planning out some gear purchases

I

ikijapan

New member
Alright, I'm finally getting some extra cash over the next few months, and trying to figure out how I should upgrade my gear. I've got several things in mind, but hoping for some help or suggestions.

Here's what I've already got:
monitors, emu card, enough cables, headphones, all nice instruments, enough mics (for me),plenty of DAW effects and DAW processors.

I use my basement studio space for both recording and jamming/practicing.

Here's what I was thinking I need in no particular order:

1- some kind of headphone amp or one of those furman personal mix headphone things. But I'm not sure if this is a good choice, because the EMU has a headphone amp and it seems to work fine. I haven't run into a situation where I really would have needed a seperate headphone amp yet. But I was thinking that would let me upgrade out of having a EMU card later as well. Any thoughts on that?

2- a hardware compressor. I obviously can't compress vocals pre-preamp right now, and I've heard that can be useful.

3- eventually maybe get rid of the EMU all together and then get a nicer preamp and mixer or something. Actually I don't really know how that would work. I would still need to interface with the computer, how would I do that without the EMU. I would only need like 2 inputs, because my drums are all digital (roland td-12) and I always record bands seperate, never like a full band together simotaneously.

Hmm, not really sure what else I'm missing. I know it's hard to answer that, and it's something I should know...but I basically already have everything I need to make a workable recording. It just so happens a lot of it is budget, and I'd like to upgrade and get the best long term upgrades. I should have several thousand to play around with over the next few months.

Some help??
 
What are you recording? Yourself playing guitar? An entire band? Need more info. Also what mics you have as well as preamps (if any) and what kind of monitors you have.
 
Chris. said:
What are you recording? Yourself playing guitar? An entire band? Need more info. Also what mics you have as well as preamps (if any) and what kind of monitors you have.
Click to expand...

OK, sure, thanks for replying.

I am recording mostly heavy rock and metal, but really anything that comes my way. This would be recording every instrument that could come about. Mostly of course, acoustic or miced guitar, bass DI, vocals and drums are recorded td-12 through midi and then arranged by DFH or such, no need for recording gear there.

Recording of entire bands done seperately, although at current I can still support recording an entire band simotaneously with my set up, due to drums being recorded MIDI.

I have 3 MXL condensors for vocals, a shure ksm44, and SM58 and 57.

For guitar cabs I have sm57s, ksm 141, various MXL mics (dont use them).

For acoustic guitar usually use either ksm44 or ksm 141s.

That's about it. I have access to rent mics from my local studio at any time for incredibly cheap, that's why I mentioned I'm pretty well set on mics.

The preamp I have is the EMU 1820m. Monitors are Event TR6.

Hope that helps?
 
Okay, here goes:

Don't upgrade in little dribs and drabs as the money comes in. If you will have 2-3k total, wait until you have most or all of that and then make a meaningful upgrade.

I see a couple mistakes you are about to make, mistakes that in the long run will cost you money.

One, you are talking about getting a headphone amp, but also acknowledge that you don't really need one, but might in the future. The mistake is buying something you don't need--buy only when you need it, not before. So toss the headphone amp idea out the window until the day comes when you actually need it.

Two, you already have gear you are not using, like those MXL mics. Get rid of them, sell them on eBay, Craigslist, whatever. Don't keep gear around that you aren't using, sell it and turn it into cash which you can then add to your other funds. This will allow you to afford even better gear.

The Emu seems like a pretty decent audio interface. It looks like it has ADAT I/O, as well as SPDIF. What you would do to upgrade from the Emu is actually buy a high quality preamp and a high quality converter, then run those into the SPDIF inputs on the Emu card. I see no reason to replace the Emu card right now. So you could for example buy yourself an Apogee Rosetta 200 and a great preamp. That would be an upgrade to your front end (and would probably blow your entire budget right there).

However, if you are happy with the sound of your Emu audio card, and have access to better mics at the local studio, then you might want to consider putting the bulk of the money into a fine compressor. So basically you'd forget about the budget compressors you are probably looking at now and go upscale.

So a few compressors to consider would be the Drawmer 1968, DBX 162SL, Neve Portico 5043, for example. The DBX and Neve would be two of my top choices.

The other thing I would consider doing is get an eight channel digital converter, to use with the ADAT I/O in the Emu. This can be an excellent way to expand your ability to record multiple tracks without having to purchase a whole new audio interface.
 
Well if you don't need to record live drums then you can spend a nice amount on just a stereo set of ins and outs. Maybe a nice 2 channel preamp would help.

And I know it's not really flashy or cool, but I'd take at least 1k of that and do some room treatment. Bass traps, etc. Maybe post something in the studio building forum. I'm sure you could spend all 3k on that if you wanted. Haha. But at least some realtraps would be a very good investment.

Otherwise I'd probably ditch the EMU and invest in a nice 2 channel pre and a better 2 channel converter (lucid/mytek/benchmark/apogee).
 
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