need help with equipment

W

wbeacham

New member
I am new to the forum and I am going to purchase some equipment to record with. The stuff I have now is:
Pod XT
midi keyboard
acid 4.0 and souundforge 6.0 software for recording
intergrated sound on comptuer board

I have about 500.00 to spend on a sound card, mixer and monitors. I have looked at the M-Audio bx5 mons. the e-Mu 0404 card and the Behringer 1202 mixer how does this sound? No pro just want to get some stuff into the computer and on cd for fun.
Thanks,
Bill
 
Glad you are interested in recording! For about the same price as the bx5's, you could pick up a nice pair of Wharfedale 8.2A diamond pro's from deepwater here on the site. Read the reviews on this site, I have a pair and I love them. I would stay away from behringer if I were you, not very good mixers at all. In all reality, you probably don't need a mixer yet. I would suggest getting the Wharfe's and a decent soundcard. How many inputs do you need?
 
I want to be able to record stereo from the pod which can use usb as well and record the keyboard stereo as well it is midi. All drums bass and such will be loops within Acid. I am rather new to the digital recording thing and am by no means a pro musician Ijust want to have the ability to do what I need to do to do it right.
BTW how do I look at the deepwateraudio website. I can't log in or something.
 
I also use a PODxt for my electric guitar parts and use a MIDI keyboard for bass and drums. So, you can effectively record electric guitar, bass guitar, and any piano/keyboard/synth without any mic or mixer. The only hassle with that, is that you'll have to temporarily use the POD as the soundcard to monitor your playing (no biggie). You will need a mic if you are planning on doing any vocals or acoustic guitar - are you? Otherwise, you'll need some monitor speakers - don't dismiss the Behringer monitors-go give them, and others, a listen and decide for yourself (look at personal reviews, too). Addiitionally, you should get a real soundcard - do some searches on here for some good ideas.
 
You can look up Deepwater here on the site and send him a PM about the Wharfe's. I've used many monitors, and they are really good. The main problem with the behringer monitors is that they tend to hype to high and low ends which will effect your final mix.

You probably want a soundcard with 4 inputs and some midi junk then. I would check out the Presonus Firbox, Lexicon Omega, or Digidesign Mbox. The Mbox comes with Protools, which is nice if that's what you want to use. By no means are these soundcards at a pro caliber, but remember that a lot of the quality comes from the mixing. If you are patient and take the time to learn, you can get some pretty awesome mixes with those interfaces. BTW, I have a pod pro and a pod xt pro, love em for the studio...
 
About a mixer if I get a card with enough inputs there should be no need for a mixer (right?0 Just use the mixer within soundforge? That way I could get a better sound card.
 
wbeacham said:
About a mixer if I get a card with enough inputs there should be no need for a mixer (right?0 Just use the mixer within soundforge? That way I could get a better sound card.
Click to expand...

Correct, assuming you don't need to use any mics (they need preamps which the mixer would provide).

If you did need preamps, and/or the routing flexibility you'd get from a mixer, for a few dollars more than the behri (about another 10 I think) I'd go with the Yamaha MG10/2 , much more than $10 worth of improvement in quality over the Behri.
 
I have sen that one at GC. It has 10 inputs whereas the Behri has 12 fot the same money. But with Behri's reverse engineering it might be best to stick with the better known brand. Anyway, if I buy the mixer do I sub out to the computer and use the control room line to monitor?
 
I bought the Tascam US-428 that deepwater suggested to me as well as the KRK RP-5' monitors. Now to hook it up and read up on the software. BTW any Cubase user out there with any tips, I an an Acid user and I see that it supports the loops.
Thanks for all the info.
Bill
 
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