£400 to spend, but on what?

  • Thread starter Thread starter James Hinton
  • Start date Start date
J

James Hinton

New member
I love recording music, mainly my Acoustic guitar/vocals, I have a drum kit but it's not very nice sounding so I'd much rather use my Kontakt Kits.

What I currently have

I know the dynamic mic is really bad, but I don't ever record my electric guitar as my Marshall Valve amp is a bit busted and so is a hassle to sound alright.

With a budget of £400, what should be the next thing I invest in? I can maybe increase the budget if needed, but would rather stick to ~£400 which is just over $600.
Perhaps spend a little on a bass, as the plug-in basses aren't very good, but I don't find myself using a bass much anyway.
 
It's really hard to say. There are like a million different things that could use. Maybe a bass trap? Maybe a mic? Maybe your PC needs more RAM?

How about investing some of that money into fixing your amp?
 
Everything I record is close mic, except sometimes acoustic guitar.
I think maybe a new mic and then fixing my amp seems like a good idea.
I have 16GB Ram which should be enough I hope..
 
Where do you think you need to spend money? Do you have any acoustic treatment in your recording/mixing room?
 
Do you like the sound you're getting from that Chord mic? Never heard of the brand before. If you're tracking and mixing room does not have acoustic treatment (i.e. bass traps) that should be your next upgrade. No sense in getting decent monitor speakers until you've got treatment in place, but that would be your next step - getting away from a micro-component stereo system for monitoring.
 
mjbphotos said:
Do you like the sound you're getting from that Chord mic? Never heard of the brand before. If you're tracking and mixing room does not have acoustic treatment (i.e. bass traps) that should be your next upgrade. No sense in getting decent monitor speakers until you've got treatment in place, but that would be your next step - getting away from a micro-component stereo system for monitoring.
Click to expand...

Setting someone else' priorities is tough, but I agree with this scenario. Buy some rockwool of some sort and build some chunks in the corners. That'll give you some good bang for the buck. If you've got 80 quid left after that, get an SM57. Then save a second budget later to replace the speakers with decent monitors. Then when you get a little more budget, save up what you can for a decent LDC and a pair of SDCs. A room that don't lie, speakers that are flat, and good mikes for source will get you sorted quick.
 
BroKen_H said:
Setting someone else' priorities is tough, but I agree with this scenario. Buy some rockwool of some sort and build some chunks in the corners. That'll give you some good bang for the buck. If you've got 80 quid left after that, get an SM57. Then save a second budget later to replace the speakers with decent monitors. Then when you get a little more budget, save up what you can for a decent LDC and a pair of SDCs. A room that don't lie, speakers that are flat, and good mikes for source will get you sorted quick.
Click to expand...

Perfect answer, thank you very much!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top