AHHHHH HELP (confused)

thx u helped alot!
ok.... so.... i think im buying a sm57 becouse i will be able to record guitars (amps), drums or whatever AND vocals, becouse, im not a professional singer and stuff, im just singing punk rock, but................ it may sound stupid but....... saying the sm57 mic is more likely to get screams and stuff, i mean..... does that mean the sound will be crappy? distorted or something like that??
or is it something a normal person (not an expert) wont notice ?

can u understand me?

and...... i just saw there is sm57 lc and there is sm57 beta, the lc is cheaper...... could u explain me the difference?

and one more thing.... im getting a Tascam PortaStudio 424 from a friend's dad, he will LEND me for 1 weekend or something, im willing to mic the drums, the amps and plug em into the tascam and then use the Output of the tascam to plug in the soundcard of my cpu (soundblaster live) and record using Cakewalk Homestudio 2000.........

what do u have to say about that? im assuming the tascam does have a preamp in there.... no?... and since im using sm57 i can forget about the phantom power thing, right? and im assuming the tascam does have a mixer inside of it.... i mean......... IS THAT ALL I NEED? im ready to go?

and ONE MORE THING....... will the sm57 mic catch only the sound near the mic? i mean............... if i put it on the snare of my drumset and the whole band play together, the mic will catch all the mess???? or just the snare????

IM REALLY SORRY to bug u (and all u guys) like that, but i mean, i gotta get into this stuff

thx a lot.
Marcos.
 
Yes, the Tascam has preamps. No, you don't need phantom power. A mic will always pick up sounds that are around, but they have different pickup (polar) patterns. The SM57 is directional, and not too sensitive, so it doesn't produce real bad bleed (crossover from one track to another), but it will be there. Generally, mic'ing drums is either done up close with a bunch of mics, even one for each drum, or (the old way) with 2 mics farther away to try to pick up the whole kit. Most of us compromise, using a dedicated kick drum mic, a pair of overheads farther away to get the cymbals, and a few up close dynamics, such as that SM57, to get toms and snare. And the beta is a smoother mic, recommended for vocals, but the old LC has been with us for years and works just like it ever did- a classic. I'll tell you this. You can experiment all you like, but there's pretty much no effective way to capture a whole drum kit with one SM57.-Richie
 
ok, im starting to understand all this...

so u said, the messy sound (that u dont wanna catch) will always be there, but in different polar patterns, so u mean that IT WILL BE HARDLY NOTICEBLE or that u can edit the track and take that part off, and leave only what u want in there?

and..... i think i liked that 2 mic thing, i mean, i dont have money enough to buy like...... 6 or 7 sm57s so maybe i could try doin this thing, what do u think?

dude ure helping a lot, thx again!

Marcos.

and one more thing, can i make COOL good quality stuff with cakewalk home studio 2000? and sound blaster live?
 
Many pro engineers like Scott Dorsey prefer the SM57 over the SM58.
Dorsey believes that the foam & basket design of the SM58 screws
up the clarity of the signal somewhat. The SM57 sounds clearer and
it can be used closer up. Your "need" for a mic pre is dependent upon
how important it is to get whatever level of fidelity. If you study and
apply what you learn you'll eventually make good demos.

Chris

P.S. Great explanations Richie.
 
for just vocals get an sm58
apparantly its the same mic as the 57, but it has a round, metal pop screen that actually gives it a slightly different frequency response, that is bettter for vocals.

and i guess you can always screw it off if you wanna mic a cabinit. although i just use my sm58 to mic things as is, with the top on.

BTW, the APEX 410 is an awesome condensor mic for very cheap. I went to a recording session at long and mcquade and they did a direct comparison of an apex 410 condensor, and a neuman condensor (can't remember modle, a little over 1000 canadian in price), and the difference was very small. The people at long and mcquade couldn't stop ravin about it, and i rented the mic, its sitting beside me right now, and it is awesome.
its a totaly multi purpose mic, good for vocals, instruments, etc...
its a large diaphram condensor mic, but it does it all.

One huge difference between the apex 410 condensor, and the sm58 dynamic mic, is the 58 sounds a lot more muddy, and a lot less clear. It lacks in the high end a bit, and doesn't have the clarity or sparkle of a condensor.

If you go with a 58 or 57 it will be a great mic for you, and sound great. You won't really notice its lacking in the highs until you do an A/B comparison with a large diaphram condensor.

An no, the 57/58 won't crackle or anything when your singing/screaming, but if you clip the signal, naturally it will.

you just have to set the input level on the preamps in the mixer, or external preamps, to a level where it doesn't clip (go into the red, above 0dba, etc...)
if it clips into the red, brin the volume down a bit, and keep doing that until you get a clean signal with no clipping. and make sure to do it as loud, or louder than you would when your performing, because the worst thing is to finish an awesome take, and find that its clipped to hell and is total unusable..

sorry about that tangent, it was kinda unrelated, but i figured from your comments that you may not know that, and its quite vital base knowledge to have when recording.

hope something in there helped, its late, i just got off work , and im kinda blury.
 
thanks ambi....i learned alot...........i know for sure imma get a condenser.....but i still thinkin about a good dynamic ya know.....dont want every person that comes to mah house using it cause if it breaks im back to nothing again........lol.........anyways thanks bro peace
 
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