$1,500 Setup To Record Voice And Guitar To Computer

T

Tumehe

New member
Hi Everyone

I'm a Newby
I'm wanting to record my voice and my guitar to my computer, multitrack it, overlay it with harmonies etc, I only need one mic cause I'll record each track seperately
I have bought Fruity Loops Producer Edition and Reaper
My budget is about $1,500 USD
What is the best possible setup for $1,500 please?

Computer Specs:

Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (8MB L3 Cache)

Asus P6T Intel X58 Chipset Socket 1366 ATX QPI Up to 6.4GT/s ICH10R Support Core i7 Processor Extreme Edition DDR3 1600 SATAII Raid Express Gate SLI + CrossFireX 2xGB Lan 8 Channel Sound 2x1394a

(3xXMS3 2GB) Triple Channel Total 12GB DDR3 Memory

LG BH08LS20 8X Super Multi Blu-ray Writer , Black Color , LightScribe

Cooler Master Case c/w Cooler Master 650W eXtreme Power Supply

Geforce GTX-275, 896MB Graphics Card

160Gb 7200 RPM Hard Drive

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium



Thank you all
 
Last edited:
darrin_h2000 said:
I guess the new AT4047 multipattern with a Line6 UX2.
Click to expand...

With 1500$ I'd say grab a tube combo amp for good tone. Sure it will take more work then the UX2 but it will sound better.
and a decent guitar. then grab a mic, a pre, and an interface and you'll be set.
 
Thank you both for your replies
I am a newbie so do you reckon i need to buy a d/a converter with a built in pre-amp and a mic? and thats all I'd need?
Or do I need other equipment aswell
I only need to record one track at a time

Cheers
 
This sounds like a weird combo. The royer 121 and a presonus firebox interface.
thats 1,495. the royer is a ribbon and is great for guitar and vocals.
 
To start out, list what you are actually going to need.
I'd make a budget something like this...
$200 DIY Acoustic Treatment
$500 Active monitors
$300 Large Diaphragm Condenser Mic
$500 Interface or soundcard+preamps and recording software (often bundled with the hardware, or get Reaper)

If you stick with recording, you'll end up buying a range of mics for different purposes. You'll be off to a fine start with a $300 mic. Listening environment plays a huge part in your success and is often overlooked.

You could potentially adjust that to spend maybe $400 to get a pair of mics and maybe $400 on the interface/soundcard setup.

You'll have to do some research and shopping to decide what you want to do about the interface/soundcard etc. The *easy* way to start is a usb or firewire interface that combines the function of a soundcard with mic preamps. This are easy to setup and get started, but then you are stuck with those preamps. A slightly more flexible solution would be either an interface that also has some line-level inputs or a separate soundcard coupled with a set of preamps or a mixer (careful what mixer you pick if you go this route).

Hope that helps...
 
With such a kickass computer to start with, I'd say:

Motu 8pre
Decent DI box, el-cheapo or whatever 100$ or less
Good multipattern condenser mic 300$ or so (or a pair of them)

The rest on monitors and environment as Jeff suggested.

Darrin's UX2 is a great suggestion too. Quick and smart
 
Thanks

Far thank you guys so much for your help you guys are awesome!
ill take what you guys have said and do a bit of shopping and research
this place is awesome!

;)
 
Good Day Tumhe. Welcome to the board! You have not provided a few key pieces of information. Acoustic or Electric guitar, or both? This makes a huge difference in equipment I might or might not recommend. Other essential pieces of info include:
What kind of room or rooms do you have to work in? How much background noise, and what kinds? When you clap your hands, can you hear the sound come back to you? Go to the room and listen. You need to start there. The sound quality of rooms can be changed. A good room means much less money needed.- but a good room is hard to find. I like practice rooms in the music departments of Universities, as late at night is possible. That's not always practical.
Last, what do you want to do with these recordings once they are made? Do you need it on a CD, on line, or both? Do you intend to duplicate or sell it, or will you listen to it with your mother? The intended destination of music should be determined before selecting gear. First, define the job- then find the tool, not the other way around.

