Advice on my purchase.

[inaptive]

I recently got my hands on a Crate PA6FX (powered mixer)
and will be making the journey this week for a pair of Crate PE15 Speakers. I also plan on getting a Shure SM58 Dynamic Mic. So my question is (assuming I have chords) will this be an acceptable rig for practice aswell as live application? Also, what steps do I take to use the above mentioned equipment with a Mac Powerbook w/ Garage Band? Any feedback is greatly appreciated, I have been singing for a while but only just began to purchase my own equipment...so I'm somewhat in the dark.

Look forward to any help / advice you can give.

- inaptive

 

[ssscientist]

Yeah, Crate stuff is acceptable for practice and small gigs.

The mixer probably won't do you any good w/Garage Band, but the microphone will. You'll need an interface to get the mic into the computer and this is the one I would recommend for starters --- LINK --- because it has both a microphone preamp and an instrument input.

 

[inaptive]

Thank You

Thank You, Thank You!

I had considered a small Alesis or similar model with USB to get the same effects, EQ and all.

Though I don't plan on playing the amphitheatre any time soon, did I perhaps spend blindly on the Crate equipment? I was under the impression that this was quality stuff, but I could have been misled?

I'm asking because at this point I happen to be in a fairly decent financial situation - so purchasing whatever is best and will perform well is in my immediate interest. Any tips?

Equipment my guitarist and I currently use:

Crate GT12 Full stack
Fender Telecaster (x2)
Fender Stratocaster
Boss DS-1
Boss BF-3
Dunlop GCB59
Crate PA6FX
Shure PG48
Mac Powerbook w/ Garage Band
(+various other small amps)

And I was looking at:
Crate PE15 (x2)
Shure SM58

Any advice on anything more to buy? try? sell?

 

[daav]

you may want to hang out on the microphone forum and read around, especially if you are into the vocals thing. The SM58 is a great live vocal mic but for a set of reasons:
1. It rejects most ambiant noise so you have less of a problem with feedback, room noise and bleed.
2. It is very durable, so if you are GG Allen and smashing the thing against your forhead, it will hold up.
3. IT still sounds good on vocals, and will also handle being screamed into from point blank range.

It does not, however
1. Add an extra flavor of tone to your recording and make your voice sound beteer than it really is.
2. Pick up nuance, the SM58 isn't really a sensitive mic like a LDC will be.

So most people swear by the SM58 for live work, rehersals etc like you describe, but use somehting different for recording, like a condensor. There is a good thread in the mic forum about the value of a LDC vs LDD that you might find intersteing. I have an SM58 (barely used for recording), and Oktava 319 (very affordable LDC that sounds pretty good, but is not necessary a go to mic for the professional studio), and an RE27 that is my current baby, this mic is a Large Diameter Dynamic, and it essentially combines all the of the (good) points above to one degree or another into one mic. It rejects room noise (which is good if you don't have a great sounding room), adds some nice color to the vocal recordings i have done with it, is physcally pretty solid and durable (but not a hand-held, smash your forehead kind of thing) and stands up to high sound levels from screamers.
If you are mainly conerned with practice and gigd, the SM58 will be great for you, then down the road any chance you get, try some recordings with any condensors you can get a hold of and consider the LDDs like hte RE20 or RE27 and SM7 and see if one of those might suit you for a recording vocal mic. Whenever possible try out various mics to see how they suit your voice it is often the case that of the 3000 decent or high qualtiy mic, one or the other particualarly suits your voice, hell it might even be the SM58.

Daav

 

[inaptive]

Thanks to you too!

Definately a good piece of advice. Once i'm done researching I'll be getting a "special" mic just for recording. Can anyone tell me pros/cons about Crate stuff? should I not go through and get something else instead? Yamaha? Peavy? Stick w/ Crate? anyone???