$250 Studio

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wilbur
  • Start date Start date

With 250 I should...

  • Get a good mic or two and an interface

    Votes: 10 55.6%

  • Just the interface, upgrade mics later

    Votes: 2 11.1%

  • Get good monitors and get more later

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Carrots

    Votes: 6 33.3%
  • Total voters
    18
SuaveRecords said:
how is every one voting for "a couple good mics and an interface" lol. whats 2 good mics and an interface can you get for 250???
i cant even think of a good interface for less than 500.
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It says "mic or two" implying I could buy used, and as I have mentioned twice, I have decided to buy a 2488mII. But thanks for the help...:rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
The Studio Project mics were
okay in their day, but IMHO, CAD's capsules sound nicer. I'd look for a CAD M179.

Regarding the Mobile Pre, the older ones had insufficient phantom power voltage. No idea if they have fixed that or not.

Regarding interfaces, you don't say if you are on a PC or a Mac. If you're on a Mac, you don't want to go with M-Audio. They use BeBob hardware with a custom (non-AVC-compliant last I checked) firmware. The result is that they write their own drivers. Badly. I'm pretty sure they started with an old version of the Apple-authored driver and hacked it to work... and didn't keep it up to date. By contrast, other BeBoB hardware like Edirol or Presonus Firepod/Firebox use the Apple-authored FW audio driver, which IMHO is a fair bit less buggy.
 
Wilbur said:
It says "mic or two" implying I could buy used, and as I have mentioned twice, I have decided to buy a 2488mII. But thanks for the help...:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

lol i understand this, but still, i dont know how on earth you could get an interface and a couple GOOD mics for 250. even used :confused:

and your welcome:rolleyes: lol
 
Well, I should have used "a mic and interface", my bad. And for the record, ES-57 and a used 2020 or M177 could be had on the cheap, and most say sound decent.
 
An Omnistudio and two 1070b mics for $125

SuaveRecords said:
how is every one voting for "a couple good mics and an interface" lol. whats 2 good mics and an interface can you get for 250???
i cant even think of a good interface for less than 500.
Click to expand...

SuaveRecords,

An Omnistudio PCI interface can be found used for around $100. Add to that two Realistic 1070b microphones and you can make excellent recordings on $125.

Of course that doesn't include your computer, mic stands, cables, room treatment, instruments, or music lessons. Still it's a high quality interface with excellent preamps (same as the DMP3) and two High Fidelity microphones for $125.

Thanks,

Hairy Larry
 
Should have could have would have

Wilbur said:
Well, I should have used "a mic and interface", my bad. And for the record, ES-57 and a used 2020 or M177 could be had on the cheap, and most say sound decent.
Click to expand...

You should have done exactly what you did. The advantage of setting up your own studio is you get to make the decisions.

We are just pushing around the very interesting problem you presented. That is if you've already got a computer and you've got $250 how can you make good recordings. Since you're making payments I assumed you spent more. That's your decision.

Just because you posed the question doesn't mean there's not a lot more people interested in the answer. Personally I've found this discussion most helpful.

Thanks,

Hairy Larry
 
Exactly why I put "I will end up getting a 2488mkII, but if you have good advice based on my previous post feel free to post. thanks again..."

at the bottom of my first post.

I felt the discussion was getting interesting as well, and I appreciate everyones advice. I just felt a little frustrated when told that good mics could not be had for under 250$. You, myself and others have pointed out that this is possible.
 
hairylarry said:
SuaveRecords,

An Omnistudio PCI interface can be found used for around $100. Add to that two Realistic 1070b microphones and you can make excellent recordings on $125.

Of course that doesn't include your computer, mic stands, cables, room treatment, instruments, or music lessons. Still it's a high quality interface with excellent preamps (same as the DMP3) and two High Fidelity microphones for $125.

Thanks,

Hairy Larry
Click to expand...
meh 2 inputs wont last long. better to go 8. if he does much reocrding he'll outgrow that pretty quick. and i didnt think of used gear becuase i dont go used. ever. unless i know the person. to many people mistreat the gear they have and it ends up cutting out and dieing a couple months after you buy it. or you get it in the mail and it wont work at all. unless i know the person im buying it from, i go new. better safe than sorry.
 
