buying more stuff

[rod swollen]

so i take the advice of many and break down and buy a line 6 pod, which was a considerably gread investment for the wee little studio i have created. along with my cheap instruments and drum machine, i find many great hours of enjoyment playing into my computer and using n track to master it all down. however after spending way too many hours remixing and trying to adjust sound levels, it recently dawned on me that the quality of my recordings are not getting better with trial and error as many people have pointed out. to break it down this is what is going on in my basement... a cheap soundblaster 64, a cheap sony mic from best buy, a pod lined into my computer which is outputted to my kenwood home stereo at about 150 watts and then leaves through my cheap ass sony speakers. now i realize that these are not ideal home studio devices but money was tight. i want to invest in some monitors, a mixer, a new mic, and a new sound card, but this will take time and my question is what would be crucial in order of priority. my main objective here is to produce better sound sooner. keep in mind that im not trying out for warner brothers and the sound im trying to create doesnt have to be the best in the industry. think affordable and quality. to clarify my needs here is what i know so far from my trials...

1. my mic sucks and what little jusitice i give my music the vocal tracks deminish.

2. if i had a decent pair of monitors i could distinguish tonal quality to a MUCH greater degree... or would studio headphones be a better option?

3. the idea of a mackie is great but all those knobs scare the piss out of me not to mention i havent the foggiest of how to use a mixer to adjust sounds after the track has been recorded down...(midi?)

4. im sure a 24 bit sound card helps but im not sure what im looking for. i suppose one with a few 1/4 jacks would be nice so i could throw out all these damn male/female splitters ive collected. also, correct me if im wrong but dont good recording sound cards come with some sort of amplification or pre amp device so that i could stop depending on my kenwood?

i definately dont want the best of the best, i just want to finally be able to control the quality of my music and have the advantage of really shaping the sound to the contours of my liking. any suggestions on affordable remidies would be nice.

....Rod Swollen
CEO Swollen Industries

 

[Tom Hicks]

The Ensonic Audio PCI card sells for about $35 (U.S.) with about 90 dB headroom.Pretty good for a 16 bit card.The Shure SM 57 is a workhorse mike lots of guys use,$80 new,$50 used.
A mike pre or mixer is pretty much a necessity and here you gotta spend some bucks,caveat emptor.
Stereo phones are better than cheapo home stereo speakers,but you don't hear a true image,the bass response is way too loud on phones.Real good monitors and power amp (Hafler,etc.) will cost you big time.
But the first couple of items I mentioned can get you going right away for el-cheapo dinero.

Tom

 

[rowrep]

I definitely agree with Tom Hicks concerning the shure mic. I recently started pc recording and am using SM-58's and love them. As far as the mixer is concerned (depending on the amount of inputs you need), I recommend the " Eurorack MX 602A by Behringer". It cost me $99.99 at "musiciansfriend.com".
(I too am on a tight budget) It has 4 inputs and a built in pre amp if needed. This is a great unit!!! They also make units with more inputs.