboard processing gear was also selected for live use. For example, I wouldn't have chosen a dbx ProVocal digital channel strip for recording purposes, but since I have one, I'll see if I can find a use for it. It does do a great job of sending a usable live vocal sound direct to the board. This way, I can tweak the vocal processing to my liking and then send it - pre-processed - direct to the sound board, and all the sound man has to do is just pull up the fader and fine tune the EQ. Even the most incompetant sound man can't screw this up! I also have a few more EQ units and compressors, mostly by dbx and Rane, and a Lexicon MPX-550.
As far as the mics that I need to round out my collection, I already pretty much know what I want and need in this area. The questions that I have are more related to setting up and using the DAW and the Presonus interface device. I assume you can pick up one of those firewire drives at Best Buy for $50 or so, right? Is there anything that I need to think about regarding specs for one of these units, given that I'll want to use it to record music? Also, it is my understanding that the firewire spec allows daisy-chaining of gear that is on the firewire bus. I only have one firewire port on my PC, but assume that I can plug both the Firepod AND an outboard firewire hard drive into that one jack. Is this correct? Just want to confirm this.
I've got a small collection of various mics and processors to get me started. But, like so many people who are just getting started in home recording, most of the gear that I have is stuff that was purchased with live performance in mind, rather than recording. Most of the mics, for example, are dynamics (various SM57's, Beta 57's & Beta 58's, and one Beyer 201) with only a few condensers (a pair of MXL sdc's for overheads and location recording, and a Beta 87 for female vocals, plus the new Audio-Technica ldc that MF is throwing in with the Firepod). Most of the outboard processing gear was also selected for live use. For example, I wouldn't have chosen a dbx ProVocal digital channel strip for recording purposes, but since I have one, I'll see if I can find a use for it. It does do a great job of sending a usable live vocal sound direct to the board. This way, I can tweak the vocal processing to my liking and then send it - pre-processed - direct to the sound board, and all the sound man has to do is just pull up the fader and fine tune the EQ. Even the most incompetant sound man can't screw this up! I also have a few more EQ units and compressors, mostly by dbx and Rane, and a Lexicon MPX-550.
As far as the mics that I need to round out my collection, I already pretty much know what I want and need in this area. The questions that I have are more related to setting up and using the DAW and the Presonus interface device. I assume you can pick up one of those firewire drives at Best Buy for $50 or so, right? Is there anything that I need to think about regarding specs for one of these units, given that I'll want to use it to record music? Also, it is my understanding that the firewire spec allows daisy-chaining of gear that is on the firewire bus. I only have one firewire port on my PC, but assume that I can plug both the Firepod AND an outboard firewire hard drive into that one jack. Is this correct? Just want to confirm this.