advice on the AKG C3000, better sound quality?

[Saul Glennon Trio]

Okay, here's my problem/question. I took several members advice and went out and bought the AKG C3000. I felt I got a great buy at 235.72 brand new. I also bought a Mackie 1202 - VLZ mixer. I've been doing home recordings for over 20 years ( I'm 36 ), and currently have collection of over 600 songs. Since January of this year, my band I and I have been working with cakewalk pro audio 8. As other cakewalk users have mentioned, they are very pleased with how digital and analog instruments record. However, when they record the vocals, its seems to take away from the overall quality. We have had the same problem. We were basically using old Pioneer mics and running them through a fender amp with reverb on. Now, what concerns me is, since buying the AKG c3000 and running it through the Mackie mixer, I must say, I haven't noticed much improvement in sound quality for the vocals. Am I doing something wrong? I've recently ordered Cakewalk Audio FX 1 which includes compression - will this help? Please respond.

p.s : by the way, great site. I wish I had this info. 10 years ago.

Jack

 

[Fender]

What sound card are you using?

 

[Saul Glennon Trio]

I have a new Dell Dimension Pentium III - I believe the sound card is from Turtle Bay.

Jack

 

[Fishmed]

What are you using for monitors?

 

[The Green Hornet]

Hello Glennon Trio:

I also use an AKG 3000 mic in my home studio and it does a good job.

First of all, you do know that you need phantom power to run the 3000?

You might get better results if you run your 3000 into a good mic preamp; I use the ART mic preamp. From the preamp, you can run the sound into your board and I do believe you will get a good rich warm sound in your headset(s). You might also need some FX in the headset while recording the vocal; this gives the performer a nice rich mellow sound in the headset and adds to creativity. You can then do your mix and adjust the FX anyway you want as you check all the sounds through the monitors.

Hope this helps you, as I know the 3000 is a decent mic.

Green Hornet

 

[Saul Glennon Trio]

Thanks for the advice everybody. The Mackie mixer has built-in phantom power. I had the option of buying the ART pre-amp instead of the Mixer (would have been cheaper), then going from the pre-amp into the sound-card. I still would like to know if compression on Cakewalk FX will help.