The risk is half the fun

SuaveRecords said:
meh 2 inputs wont last long. better to go 8. if he does much reocrding he'll outgrow that pretty quick. and i didnt think of used gear becuase i dont go used. ever. unless i know the person. to many people mistreat the gear they have and it ends up cutting out and dieing a couple months after you buy it. or you get it in the mail and it wont work at all. unless i know the person im buying it from, i go new. better safe than sorry.
Click to expand...

SuaveRecords,

The omnistudio has four simultaneous inputs. You're not going to buy one new I don't think. Maybe the USB version. The PCI version is definitely on my wish list. I've got plenty of computers.

I've had real good luck with microphones on ebay. I mean each mic hasn't always been everything I dreamed it would be but I've bought a lot of mics on ebay with a very high success rate. There is a certain adrenaline rush to scoring a vintage mic for a good price and for the most part if it's been around for twenty years and it works when I get it it will probably work for another twenty years. Most of the mics I buy are no longer in production so new is not an option. The EV 635a being the exception.

Thanks,

Hairy Larry
 
I've had good luck with used stuff, too. I learned how to use a soldering iron, and I have had to repair some used stuff, but, except for the Group Buy stuff, and just a few mics, pretty much everything I've got is used. I mostly get things at pawn shops, because prices are all over the place, and sometimes substantially below market (and just as often substantially above :D - I let those ones sit). It's fun to read up on all the mics, and then be able to spot a really deal -- the pawn shop owners have the same internet I do, but maybe don't spend as much time poring over the music stuff.

I've got a lot more than $250 in my studio right now, but a ***lot less*** than if I had bought new
 
...the most revered mics and mic preamps are vintage pieces and can only be found as "used" ...I have purchased the majority of my studio components from websites such as eBay, Gearslutz, Craigslist and HR's Classified...include in that list are items by Amek, Neve, Royer, DBX, Symetrix, Groove Tubes, Presonus, Shure, Rode and many others...can't say that I've had any serious problems along the way...buying on reputable websites like Gearslutz, where the items are being offered by serious gearheads is a great source of well maintained quality gear...I always research the used marketplace before making gear purchases, and I have sold many high quality pieces of equipment on eBay and Craigslist myself...I do tend however to buy my cabling and connectors new, as those items seem to take the most abuse...;)
 
I have always thought that the room would be the first thing to throw money at and as a folks have put together rigs for less than the $250 I would say it would not be hard to get good sound with those realistic mics and lower end M-Audio interface, if the SPACE you're recording in sounds good. Now there are a lot of awesome DIY and cheap ways to do that and for around $75.00 I was able to set up some homemade bass traps and broadband absorbers in my space.

The sound of my recordings jumped the highest once I got rid of the sucky room sound and tamed the fluttery echo and phase problems.

My options would be as follows.

Good sounding space.

good used mics.

pair of more me headphones

and some way to make that signal go into the 010101010101010110 type of format needed:D

The M-Audio stuff seems well loved, so can be said for PreSonus and Yamaha came out with the Audiogram units which are budget minded, and the big bad boy is still only $119 I believe and it has an onboard compressor on some of the channels, which could be good, but I dunno.

Myself I use a Firepod, and I have no plans to change rigs for a while.

Maybe gigging out a bit can support this music habit as well...
 
Interesting

dickiefunk said:
Here's a heads up on a free DAW that's being worked on. It will support midi and VST's in the next couple of weeks :-

http://koblo.com/studio
Click to expand...

Koblo looks interesting. I certainly plan on checking it out.

It's not just free, it's open source. As we say, "Free as in Libre' not just free as in beer."

It is also designed for web collaboration. Not only can you post finished mixes to the web you can post projects to the web where someone in another country could pick them up and collaborate with you.

Interesting.

Thanks,

Hairy Larry
 
Linux

Wilbur said:
That looks very sweet indeed. Open Source FTW, posting this from my Ubuntu box...
Click to expand...

I'm running SUSE 10 here and SUSE11 at my studio. Although the Koblo DAW software currently supports only Mac and Windows I expect it will be ported to Linux if it actually makes a mark. One of the benefits of Open Source.

I still run a combination of Win 98, Win XP, and Linux systems although both Win 98 systems are scheduled for upgrades, one to XP and one to Linux.

Anyone have any experience using interfaces like the Omnistudio with Linux? Can anyone recommend DAW software for Linux?

Thanks,

Hairy Larry
 
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