Good setup or not?

T

Thyst

New member
Well I have a few questions about the things I picked out to buy at music123.com

The new Korg D1600 with 4 XLR inputs all with phanton power.

2 - Shure SM57 dynamic mics

1 - Audio Technica KPDRUMS Drum microphone KitPak featuring four microphone set designed for drum applications(Standard)

Yamaha MSP5 Bi-amplified monitor speaker, 40 watts, 5inLF, 28 watts, 1in tweeter

4 - Rapco AJ25 25 foot XLR mic cables

2 - Rapco M25 25-foot high-Z microphone cable with XLR to 1/4 inch connectors.

Some stands

OK my main question is will the XLR to 1/4 cables work with the sm-57 mics. When I mic the drums I want to have them as over heads and the 4 drum mics on the drums so I want to use all six mics and the D1600 only has 6 XLR inputs. What does everyone think about this setup I really just want to get into recording and write my own little songs and record a demo with my band. Am I missing anything. The totat is like 2500 so I dont want to spend to much more if anyone has suggestions.
 
Thyst-

Buy some speaker stands so that you can monitor at ear level, if you don't have anything good to put them on. I bought some Raxxess Stands that were fixed at 36" and they are the perfect height for me but adjustable ones might be a better investment, just in case you want them at a different height later on.

Surge protection is important too. I won't recommend anything specific but APCC has a lot of good products. http://www.apcc.com

I'm not familiar with the Korg D1600...is it the D16 ? The D16 only has 2 XLR inputs and 8 balanced preamps according to the catalogs I have. If that's the case you will need outboard preamps or something if you want to record with 6 mics at one time. Something to look into.
 
Since this is pretty much the same type thread . . . .

Here's my plan for a humble but (hopefully) sufficient studio. I can't afford more, so if you have substitutions to offer, please make sure that they are in the same price range. I won't be able to do much in the way of changing the room around, so I'll just have to deal with that when I come to it. I don't have the luxury of being able to audition different equipment, so basically I have to rely on what I hear from all of you guys on here and spec sheets.

I'm just a songwriter who plays piano, with a couple friends who play guitar, so this is for me to lay down my songs in a presentable format. Hopefully I will be able to make some pretty good sounding recordings with this. I will include approximate prices just for reference. Please tell me what you think.

Roland VS-890 ($1500)
AT4033sm ($350)
Art Tube MP ($100)
Lexicon MPX-1 ($800)
Alesis QSR ($500) (I have a Roland digital piano to use as my master controller)
Alesis M1 Active monitors. (500)

Do you guys think this will make for a pretty good studio? Like I said, it's all I can afford. Just want to get a few opinions.

Thanks,
--Tax :D
 
Taxman88:

I know you are thinking that 8 tracks are enough for you and your friends, but I think you should think hard about this. For example, stereo keyboards and stereo guitar tracks eat alot of tracks. Not to mention the stereo drum machine track you will want someday.

Also, I don't see a budget for a backup device such as a cdr. I think the compatible Roland cdr is about $500, which is way too much.

My solution is to get the Korg D16 which will give you more tracks. It is cheaper than the 8 track Roland. You can get a d16 now for about $1250 and a compatible yamaha external scsi cdrw for about $300 (compatible drives are listed on Korg website. Then buy the drive from dirtcheapdrives.com). All for about the price of the Roland alone.
 
I would agree that the KORG model would be a better choice and value versus the VS 880. I have an 880 and after checking out the KORG site listed in the previous post I am wiping a few tears from my eyes......

Avoid the 880 if you have some other choices!
 
Already have one

Markert,

I already have a CD writer in my computer, sooooooo . . . . once the song is finally mixed, then it goes to my HD where I then burn it to CD. So that's an expense that I don't have to worry about. THANK GOD!! :)

Still think that I should go with the Korg??

--Tax
 
Wowow... Don't be to sure about not needing a drive...

