An honest opinion for a small budget, please help!

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starbird

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Hi --

I am in the process of recording a demo tape and I need a lot of very truthful opinions.

I need two things, a new mike and a new sound card.

The most I will pay for a sound card is $150 ($10 margin around there...) and the most I will pay for a new mic is $100.

I need the best possible of both for this price (average retail). The demo needs to be as close to professional as possible, this cannot be stressed enough!!!

My computer is a Dell Demension on a winME platform. I have a 1ghz processor, I'm sure that's all you need to know. Right now, my sound card is a SondBlaster Live!Value and my mike is a Sony F-V220 from (ugh) Radio Shack and was $19.

I need some very quick answers as I might be purchasing these as soon as tomorrow. So please tell me what you'd reccomend. The demo is just vocals and a midi will be playing in the baground but that has nothing to do with the sound card right now.

What is the best sound card and best mike I can get for what I need for the recording to sound the most professional.

Thank you so, soo, soo much for the quick response... thanks!!!!
 
**What is the best sound card and best mike I can get for what I need for the recording to sound the most professional. ***

actually you'll need at least 3 things: mic, preamp and soundcard.

For a minimum budget, here what I suggest:
mic: SM58 or Studio Projects B1 (~$80)
preamp: M-audio Audio Buddy (~$80)
Soundcard: M-audio Audiophile2496 (~$170)
 
BTW, do u have any audio software already?

you'll need money for that too......
 
Leeking said:


actually you'll need at least 3 things: mic, preamp and soundcard.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty unclear as to what a preamp is... I don't know what it does.

Is there any way I can get a preamp for cheaper? Does this mess with the quality?

Thanks for your reccomendation, I'll go look up that sound card and mike right now. :)
 
Right now, I have this software called...

Internet Audio Mix 1.46

I've been using it for a while and it's so simple. Cakewalk and products like that are so complicated that it scares me, LOL.

Is it okay to use the software that I use or will I need to get some new stuff? The software isn't as big a problem as the hardware is.
 
A mic preamp takes a low level mic signal and boosts it to line level. You can't get a preamp cheaper than the audio buddy because it's the cheapest preamp in existence (that I know of). Yes, it has an impact on your sound, but the audio buddy is usable. In this case where you're limiting yourself to a couple hundred dollars for an entire signal chain, it probably doesn't matter so much.

You'll also need cables, budget at least $20 for a 10' XLR mic cable (mic to pre) and another $10 for a short 1/4" TRS -> RCA cable (pre to soundcard, assuming you get the Audiophile, which is the best soundcard deal at the $150 mark).

Slackmaster 2000
 
Oy... this is getting so expensive!

What if I don't use a preamp and just plug the mike into the sound card? How much worse will it sound.

Is there any link someone can give me to an mp3 with someone recording with a better sound card vs something in the soundblaster line? I am very interested in seeing the difference.

Also -- will getting a new sound card alone be a great improvement just for that? Or is the mike absolutely required an order to get a good sound? I also may need to say that it's not coming out my pocket, rather my parents' so I'm trying to keep their expense low.

Thanks so much.
 
starbird said:
The demo needs to be as close to professional as possible, this cannot be stressed enough!!!
Click to expand...

For $250, I'm not sure you'll be able to get very close. Do you plan on micing everything with that one mic? How good are your instruments, amps, etc. ? How much do you know about audio engineering, mixing, mastering, etc.?

I hope you're managing your own expectations on this.
 
here, I want to give you a good idea how bad my stuff sounds.

(removed the link)

go there. I reccomend you quickly downloading it to your HD and deleting it after, it's faster. it's just a really quick snipit of me singing a few months ago, dont think anything of it, it took 2 seconds to record, real crappy. but it also is a demonstration of how bad my sound card is.

so... by listening to this, can anyone tell me how much the quality will improve by getting a new sound card? thats what I really need to know.
 
Last edited:
You can't just plug a mic into a soundcard. It'll sound like "ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" :)

You can plug your existing mic into your soundblaster, because the soundblaster has a very cheap mic preamp built right in.

So here are your options, in order from best to worst:

1) Vocal mic (dynamic or condensor), preamp (audio buddy), and soundcard (Audiophile). These are the three main requirements in a standard signal chain. They are all equally important.

2) Vocal mic (dynamic or condensor), preamp (audio buddy), and just keep using your soundblaster. This will actually produce some decent results. The difference between a soundblaster and the audiophile is drastic, but if you can't afford a new soundcard yet, just go with the mic & pre.

3) A dynamic vocal mic directly into your soundblaster. This will produce results similar to what you're already getting, but probably better if you go with a Shure SM58 or similar. Note that a condensor cannot be plugged into the soundblaster because it requires phantom power (which a pre like the buddy will provide).

You should probably start by picking out a vocal mic first, which will depend a lot on your vocal style, and the environment you're going to record in. Then, since you're on a budget, grab a cheap preamp like the audio buddy. If anything it'll give you more mic options. Finally, if after working with your new mic & pre for a while you still find the sound to be very dull and boxed in, grab a decent entry-level soundcard.

