Advice on the best way to spend $300 to improve my current recording setup?

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el.dizzee

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Hi guys, so while I'm not quite a COMPLETE noob when it comes to home recording (I've been dabbling here and there for a while), I'm just pursuing this as a hobby because I like to write and record music, mine and that of friends. I'm really keen on learning how to improve on my recording skills, and I've decided to take an arguably small but definitive leap into upgrading my current setup in order to do so.

That being said, here is my current setup: I'm mostly using Cubase 5 LE as my DAW of choice, but I've also been messing around with Logic Pro on my friend's macbook. To record guitar and vocals I connect directly into an M-Audio Firewire Solo interface, using an M-Audio Nova condenser for the vocals and acoustic guitar. I'm well aware of the general stance on m-audio products, these were basically impulse buys a few years back when I decided "hey, let's try to record stuff, that'd be neat". For the time they were more than good enough to accomplish what I was going for.

Now I'm looking to improve the quality of my recordings and start to really learn how to properly mix my tracks, so I want to figure out the best/most efficient/'most bang for my buck' way to improve the quality of the input audio.

Which leads me to today -----> At work I stumbled upon a Presonus Firestudio Project for only $300, and it appeals to me because it has more inputs, which will be great for tracking more simultaneous instruments (which I plan to do) and has many more and greater options for input monitoring. What I'm unsure of is whether or not the preamps will be a worthwhile improvement over the firewire solo's.

So that sounds like a bargain to me, but I'm also wondering whether my money would be best spent by buying a preamp along the lines of a Presonus Tubepre, to use in conjunction with the firewire solo to warm up vocals and instrument tones, or perhaps instead replace the mic and/or firewire solo altogether..

I'm quite eager to dive right in but I think I need a push in the right general direction to better understand where I should begin and focus my time and resources!

Any and all advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks :)


Lenny
 
focusrite products are all fantastic. start there and see if you like anything.
 
Thats a good price for that interface. You will need to get mics...
 
IMO, descent monitors and better mic first. Next, room treatment (not blankets or foam crap) is the biggest 'bang for the buck'. Before purchasing anything else, improve your listening environment or spend countless hours wondering why you mixes sound like crap everywhere other than your room. Shiny toys only look cool if you cant hear what they do. Until you are able to accurately listen to what your are recording, the rest is just money thrown to the wind. Seriously, don't take the room treatment lightly. Oh yeah, get a Lava Lamp too. They make everything sound better! :)
 
Hmmm, after doing some research I'm kind of deciding between the firestudio project and the saffire 40, and while all advice and information I've found about the saffire say it's better. I'm still leaning towards the firestudio project because for that price I'm thinking how can I not!
What it really boils down to for me though is which interface has the better sounding preamps, and I don't really know when/how I'd get the chance to A/B test the both of them. I guess another consideration is the fact that I prefer to do my guitar and bass recordings via direct input as I have crappy amps and a room with no sound treatment (I live in a student apartment so I can't really do that until I get my own place when I graduate). The problem with that though is that I have a hard time to get tones that don't sound too artificial.
So for all these reasons, buying a better mic is probably not an option at the moment cause it wouldn't do me very much good.

Do you guys think it'd still be worthwhile to try mic'ing my amp for guitar tracking, or are there some other ways to improve my signal chain for DI?
 
@jimmy69 Ya that's all pretty valid, I have one here in the room actually :)

I recognize that good monitors and a properly treated room are crucial, but those are investments I'm going to have to make later on when I can, and for now, as this is really just a hobby for me, I'm fine with okay sounding mixes, not really expecting anything near a professional sound. I guess just given that I'm not willing to treat my current room (and not really wanting to upgrade my monitors though I really should), I'm hoping to find a way to get the best sound with what I've got, and I'll put in the extra time and tedium to mix in different environments cause this is really just a way for me to learn how to mix better. I have some m-audio studiophile monitors (super duper cheap), and a pretty decent home theatre sound system which I can also use until I'm ready to get a good set of monitors and treat the recording space.
 
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