A quick setup second opinion.

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xaerenade

New member
Alright, I'll keep this short; I'm setting up a small home studio just as a hobby, I don't need the best equipment in the world, but I'd like to sound a bit nice as well. Sorry for the noobishness of this, but $300 is quite a dent in my college student budget so I want to be sure about this.

Here are my plans;

Mic
I ordered the MXL V63 condenser mic in a Desktop Recording Kit. I realized I jumped the gun ordering this and I could have done better for the price...hopefully this will suffice though.

Sound Card
I purchased, and promptly returned after reading how great the are, a SoundBlaster Audigy 4 card...I hope that was a step in the right direction.
Instead, I'm going to get an M-Audio Audiophile 2496. I only need 2 tracks simultaneously, that's all I'll ever need in the foreseeable future. My main issue though is that I need to be sure that both tracks will show up seperately so I can edit them individually. Can anyone put my mind at ease with confirming that?
Would I be better with the Delta 44 and no mixer? That seems like overkill for my purposes though.

Mixer?
I will probably get a Behringer Eurorack UB802 mixer, and use it as a preamp for my mic, because it's cheaper than actual preamps and it's gotten good reviews. I would love to use this as a full on mixer, by plugging my guitar into it as well, but I fear that this will cost me my ability to have the two tracks seperate on software, is this true?

I'm all set with a guitar and an amp for that. I record guitar and vocals at the same time, and my biggest issue (aside from them sounding good) is that the remain seperate. Please let me know if I am missing anything, or if you have any other suggestions, as you can tell I am new to recording.

Thanks!
 
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I would skip the mixer and look at something like the M-Audio DMP3 two channel preamp. It's about $100 more than the mixer but, in the long run, you will probably be happier with the investment. Maybe you could sell some books?
 
The audiophile is a 2 (analog) input card. You haven't said what sequencing s/w you're using, but just about anything will record to seperate tracks. You would still need a mixer or preamps with a delta 44.
Also check out the Yamaha MG10/2 mixer. They're a step up from the Behri and well worth the extra 20 notes or so.
 
Thanks for the responses! The software I'm using is Cakewalk SONAR Home Stuido 4, because it was relatively cheap and does what I need. I've already got some stuff set up, so these latest purchases will be more of an upgrade than starting from scratch. I'm currently using a Behringer mic, going straight to the sound card with no preamp or anything, so you can see why I'm looking to expand with a decent sound card and a preamp/mixer.

Thanks for the mixer suggestion, I will definitely look into it. Looks like it's about $50 more than the behri mixer, but it would be easier for me to swing that than the extra $110 for the DMP3. I will definitely keep the DMP3 in mind for the future though when it's time to upgrade again.
 
The Yamaha 10/2 Mixer is excellent. It is what I chose for my home studio. Not the most feature packed mixer, but for the price it does an nice job.
 
I think that you should go for the yamaha instead of the behringer.

But still, seriously consider getting a dedicated preamp as for example the dmp3 instead of a small mixer, you will NOT regret going the extra mile, I promise you.

If you're sure that you only need the 2 inputs, and you don't need a mixer for routing and all that anyway, theres no point in not going for a dedicated preamp IMHO.
 
Alright, I agree that I don't need a mixer for my purposes. The main reason I was going to get one is because the Behringer acted as a mic peramp and was a lot cheaper. I think I may go with a dedicated preamp now because I do want to make the absolute best of my tight budget. I'll probably get the Audio Buddy because it seems to be within my price limitations.

I just have one question about this; its only outputs are in 1/4" plugs, I'll need a 1/4" -> RCA cable to connect it to the Audiphile soundcard. Will the conversion hinder the quality at all?

You are all being so helpful, I really appreciate it.
 
i hope you're looking on ebay for used gear. its your best friend if you're just starting up, and you'll probably be able to resell it without losing a ton of money in the future
 
xaerenade said:
Alright, I agree that I don't need a mixer for my purposes. The main reason I was going to get one is because the Behringer acted as a mic peramp and was a lot cheaper. I think I may go with a dedicated preamp now because I do want to make the absolute best of my tight budget. I'll probably get the Audio Buddy because it seems to be within my price limitations.

I just have one question about this; its only outputs are in 1/4" plugs, I'll need a 1/4" -> RCA cable to connect it to the Audiphile soundcard. Will the conversion hinder the quality at all?

You are all being so helpful, I really appreciate it.
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oh man, stuff like this confused me so much when i was starting out. the worst would be those connectors that are xlr and trs.. i have no fucking clue what they were when i'd see pictures of them. i think m-audio making those all in one cards with rca connectors is completely lame. you might be better off with something else. i think presonus or maudio makes a 2 channel preamp that plugs into usb (or even firewire if you want to spend abit more). mobilepre or firebox or something. i can't really remember. i'd get one of those if i only needed 2 channels.
actually, now that i think about it, i have an old echo gina interface that has a pci card. it has 2 line level inputs and 8 outputs and adat input/output. i got it used for $160 shipped. i'd reccommend something like that a million times over those maudio cards
 
Decisions, decisions! I took a look at the MobilePre, it looks very nice, but there are a few worries I would have about going in that direction;

First and foremost, can I really trust a usb device to give me high quality recordings? I'd almost prefer a traditional IDE card, but as you said, it is pretty lame that they are equipped with RCA inputs instead of something I'd need more like an XLR jack and 1/4" jacks, but at the same time I have no idea if that will actual affect anything.

Second; Is it a good preamp? Again, I think I'd be more apt to trust a dedicated one just because I'm old fashion like that.

Last but not least; Will this mix down the channels? I don't want it to, I really need the two channels to be represented as two tracks in something like Cakewalk SONAR.

If something like this is really capable of providing me the same quality as the standalone devices then it will fly up my priority list because, quite frankly, the device seems pretty slick. I really like the portability aspect of it as well. However, when it all comes down to it, my goal is to get the best quality for my buck, not neccessarily the most user friendly or convenient.

That said, I'm only so skeptic because I am ignorant of these kind of things. I'm going to attempt to get informed now by searching around the forum about the MobilePre.

As always, thanks for your help!
 
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