1st post, big question!

[ob1b@hotmail]

hey guys, this is my first post so go easy on me!

right ... so, gonna start some home-recording and thought this may be a good place to come for some advice about equipment (keep in mind i dont need super high quality recordings, just decent enough to peice together an ok demo cd! ill be using my 2.4 athlon which should be fine for most stuff, but am wondering if sony vegas 4.0 (used to be sonic soundry owned or so im told) and sound forge will be sufficient sofetware apps?

now for the hard bit - i need to buy just about eveyrthing

for monitor speakers im thinking along the lines of samson resolv 65 (pretty much as much as i want to spend on speakers) what u think?

as for mixers, mics (preferably 1 for vocals only, as im asuming i can use the line out on my marshell amp and go straight to my mixer, same goes for my bass amp) i have no idea about what to go for - there seems to be a hell of a lot in this budget price range and not a lot sperating them??? anyway i dont want to spent more than £150 on each, as i also need to get a soundcar (thinking creative audigy 2 platinum as i can get it quite cheap and ive used creative plenty before)... so basically, could u guys break down where my limited funds should go, and possibly name specific models i should look at!

last think - is there a decent drum machine out there i could use? no more than £200ish im afraid, or will i just have to lug over the drummers kit and buy a specific mic set?

thanks!, sorry if this sounds like hard work!

 

[Massive Master]

I can't get into everything, but the one thing in your chain you should never, EVER skimp on is your monitoring. There is a lot of inexpensive and downright cheap gear out there that can give good results, but all of the gear in the universe means nothing if you can't hear it accurately.

Get the best monitors you can afford, and let everything else fall in.

Now, which monitors? That's a question with an awful lot of opinions... The only (reasonalby affordable) boxes I've ever heard with a small (under 8") woofer that I actually liked were the Wharfedale Diamond 8.2's. However, I haven't heard the new "pro" series or the actives in that series. But I've heard the Samsons... And I have no comment.

 

[Mr. Moon]

anyway i dont want to spent more than £150 on each, as i also need to get a soundcar (thinking creative audigy 2 platinum as i can get it quite cheap and ive used creative plenty before)...

Hi ob1b and welcome!

I would suggest you search out the forums here to find out why you should *not* go with *any* consumer-level soundcard made by Creative. Many of these posts will have other alternatives listed that will far surpass any of the creative soundcards. I used to own one (a SB Live! Platinum), and if your experience is anything like mine, you'll have nothing but problems until you get yourself a pro-sumer level card (i.e. Delta, Aardvark, Echo are brands that come to mind...) Creative soundcards are great for gaming and such, but are not designed for audio recording, regardless of what "they" tell you. As always, YMMV.

Good luck!

-mr moon

 

[ob1b@hotmail]

ok thanks guys, let me just say how impressive the depth of knowledge is on this forum - i feel i know 10 times more than i knew before i found it - very impressed!

now that ive sucked up to you guys im gona be cheaky and ask for some suggested set ups! i need an mic(which is gona be my soul mic to begin with, so will be used mainly for vocals but also drums and acoustics), a mixer (to save buying seperate pre amp), a soundcard (internal pci or external) and finally monitors - so far im thinking:

mic. samson co3 or the shure sm57 (sounds like u could just toss a coin to decide between them from what ive read so far) and they are bang in my budget im afraid (yeah when i say poor i mean uni student poor!)

as for the rest i could spend £200 uk pounds on a soundcard, and the same again for the mixer and monitors each - i know its real low end equipment id be getting but a detailed breakdown would be oh so helpfull!

thanks alot!

 

[apl]

Hey, OB.

I recorded the song in my signature line using a TASCAM US122, a Rode NT3, a Yamaha Rhythm Tech RY9, and a Digitech RP50 as an amp simulator. So altogether, I spent US$550.

I think it came out OK. What do you think?