$400, what will improve me most?

  • Thread starter Thread starter EdJames
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EdJames said:
In summary, whilst I appreciate the point you make, artists such as Victoria Beckham have proven time and time again that vocals come second to decent equipment. With the right equipment you can make the weakest singer in the world sound like a platinum selling artist!
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Ummm, I doubt you look like her :D Ummm, do you? :eek:

I gotta disagree with you on this. The artist comes first, the gear a WAY distant second. The "right equipment" you talk about costs 100K and needs top engineers to get the Spice Girls or Ashlee Simpsons of the world on records.

I listen to a lot of stuff in the mp3 clinic here, and some fellas get great results with rocks and sticks while others get mediocre results with Neve consoles. The music and musicianship comes first, how to use the gear effectively second, the gear third. There are exceptions of course, but the whole "Spice girls/Ashlee Simpson" thing has little to do with home recording or pro recording for that matter.

I would go with Scrubs advice: I would parlay the 400 smackers into lessons, studio time, blah blah. Gear is gear unless you spend real bucks and have the skilz to pay the bilz. :cool:

Either way, good luck. I am not anti-gear, I guess I am jealous you have 400 bucks :( :D
 
Wow, that sucks.

I upgraded to the AT4040 with an M-Audio Tampa and I have to say,I don't notice much difference between that and my MXLV67 with M-Audio AudioBuddy! I mean sure, the signal is nice and clear but there's certainly not $500 of difference!
 
EdJames said:
Wow, that sucks.

I upgraded to the AT4040 with an M-Audio Tampa and I have to say,I don't notice much difference between that and my MXLV67 with M-Audio AudioBuddy! I mean sure, the signal is nice and clear but there's certainly not $500 of difference!
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Welcome to the world of the many guys here that say mic preamps make A WORLD of difference.
The main difference you hear comes from the 4040 (which is a nice mic BTW). The Tampa or the Audio Buddy do the same thing..they preamplify your mic signal. This is easily done by a couple of opamps and discrete transistor circuits. No need to spend thousands on small signal amplifiers made from $0.50 parts. Having that said, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Tampa and the Audio Buddy shared the same basic circuit...you never know with those shitty asian companies.
 
Ed, give it some time. Get used to using the new stuff, record some tracks with it. Don't listen to the old stuff for a while. I'm talking about weeks. Then go back and take a listen to the old gear. You may hear more of a difference then.

Also, it should be mentioned that the Tampa and the Audio Buddy are from the same company, so there will likely be a similar sonic signature.

I also feel somewhat compelled to say that if you'll remember, my original advice was to put all your money into just the preamp, then save up for the mic later. You may not hear $500 worth of difference because you didn't jump up enough classes of gear.

The mic is a keeper. But as I've said before, you'll probably grow out of the preamp sooner or later. When you do, save up real money and get something truly outstanding.

In another thread you are already asking what else you should save up for. I just have to say that I think you are doing this wrong. You need just a very few *really outstanding* pieces of kit, not a collection of half-baked gear.

While I think you should give this gear some time and learn to use it up to its capabilities, I hope you have learned a lesson and next time will do it right. Great gear costs money, it's that simple. Get out of the budget category and you WILL hear a difference.
 
I'd feel guilty spending $1000+ on ONE piece of kit, but $500 each on three pieces is fine ;)
 
No matter what it is,cars,wine or recording equipment,there's a curve relating to price/performance.Once the median point is reached performance becomes more expensive.In other words,you may have to spend 50% more to get something that sounds 10% better.

Is a $100 bottle of wine ten times better than a $10 bottle?No,but it probably is better.

Does a $1000 preamp sound ten times better than a $100 preamp,no,but it probably does sound better.
 
The thing is, calculating value versus performance like that is kind of misleading. Because ultimately it's not about money but about how it sounds.

When you pay real money for a top notch preamp or mic you can clearly hear the difference, it's not close with budget gear. Once you have that moment, then nothing can get you back to the bargain bin.

All I can say is, if you spend $500 on three pieces of gear, compared to what you had before, you will get only incremental improvement. It will be an improvement though. And I do think you should give it some time and get to know your new stuff better.

There's no need to feel guilty for spending $1,000 on something this important to you. Unless it means taking food out of a babies mouth or something like that!
 
just save up and get a $10,000 mic and a $10,000 pre-amp...
just kidding.. :p

haven't heard what kind of sound your looking for, someone may be able to help on that choice too. If the a-buddy isn't it, and the Tampa isn't it???
this is where the forum is great. Some have several brands of pre's and might be able to get you closer to a "sound" your searching.

i learned what preamps were at this forum and it was eye openning.
I had tried a 57,58,CAD E100, Shure 81, MXL and a couple others they all sounded very similar thru the same pre-amp in a board.
When I got talked into a pre-amp, I could really start hearing the differences between the mics. And then added a compressor and it was a very noticable change. granted my pre was the weakest link, obviously...there's always a weakest link........right now its me!! :eek:

I'm working on a soon to be #1 Blues hit.... "Ho Di Doe sht".
 
In fairness, having used it a lot more recently and gotten used to the various settings, the signal itself is VERY clear. The vocal is crisp as hell and there's a real impressive lack of background noise. It's slightly 'hi' I would say but the overall sound is nice and punchy. I think my next step is learning to EQ my music cause the main problem is that the vocal is sitting on top of my instrumentals right now as opposed to blending in with them.
 
So that sounds like good news! You got the kind of crisp clean vocal you were looking for?

How much do you want to spend on the eq? Also, do you want a hardware eq or a plugin?
 
Well Albert, it's crisp (more so when I turn off the compressor on the TAMPA) but the problem seems to be this wierd hollow sound as if it's taking MAJOR acoustics from the room. I think I need a reflexion filter or a booth :(
 
Just for kicks, try recording in a closet or very small dead space and see if that makes a difference. Just as a test. If the hollow sound is still there, then maybe something else is causing it.
 
Well funny you should say that.

I've actually hung a big blanket ove rthe rail in my closet and positioned the mic JUST in front of that (in the wardrobe) hoping that would dampen the sound but it's still getting that nasty hollow-echo vibe. Any idea what that might be because it's making applying any plugin reverb impossible.
 
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