Need mic/pre/wire advice

V

VWesson

New member
First off, I do rap/hip hop. My voice is deep when talking, but gets high/medium pitched when rapping, and i would NOT like to amplify the high pitch. I record on a computer in my basement using Acid Pro, and I have access to Cool Edit Pro and Audition IF NEEDED. My equipment so far is an Audigy2 sound card, and a cheap sock wrapped mic that I stole from my brother's $20 electric keyboard, so my quality is terrible to say the least. I have recorded on a lower end Audio Technica mic with no preamp, and it sounded just decent, but it still wasn't the studio quality that I hear on CD's and some amateur MP3's. I have a pretty aggressive voice if that matters BTW.

Now about my budget. I would LIKE to spend no more than $160 on everything. The mics that I was really looking at are the infamous SM57/SM58 and the B1. For preamp, I REALLY have no idea what to get, it just has to be cheap and do its job. Basically any good mic/pre/wire combo of under $160 would be great. If there's a cheap way to bypass a pre without killing the sound quality at the same time, please tell me about it. What I'm looking for is to get rid of the amateur sound, where the voice doesn't blend with the beat. I'm not looking for perfect sound because I know that its not possible within my budget.

Any input is appreciated.
 
You mine as well forget about the pre amp unless you are trying to spend some $$$.

On another note, I would go with a shure beta 58a ... probably run you exactly $160, you might be able to get an OK sound..

If you are serious about doing a quality demo or underground cd I would recommend saving for an mbox which I think is $250 and maybee get a used Audio technica... like the AT4033CL for around $230. But I understand this is out of your price range so maybee someone else has a better outlook on cheap equipment.
 
You are one of those lucky persons who can tolerate a PC as a recording medium, why not get an EMU 1820 on Ebay for about $250 ? Not only you can get a high end sound card with lots of digital effects including compression, reverb and EQ's (to mimick several types of mics out there), you also get a high end Pre Amp that rivals the $500 pre-amps .
 
If you absolutely cannot spend more than $160, then an SM57 or 58 plus an ART Tube MP preamp would be the cheapest (plus a $5 musician's friend mic cable and an XLR to 1/8" cable from markertek to go between the pre and your soundcard's line-in). It is questionable whether you would be able to achieve "pro" results with this combo, but it will definitely sound better than what you have now.

A Studio Projects B1 or MXL V67g condenser mic would be better, coupled with a Studio Projects VTB1 preamp, but that combo would set you back $200, without cables and a pop filter (which you will need).
 
Thanks for the help. Looks like i'll definatly be going with the VTB-1 preamp. Since there is a lot of noise in my house almost all the time, i dont think a condenser mic is going to be a good choice for me. I'll probably be going with the Shure SM58, i read that it's more solid and stands to abuse better.
 
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