Home recording and live gear

H

hamed082

New member
Hello all,

We have a band and want to buy some equipment to use for both home recording and some live performances.

The only thing is we don't want to spend too much money right now :D

We have access to some amplifiers and speakers so I was thinking of getting a mixer + some mics!

The mixers I'm down to right now are Mackie ProFX16 and Behringer XENYX X2442USB.

The Behringer is cheaper so I would really want to know what you guys think about these two or if you have any other suggestions?

For mics we also don't want to spend that much,
we need two vocals and 6 instruments, percussion, classic/acoustic guitar and violin!

What mics would you suggest in the $20-30 range?

I know it won't be a great setup but it works for us at this time!

Thanks for your help!
 
If you are talking new, there are NO mics in the $20-30 range I would recommend. You might score some Shure SM-58 clones for that price, or about $10-20 more. SPEND THE EXTRA MONEY- cheap mics will drive you nuts.

Current Mackie gear is often not much better than Behringer, both are built to a price- and usually a cheap one, at that.

Recommendations on the board might be easier for us to make, if we knew more about your plans. "home Recording:" do you mean recording to two (stereo) channels to the USB connection of your computer, having mixed down to those two channes? Or do you want to record to (from a count of your "needs" for mics) 12 or more channels, and mix down later? The Behri does have 8 direct outs, which would help you with the second recording method, but only eight, you might "need" more; there are workarounds for that, but I suspect you are "not there," yet. Behri gear has a woeful reputation 'round here, IMO Mackie is no better.

Really, the more I think about this, the more I think you are getting in too deep, too quickly. You may end up frustrated when you can't figure out how to do the things you think you should be able to do. Focus on one thing at a time- get your band tight before gearing up/working on your live show, your live show working before you decide to record.

But that's just me.
 
You aren't going to find many quality mics in that price range. One thing to consider would be a drum mic kit. There are a few kits out there that have a few different mics for a drum kit. I think I've seen some around $200-300 on the low end. This will give you a variety of mics and if you are getting 5 or 6 for the price it may be worth it for you. If you are trying to get great vocals and things like that you are going to want to get a good condesnser mic at some point. As far as quality it may not be the best plan, but with the prices you mentioned, the plan is kind of doomed from the start.

You may find that it would be easier to just buy one or two good mics and then record everything individually with those good mics rather than having a bunch of poor mics. It all depends on what exactly you're doing. The thing to remember is that mics are what captures the original sound. If the original sound is crap, you may be able to clean it up a bit, but its still crap to begin with.

I don't know enough about the mixers to make any suggestions about them but like stevieb suggested above me, it really depends on what you are trying to do.
 
Save some money - don't buy cheap gear, you'll just end up replacing it and won't be able to sell the bad stuff used for anything. As for the mixing boards, I bought a Xenyx and found the preamps garbage, so brought it right back and picked up a Mackie ProFX12 for another $40. Much better preamps, but like others have said, it will only allow you to record 2 separate tracks at 1 time. There's also some USB issues with some models if you turn up the USB control too far you get noise.
 
Thanks All for your responses,

We play Persian classical Music, so it is closer to classical music and we don't have any drums only something like a percussion.

I don't think we will ever need to mix the sound after recording at least not now. Therefore, a stereo USB output should be fine.

I know cheap mics won't be that great but we are on a tight budget right now cannot spend $100 per mic.
Plus we have live performances so we need at least 7 mics.

What do you think about GLS es-57/58 vs Behringer XM1800S mics?
anyone has any experience with them?

Thanks,
 
Why don't you buy a Zoom H2 and set the band up around it and press record. I own a studio, but when my own band wants to record a rehearsal we use a H2. The recording is good enough as a demo and to hear the songs and the parts being played.

Cheers

Alan.
 
we had a similar situation at work where we needed a desk for both live shows and multitrack recording and ended up with the Alesis Multimix 16 as it can record all the channels into the computer separately rather the just a stereo out. as a live desk it's ok, nothing special but it works and the built in fx are pretty basic but ok for a simple live reverb. the only big downfall is that, i theory, you can only do 12 instruments live, and even then only 8 have xlr preamps so you'd need to DI some bits, and it's advisable to use a separate DI box for that rather than just plug straight into the TRS inputs in the desk.

in terms of mic's, for under $30 you may be better off buying some cups and string and building a high quality paper cup phone device. that may sound cynical but buying super cheap mic's is often a false economy because you will find yourself wanting to buy better mic's very quickly and won't be able to sell the cheap mic's off for anywhere near as much as you bought them for.

i have a friend who bought the three pack of Behringer XM1800S as he simply needed more mics when he was building up a live rig from scratch. he used them once and very quickly vowed never to use them again on stage. he used one for a talkback mic for a while but even then he hated it. in the cheaper dynamic mic range the shure PG57's and PG58's aren't too bad, and are a damn sight better than the Behringer XM1800S ime, and for live stuff you may be better off also buying some DI boxes for the acoustic guitar and violin rather than use a cheap dynamic mic
 
I have a gls 57 clone and it's a pretty good mic. I'd get more if I needed em. I know several others around here who use em and will vouch for em too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top