BIG Question ... Need LOTS of help!

[ianda]

Hi all. The college I attend in Minnesota is in dire need of revamping their recording situation for the Music Department. Right now in the Recital Hall, they're running two overhead AKG C451Es (with different tips, mind you) into a Mackie board. The AKGs are run through XLR cable until the wall plate, which switches them over to RCAs.

After entering the Mackie, the signal is sent to a JVC CD Recorder. Sometimes, on the way to the CD Recorder, the signal is fed into a Tascam DAT Recorder (for backing up, as we've been having loads of problems with the JVC Recorder).

So, after talking with some faculty, we're looking to upgrade the setup. We need ideas for microphones that either do vocal/choral settings well, instrumental settings well, or both well. The recordings will be of anything from solo voice to a faculty jazz band that REALLY cranks out the volume!

We're also considering a new board set up (as I'm trying to get the idea across that the Yamaha AW16G may be the way to go). AND, to add into the mix, one of the faculty members is looking at upgrading to all digital audio and video, so that we can burn directly to DVD rather than VHS/HI8 and CD.

So, in short, here's the skinny of what we're looking for ... all on a TIGHT budget (which I don't want to mention, as it's not yet finalized due to grants and such):

Overhead Mics (do they need replacing?)
Vocal Mics
Instrumental Mics
Digital Workstation
Separate Burner (if we don't go with a Digital Workstation)
Gear rack (SKB Style, but maybe a little more professional looking)
Cables, extra connectors, etc.

I think that'll do it. Thanks for all your help with these mic selections. We're hoping to order a few and play around with them, but we don't want to do that until we've got a solidy recording foundation under us.

Sincerely,
ianda

 

[chessrock]

Hola Ianda,

Your overheads are probably just fine. That particular model (AKG 451) has a pretty decent reputation. The Mackie mixer should be just fine, as well, depending on how old it is mind you. If it's just getting old, I'd consider stepping up to a newer model. If you're on that tight of a budget, there won't be much else better out there for the money.

What I am scratching my head over is your routing setup.

I'm scratching my head over this: "AKGs run through XLR until the wall plate, which switches them over to RCAs." I've done some a/v for conference centers before that had a similar setup, but not where the XLR's were converted to RCA. That could be troublesome on many, many levels if I'm hearing you correct. You'd kinda want to stay XLR the whole way, or theoretically you wouldn't be getting any signal out of them at all . . . so I'm assuming you were probably just mistaken on that one.

As for the vocal mic (s), there's probably something you'd want to take in to consideration: If this is for a college, then I would assume there would be a lot of people using them at different times for various projects, and not always under the supervision of an experienced engineer? If this is a case, then durability is going to be your biggest concern.

A condenser would be nice, but I'd forget it for now. People will most likely be misusing it from time-to-time . . . and not necessarily on purpose. I'd look at picking up an Electrovoice RE-20, or perhaps a Shure SM7. Either would be exceptional on vocals, are built like tanks, and would be essentially idiot-proof.

As far as instrument mics go, you've got any number of options depending on your budget. It couldn't hurt to have a bunch of shure sm57's and 58's on hand. I'd also have a look at the Oktava MC012. You might want to pick up a bunch of those . . . they'll also work great on overheads if you need extra (pretty close to the AKG's you've already got).

That would probably just about do it for you, since I'm assuming a bunch of ribbon mics would probably put you way over your intended budget.

As far as the other stuff goes, I'm sure others here will have their opinions on that as well. You might want to venture over to the Rack forum and get some discussion going there. There's just way too many options and possibilities to get in to right now in the way of workstations and rack gear and this post could get extremely long, if you know what I mean.

Good luck.

 

[maskedman72]

i agree with chess. listen to him, and first things first get rid of the xlr to rca step. keep it xlr all the way.

 

[ianda]

Re: XLR connections

I totally agree about the XLR connections, and the need to keep them XLR the whole way to the board. For some reason, many years ago, they thought it would be best to switch to RCA. That way, they'd be able to go directly into a recorder (i.e. tape deck, DAT, etc) without the need to go through the Mackie. After some talking with faculty (i.e. explaining shielding, etc.), they agree that we should be using XLR the whole way.

Thanks for the tips. Keep 'em coming.

Sincerely,
ianda

 

[Doug Quance]

At least it's the music department that allowed that XLR to RCA snafu... and not the audio engineering department....

Whatever you do, stay away from ribbon mics. Too much of a chance someone will apply phantom power and smoke 'em.

Before you get too carried away, and purchase a DAW, you might want to examine how the music will be recorded. Do you need to record in multitrack... or can you record in stereo? If you need multitrack capabilities, but you can work with only recording two tracks at a time, you can purchase a hard disk recorder like a ZOOM which will save you big bucks. For under $1000, it will burn CD's, too.

http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/love.music?p=p.ZOMMRS1044&z=1550389007537

If you need to record more than two tracks at a time, you'll need to look at other options (with added expense). There are stand alone units, as well as DAW's, that can handle that call.

I'm not too sure about the concept of burning directly to CD or DVD.... It doesn't sound proper to me, but I could be wrong. I would think audio or video capture should go to a dedicated hard drive, instead. Once you have captured your media, you can then manipulate it properly before burning CD's or DVD's.

BTW, if you plan to record using a stereo micing technique, I would suggest that you get a matched stereo pair, and not simply two mics that are the same model. I would also suggest you purchase a decent compressor, like the RNC from FMR Audio.

My 2 cents.