Upgrade mic or interface?

[Monkey]

Here's my setup now: I record with an SM58 running through a little Behringer mixer and run the tape out into my M-Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card. I'd like to upgrade my sound but have limited funds.

I was thinking of getting a condenser mic, but a music store salesman said I'd see more improvement from ditching the crappy mixer. He recommended a Digidesign M-Box (don't remember which one), which connects by USB.

That made some sense, but later I thought, "I'm already converting an analogue signal to digital when it gets to my sound card. What difference does it make if I do it with an interface or my card?" It seems to me that the main thing is to bypass the crappy mixer.

So: am I right? And what should I do instead? The sound card has RCA inputs - should I look for a mic/guitar preamp with RCA outputs? (I generally record one acoustic guitar and one voice at a time - can't see needing more than 4 simultaneous channels anytime soon.) What will give me the most bang for my buck?

 

[TerraMortim]

bypassing the mixer will definately be a huge benefit. Honestly, I ususally just record straight into my interface without even using an external pre-amp. Once In a while I'll throw a pre-amp in the chain but the less in the signal chain before you destroy it on the computer the more choices you'll have in the mix. I think there's an upgrade you can get for the audiophile where you can have XLRs. Is there any sort of digital input on the audiophile. I generally don't like RCA interfaces and what not. You're probably not going to find a very good interface with RCA outs. You have an sm58, which is actually not a bad mic at all. It's still being used on huge records, and some folks prefer the 58 to really expensive condensers. It all depends on what type of sound you want, and your vocal, instrumental tone. Go for a new interface first, I would say. I once used the mixer you metioned, and man it wouldn't be helping your sound one bit. Mbox is allright if you want a cheap in to the pro tools market. I'm not a huge fan, but it has a very good bang for the buck (preamps on them these days are a little ...scary tho) I'm very happy with my MOTU896HD. It's a rackmount unit with 8 ins and 8 outs, plus all the digital connections you could expect on a pro piece of gear. THe preamps on it are not half bad, and it's firewire, so you can use it with laptops and move it between computers as needed. It's a bit more tho.

 

[SonicAlbert]

What will give me the most bang for my buck?

How much do you have available to spend?

The advice about bypassing the Behringer mixer is good, that will be a big upgrade right there.

You could buy a preamp and 1/4" to RCA cables so you could go directly into your current interface.

Or you could buy an MBox or similar USB or firewire interface that has preamps built in. Something like the Presonus Firebox is inexpensive and sounds good.

 

[Monkey]

What if...

You could buy a preamp and 1/4" to RCA cables so you could go directly into your current interface.

Hmmm... What if I just buy a little 1/4" to RCA adapter like this and maybe another to do XLR to RCA.

Then I'd have basically a clean connection from mic/instrument to the card, which is basically the same as a digital interface, right? Except instead of being plugged in via a USB port or something, the card plugs straight into the motherboard.

Wouldn't that give me a pretty clean sound? Then maybe I could look at preamps later on to see how they improve the sound....

What do you think?

 

[danny.guitar]

Hmmm... What if I just buy a little 1/4" to RCA adapter like this and maybe another to do XLR to RCA.

Then I'd have basically a clean connection from mic/instrument to the card, which is basically the same as a digital interface, right? Except instead of being plugged in via a USB port or something, the card plugs straight into the motherboard.

Wouldn't that give me a pretty clean sound? Then maybe I could look at preamps later on to see how they improve the sound....

What do you think?

You still need a preamp.

Find a way to bypass/get rid of that Behringer mixer. Not saying all Behringer gear is bad (I've used a couple of their products that were pretty decent, and very good for the money).

I would personally upgrade the mic before the interface. But before any of that I would get rid of that Behringer mixer.

Get a decent preamp or mixer instead. The DMP3 is a great preamp for what it costs. Very clean and no noise.

Then upgrade your mic.

 

[SonicAlbert]

Take a look at the Rane Ms-1b.

http://www.rane.com/ms1b.html

That would cost you $149 for the Rane and whatever extra for the XLR to RCA cable. Then just plug that into your interface. That's an inexpensive upgrade that would give you a noticable improvement in quality, in my opinion.