Also, everybody is jumping ahead to the gear- but you are in New Zealand (My God-what stunning topography you have!) and consequently, I assume you have tariff issues. When we know what kind of guitar, we can start to research the affordable gear *of The British Commonwealth* to see what a good deal is where you are. Many pieces of gear that Americans think is affordable is much more dear in Australia, and I assume New Zealand, by extension. If I'm wrong, correct me, but I'm betting you pay through the nose for good gear. My best advice- You aren't ready to spend money. Be patient. Money spent when you know more will be better spent. Stick around here for a while-Richie
 
You may want to set aside a few bucks for computer tweaks too once you have figured out what you want to do

1) second hard drive for recording to especially since you only quote a 160GB HDD in your spec
2) If you decide a firewire interface is what you want you *may* need a PCI FW card. ASUS P6 boards currently use VIA Fire Wire chipsets. Most audio gear is designed and tested on Texas Instruments chipsets and many manufactureres will sugest Texas Instrument FW Chipsets are required to guarantee compatability and smooth operation of the interface with the computer. VIA is certainly not the worst chipset (no where near as bad as Ricoh or DICE II Chipsets) but they do cut corners on quality of execution compared to TI. SIIG make cheap TI Based FireWire PCI Cards
3) depending on how serious you are about pristine recording, if you end up with condenser mics and how close you will be to the computer when you record. You may want to repalace the GTX 275 Graphics card. Wonderful card for gaming but noisy and hot and massive overkill for music recording. Highend GPU cards with fans are usually the noisiest component in a computer and even in a really well dampened case (which cooler master generally are not) can sometimes be heard in the background of a recording and also can be irritation if you are trying to mx music in the same room as a noisy machine.
I'd look at an nVidea 8 or 9 series passive cooled (no fans) option
If you are also using the machine for gaming you could use both and set up a separate hardware profile for when you are recording music that has the GTX 275 turned off. Again this is if you are looking for pristine recordings and a nice quiet mixing environment without fan noise in the back ground if not a concern then forget I mentioned it.

Good luck with it and get ready to spend like a maniac and never be happy with what you have :)
 
Thanks again guys

Thanks alot guys

well I do want to make top quality music and sell it

Is it possible to get top quality recording just like the pro's with a budget of $1,500?

Am I better off just paying a pro studio to do it?

I want to record both acoustic and electric guitar

I will check the acoustic of the rooms win I get home

my computer has got a FireWire card and I've got 3 one terabyte drives

the place where I record and the computer will be far apart so that'll be ok

thanks so much for your guys help
 
Tumehe said:
Thanks alot guys

well I do want to make top quality music and sell it
My condolences. Good luck.

Is it possible to get top quality recording just like the pro's with a budget of $1,500?
Theoretically,yes... but in the real world? No. You lack the knowledge base more than gear. To make top recordings takes top audio engineers *and* a ton of money.

Am I better off just paying a pro studio to do it?
Maybe- that's part of the define the job then choose the tools thing. Home recording is a much better way to lose money than to make it. It's an addiction, not a career.

I want to record both acoustic and electric guitar
Yay. different mics.

I will check the acoustic of the rooms win I get home

my computer has got a FireWire card and I've got 3 one terabyte drives

the place where I record and the computer will be far apart so that'll be ok
Your computer is not a problem. Recording can be done pretty well on a pretty stupid computer.

thanks so much for your guys help
Click to expand...

You're welcome. I'm sure we'll be talking more.-Richie
 
Tumehe said:
Is it possible to get top quality recording just like the pro's with a budget of $1,500?
Click to expand...

It'll get you a really good start- probably more than alot of people spend to get started. This is a bit of a loaded question though... The problem is, recording is a lot of art and a lot of science, and the learning curve is pretty steep. If you aren't familiar with techniques and gear and everything that goes along, you may struggle to make a "pro" sounding recording even on $10,000 worth of gear. Conversely, someone thats been doing this for 20 years could probably make a pro sounding recording on even less than your budget. If you truly want to learn the art and science of recording, then your money will be well spent. If you want instant gratification, then maybe going to a commercial studio would be best. Just my 2c. If you want to dive in, you've probably found the best resource you could possibly ask for right here at this website. :)
 
Jeff_D said:
It'll get you a really good start- probably more than alot of people spend to get started. This is a bit of a loaded question though... The problem is, recording is a lot of art and a lot of science, and the learning curve is pretty steep. If you aren't familiar with techniques and gear and everything that goes along, you may struggle to make a "pro" sounding recording even on $10,000 worth of gear. Conversely, someone thats been doing this for 20 years could probably make a pro sounding recording on even less than your budget. If you truly want to learn the art and science of recording, then your money will be well spent. If you want instant gratification, then maybe going to a commercial studio would be best. Just my 2c. If you want to dive in, you've probably found the best resource you could possibly ask for right here at this website. :)
Click to expand...