How were you planning to get the song on your hd? The roland file-format is NOT compatible with your PC! So the only way to transfer it digitally is by way of a digital input on your soundcard, or by writing an audio-cd from the VS itself!

However, the VS series should be compatible with plextor drives. Still expensive, but just half the price of a roland. I bought a second hand plextor8220 last weekend to go with my VS1880, but I don't have the right cable, so I haven't been able to try it. But it should work.

Never looked at the korg drives... But 8 tracks isn't that much indeed. Try second hand stuff too. There isn't as much of a risk when buying digital stuff as when buying an analog tracker...
 
Well, I tried the plextor 8220 with the roland vs1880 today, and it does work. Not a problem.

By the way, you don't have to wait for a final mix with digital systems. Most systems allow you to make backups WITH mixer settings. So you can backup your songs, reload them after a while, make changes, make another cd, try it on hundreds of stereos, get the backup again... That's a great thing you'll miss if you can only store your final mix...

But you can also backup on zip, if you have that too...
 
My opinion on VS-880 : get a PC

Hello Taxman,

My 0.02$ out of my own experience:

I invested in a project studio and had thought of building it around a VS-880EX for audio applications, with a new PC for Midi (Cubase).
I sold the VS practically unused.

There are 2 Reasons for this:
1. I had trouble syncing it to the PC.
2. In the meantine I had started using Cubase also for audio, and could profit from more than 8 tracks. (I use now once in while up to 32)

The pros (I can imagine) from working with a PC-based Audio system:
- Working on a monitor is so much easier. I can't imagine myself now restraining mayself to something smaller than 17"
- The Effect Plug-Ins: You can use/buy what you want from cheapo to luxury effects and aren't restricted to those on the VS effects-board, unless of course, if you print the effects with the audio already to a track. But try mixing that afterwards!
The cons:
- PC-Instabillity: It took me (only) a couple of weeks to get it right, and it can be very frustrating. But now I have a very stable system that doesn't crash on me.


My advice is to amalyse what you are going to use the setup for: Do you need more than 8 tracks (ping-pong hello!). Effect-flexibility... then the VS might be restraining.

Hope my advice helps.

Hans
 
Well, Hans is right. Look what you will be using it for. Both systems have there pros and cons. I wanted a portable system, hate working with computers, and like to feel faders instead of a mouse. And that is a tradeof with expandability, a big screen to watch (I did choose a VS1880 for the bigger screen and the 8 inputs...), and cheap plug-ins.

I did sync the VS with a groovebox last weekend. Without any problem... But that's not a pc, is it.

As for the tracks: if you want to record on your own, look at the nr of tracks at playback. If you're going to record with friends, make sure you get enough tracks to simultanious record! For me, 8 tracks sim rec was the absolute minimum.

And for the price... If you already have a pc, a decent audio-card might be cheaper, if you look at the possiblities and don't mind working with it. I hate pc's, love my VS...
 
back up

Why are you guys all fixed on a CDR drive?

I use a ZIP250 drive for backup purposes and it works fine!

Or is 250 too little space for your work?
 
Well, there's 2 reasons for cdr-drives...

First of all, cdr's are cheap. Not reusable, but if you make backups of what you record, you probably want to keep it. Zip disks can be reused, but if you want to save your data 'forever', they are pretty expensive.

And second, the VS1880 allows me to write audio cd's directly using the plextor drive. So I can write my own masters without the need of a DAT or CD-recorder.

And there's more space on a CD, but these previous points are the main points, I guess...
 
zip is not very common and therefor not very compatible and therefor not very loved...

greetz guhlenn
 
Guhlenn, I understand, but:...

Who cares if they're common? Any recorder has a SCSI connection, right? Just take your ZIP drive with you!
:-)

But I'll agree they're less common than CD-r. The capacity is not usually the problem, and I have found ZIP to be a reliable medium to store data on.

Plus, I already had tons of zip disks (they're not THAT expensive) I used with my PC, so that's not really an issue in my case either.

It's all about storing 0's and 1's anyway, innit?

:)
 
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