What would you get next...

M

mjau

New member
...if you had a thousand bucks to spend? I hope threads like this aren't too repetitive for everyone, but I'll be spending about that much money this fall and am interested in people's thoughts, so thanks ahead of time for your input. I record acoustic and rock stuff mostly, and will have a couple of good rooms in my new house to do drums in. I've already invested in some good bass traps and room treatment, and while my monitors could use an upgrade (currently, they are the first series of Behringer Truths), I'd rather buy new monitors once I get some gear I'm happy with.
Anyway, I'm interested in mics, preamps, compressors...whatever you think. I record into Sonar 3.1 via an Aardvark interface.

My stuff as of today:
Toft ATC-2 pre/comp/eq
Altec 1589b pre
PAIA dual pre, modded w/ Burr Brown IC's and EH tubes
Peavey TMP-1 pre modded w/ Mullard and Tesla tubes (this is a full voltage single channel tube pre)

tc electronic m300 reverb
RNC
Rocktron 310g mono compressor (w/ something wrong with it that makes it distort absolutely incredibly on bass...it's the only reason I keep the thing racked up)

at4050
Blue baby bottle
2x ADK sc1 (small diaphragm condensors)
mxl v67g
Audix D6
Beyer m69
 
1) Sonar upgrade. 5.0 is coming out this month and compared to 3.1 you'll be amazed. The bussing structure is completely reworked and much much more flexible, and 5.0 is including a 64-bit floating point mix engine.
2) How can you record without any SM57s? <grin> Seriously, add a couple/few of these for drums and guitar cabs.
3) SP C1 for lead vocals
-lee-
 
Normally I'd say monitors, but you've already addressed that.

You don't have much in the way of dynamic mics. If you are going to do drums, maybe a Sennheiser MD421 for toms and a Beyer M201 (IMHO better than a SM57 as an instrument mic) for snare. Another mic you could consider would be a Shure SM7 which is a wonderful all around mic, especially for guitars and vocals, but it does need a preamp with some gain. Think of it as a SM57 on steroids. On the other hand, Wilco uses it for vocals, as has Michael Jackson. A friend of mine just did some tracking of the Jayhawks with one (mine) and used for instruments and vocals.

You will get a more demosntrable shift in sound by using a different mic than any other piece of equipment in the recording chain.
 
Maybe a set of mics to do the drum kit; maybe a firewire interface allowing you to track more signals at once (thinking drums again).

Maybe something to reamp guitar. Check out Steve's tube guitar amps - he makes them by hand. I have one and it's designed after the old Fender Champ. Sweet little box, about 15 watts or so depending on the tubes you use. You can do a search on "thatupstateguy" and you should find some pics.
 
I like the suggestion of upgrading Sonar. A UAD-1 card may help take your mixes to a different level. And, have you thought of upgrading your interface?
 
Thanks for the input, everyone.
I've thought about upgrading the interface and/or Sonar, but I'm always a little afraid of messing up what is, for now, a solid system. The new Sonar version does look tempting, though.
I actually just sold a 57...maybe I've just been around them long enough to forget how versatile they are, but I was never liking where I put it, even on snare and guitar cabs. The sm7 looks good, as does either a 421 or a 441.
 
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