Jeff he is only 25 years old you forgot to tell him by the time he is 40 he'll have hundreds of thousands of dollars tied up in this addiction!!!!
 
moresound said:
Jeff he is only 25 years old you forgot to tell him by the time he is 40 he'll have hundreds of thousands of dollars tied up in this addiction!!!!
Click to expand...

oh yeah, well plus theres that. :D:p

Really though if you don't count my instruments, I probably have under $4500 tied up over the last 8 years or so in gear and acoustics. I'm really comfortable with the sound I can get for vocals and acoustic instruments. I'm *almost* happy with the drum sounds I'm getting- for me thats been the biggest challenge.
 
You got a lot of great suggestions already. The most important being the room you're recording and mixing in. Most home recording types have only one room for both. That's okay, but treat it acoustically for mixing, which means make it as flat a response as possible. Check out the Studio Build forum here at HR to learn more.

You also want accurate monitors. Computer speakers and home stereo speakers won't cut it. I find shopping for studio monitors is difficult. I always suggest finding the most popular and going with them. You also want to keep in mind driver size of the speaker. I have 5" near fields and don't recommend anyone using them for anything but details. For overall mixing, you need something that can reproduce the low end better than a 5" monitor.

For just vocal and guitar recordings, you can get by with a 2 channel interface. I do most everything DI or in the box and I only need 2 channels. I have ultra high end interface (lots o' money) and an ultra low end firewire interface (super cheap). I can hear a difference between the two, but it's not much. So, spend your money wisely on an interface, you don't have to put a ton of money to get quality results.

A good mic and a good mic pre will be worth the money, however, again, it doesn't have to be totally expensive. But I'm thinking this is where the bulk of your $1500 will be going.

Lastly, the sound source and performance will be the driving factor in getting professional results. good quality instruments, amps ( if necessary) and vocals will carry the load.
 
The biggest drain on money in recording is- how many simultaneous channels do you have to have? On your budget, I think you can 2 channels OK- not all-pro but acceptable. Get at least one heavy duty badass studio boom stand, and a couple sort booms, like kick drum stands. Get some good mic cables. Get a good 2 channel preamp or channel strip. I've had good luck with Joemeek twinQ, a mid-priced unit. You want to record voice and guitar. You need a good dynamic-Shure SM7b or Sennheiser MD421. You need 2 fairly well matched small diaphragm mics for stereo recording and overheads. For mid priced units, consider AKG C2000B (my overall favorite, bang for buck), Rode NT-5, Studio Projects C-4,Audio-Technica 4041, Shure SM81, AKG C451, Oktava MC012. Those are my favorites, short of $500 each. One honorable mention is- buy a pair of Marshall Electronics MXL604's for about $100. Send them to Mr. Joly, or others that hang around here, and pay the nice wizard to greatly improve your cheap mics. Overall, I think that's the best bang for buck. Or what the hell? Send him any of the mics on my list.

Next, you need a main vocal mic, usually a large diaphragm condenser, and multiple polar patterns is a plus. My best bet- Audio-Technica AT 4050. If you can swing it, Shure KSM44. The key is- if you are mostly recording your own vocals, find the mic that makes *you* sound good, the shoe that fits. Lots of oddball mics have worked on some vocalists. If it doesn't work, switch to a dynamic. - see SM7b above. If you need it, a good mic to add after that is a dedicated low frequency mic, such as AKG D112, Shure Beta 52A, or Audix D6. Good for bass, large hand drums, the low end of a piano, even some vocalists. Add to the mix a couple of cheap dynamics. Sometimes, especially with electric guitar, a cheap mic is *the right* mic. Many folks love Shure SM57. I like Sennheiser e835, and love the old discontinued AKG D320 series. You can find them around on ebay, etc.

That should be enough sticker shock from now. Next, it will be preamps, interfaces, and the dreaded monitors (the most common cause of sticker shock deaths among novice audio technicians. Hang in there- Richie
 
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