At any rate, don't forget to budget in $30 - 40 for cables and adapters if you don't have any to start with.

Then, spend the rest of your freakin life upgrading your gear. Welcome to the club :)

Slackmaster 2000
 
slackmaster... did you by any chance listen to the mp3 I posted? everyone seems to get such different results with soundcards that it seems like unless you hear the real performance you can't see exactly what I'm getting.

I think the mic + the preamp sounds more reasonable then getting all three but I guess I'll have to look into it. I feel very discouraged all of a sudden. I want better sound quality but the funny part is I've never heard better sound quality so I don't know what to look forward to.

I really appreciate all the help, though...

the type of music I sing is *sigh* pop. LOL. Pop and broadway-ish stuff but hey, what can I say? that's what I sing. does the SM58 still sound good for what I sing? I mean, I guess you do sort of have to factor in that high notes cant sound always fabulous on every system, right? ugh I dont know.
 
$250 will get you 1-4 songs in a home or pro studio. Your time and money would be better spent paying somebody else to record it for you.
 
Starbird,

if you're really tight on budget, you MUST at least get a good mic (SM58) AND the Audiobuddy preamp.
there is not point getting the mic without the preamp, you won;t get anywhere near a decent result.

you can use the SB Live! card first, as you can get a fairly decent result with it. That's the card I used before getting thr AUdiobuddy.

So you should need just around $180 for mic, preamp and cables.
 
yea, mic and pre are must, sound card is optional. But your definition of "pro", maybe have to change. Because even if you had 15,000 to spend on gear, you still may not get a pro sound, at least without experience and knowledge. If you seriously need a pro, comercial sound, you'd be best to follow the advice posted above and go to a pro studio. Do you know about other simple things in sequencing like compression, reverb, eq'ing, etc..? And you know that with the preamp and soundcard you can only record with the one mic, so you only have one input source. so you'd have to record everythign seperatly (what are you recording? just vocals? or other instruments as well?)
if you don't really know how to track, mix, use effects, etc... than you may find it very hard to get a good recording, no matter how much equipment you have. Im not trying to discourage you, and im sure you could pick up the basics easily with some hard work, and numberous posts on this board, but there may be more to it than you think.
you may already know of all this and i don't mean to "talk down", to you if thats how it seems. But in your post your not certain of what a pre amp is, or a lot of the technical stuff, so im not certain if your familiar with the softwear stuff at all. Anyways, good luck.
 
I echo what Slackmaster said,

there's really no way around this. If you use the mic input on the soundcard all you'll get is a tiny insect-like recording. My
situation is not far from yours, I use the sound chip that
came with the motherboard, but I use a Tascam 424 as
preamp and some Sure look alikes. The sound I get is
passable or livable if you like, but not bad. Take away
the pre-amp and you're left with nothing. I think it's
the most important part of the link. Low-end soundcards
can still satisfy within reason, fine Low -end mikes
can get away with it if you don't have any over expectations.
But without any form of pre-amp or any gadget to
boost that puny mic signal you're as good as dead.
Even a guitar pedal will sound better than nothing at all.
It's all about boosting and fattening the signal.
 
I'm thinking about taking up the suggestion of going to a recording studio. I wasn't expecting the rates to be this low for them, so hey, maybe they went down, or maybe I was expecting L.A. rates or something.

I'll let you know what I decide... thanks everyone for all of your help!
 
when you know what you want,

go to ebay and get it cheaper
 
Hey, guys, thanks for all your help!

I just booked a slot at a pro recording studio in my area.

I'm paying $250 for 5-6 hours. Here's the specs of the place...

- analog and digital recording
- a 48 channel Neve 5106
- Otari MX-80 24-track tape recorder
- 24 tracks of ADAT-XT

Preamps:
Neve 33122a (2)
TLAudio "Dual Pentode"

Mics:
Beyer M88 (2)
Electro-Voice RE-20 (2)
Neumann u87ai (2)
Neumann u89ai
Neumann KM184 (2)
Neumann UM57
Groove Tube MD3
AKG C 414 B-ULS (2)
AKG D112
AKG C 391 B
Sennheiser 421 (4)
Shure 57 (6)
Shure 520D (Green Bullet)

.... lexicon stuff

Computer stuff:
MAC G3 3 gig
MOTU 2408
MOTU A-V Timepiece
Compaq 4850 300Mhz Pentium II w/MMX
176 Megs. SRAM
Cubase VST v3.5 (w/WaveLab)
Cakewalk Pro
Samplitude
Audiomedia III Card & WaveDriver

----

They edit and mix but they don't master, however it seems like mastering is for bands that want to release an independent CD. I can always send my CD to someone to master it if I really want, but it costs a lot.

How's it sound? I'm really exciting. Real recording studio, real good quality. Hehe.
 
wel

i don't think im exaduratin when i say you'll get 10000 times better results this route, with much less of a headache. Good luck and let us know how it goes! Just try and use your time in the studio well i guess, maybe plan out what you want to do, cause your paying them.
 
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