Computer setup....Help!!!

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gigglezallday

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Please forgive me if the answer to my question is located somewhere in other postings. I am interested in home recording with mic and acoustic guitar. I have been recording at home using an old pentium 4 with a sounblaster live audio card and goldwave software. I became very familiar with this setup.

I have since purchased the following (in hopes that I could get a more professional sound when recording).

Intel core quad 2.5 with 8 gig ram (it has onboard soundcard)
M-audio 2496
Berhinger xenyx 802 mixer
sure sm57 mic
home receiver

I am way over my head. Soundcard is totally different only using RCA audio plugs. I have no clue how to begin. My goal is to record voice and acoustic guitar.

These are my questions...

1. Do I need other equipment?
2. How do I hook everything up?
3. Will I continue to use the onboard sound card for anything?
4. How do I hook up speakers to this card? (I have SBL FPS 2000 speakers)

Plus I'm very confused about converting all the connections. SBL speakers use miniplug which won't connect to my M Audio....

Ready to give up and stick my old sounblaster card back in but I have invested so much now that I would like to enjoy getting better sound recordings.

Sonya (gigglezallday):
 
You don't need any other equipment. Here's what you do.

Plug your sm57 into the mixer's preamp.

Plug a 1/4" TS (mono, like a guitar cable) from the mixer's main output to one of the inputs of the 2496. You'll need a 1/4" TS to RCA adapter like this one or a cable like this.

For your speakers...

I'm assuming by "miniplug" that you mean a 1/8" stereo plug. If that's the case then get one of these 1/8" stereo female to RCA male adapters and you should be good to go as far as the connections go.



Peace
 
Man, you made that sound so easy. I've been to Radio shack, guy sold me all kinds of adapter and cables, telling me that's what I needed. (I'm still missing a couple you've mentioned) I've tried several full days to figure out how to connect everything. Finally gave up. Was about to rip out the old card.

So, I don't even need the home receiver, huh..... I'm still confused about the sound card. Do I disable the other?

Plus, when I used my old SB audio card, I would hook my earphones up to my speaker set to hear myself sing. Do I hook earphones to the mixer now? Or can I still connect to m-audio?

and....I was also able to add audio effects, while recording, and used the record what u hear feature. This made my voice sound so much better during the recording process. Will I be able to do this with m-audio card?

Thank so much for the response. Hated to waste the money and not even be able to use it.
 
My obligatory standard reply-for-newbies that I keep in Wordpad so this is just a paste (I don't want to re-type this all the time):

First off, immediately get a good beginner recording book (spend $20 before spending hundred$/thousand$) that shows you what you need to get started and how to hook everything up in your studio:
Home Recording for Musicians by Jeff Strong - $15
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/04...mp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0470385421
(Wish I'd had that when I started; would have saved me lots of money and time and grief)
You can also pick up this book in most any Borders or Barnes&Noble in the Music Books section!

Another good one is: Recording Guitar and Bass by Huw Price
http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Gui...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215734124&sr=1-1
(I got my copy at a place called Half-Price Books for $6!!)

And you can get a FREE subscription to TapeOp magazine at www.tapeop.com

Barnes&Noble or Borders are great places to start --- they have recording books and you can go get a snack or coffee and read them for FREE! Don't pass by a good recording book --- this is a VERY technical hobby and you REALLY want to start a reference library!!!

Good Newbie guides that also explains all the basics and have good tips:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/computermusic?entry=free_beginner_pdfs
http://www.harmony-central.com/articles/
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/tips-techniques/168409-tips-techniques.html

21 Ways To Assemble a Recording Rig: http://www.tweakheadz.com/rigs.htm

Also Good Info: http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

Other recording books: http://musicbooksplus.com/home-recording-c-31.html

Still using a built-in soundcard?? Unfortunately, those are made with less than $1 worth of chips for beeps, boops and light gaming (not to mention cheapness for the manufacturer) and NOT quality music production.
#1 Rule of Recording: You MUST replace the built-in soundcard.
Here's a good guide and tested suggestions that WORK: http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm
(you'll want to bookmark and read through all of Tweak's Guide while you're there...)
Another good article: Choosing an audio interface - http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep08/articles/audiointerfaces.htm


Plenty of software around to record for FREE to start out on:

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net (multi-track with VST support)
Wavosaur: http://www.wavosaur.com/ (a stereo audio file editor with VST support)\
Kristal: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/
Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com/smm

Another great option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/ (It's $50 but runs for free until you get guilty enough to pay for it...)
I use Reaper and highly reccomend it...

Music Notation and MIDI recording: Melody Assistant ($25) and Harmony Assistant ($80) have the power of $600 notation packages - http://myriad-online.com
Demo you can try on the website.

And you can go out to any Barnes&Noble or Borders and pick up "Computer Music" magazine - they have a full FREE studio suite in every issue's DVD, including sequencers, plugins and tons of audio samples. (November 2006 they gave away a full copy of SamplitudeV8SE worth $150, November 2007-on the racks Dec in the US- they gave away SamplitudeV9SE and July 2009 issue they put out Samplitude10SE. FREE. It pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)
 
Here's what I suggest to make your life a lot easier.

Sell the mixer and the soundcard...or return them if you can. Then get yourself an audio interface like the Presonus Audiobox or TASCAM US-122MKII USB 2.0 or something similar.

And read Tim's post. Lots of good info in there.
 
Yeah!
I didn't want to be the one to rain on your parade but follow Tim and Dastrick's advice.
What you have are the wrong tools for the job.
Best of luck with it. :)
 
I would NOT automatically agree with selling the mixer and sound card.

It all depends on what you want to ultimately DO with this system you are building.

If you are intending at some point on doing live recording of yourself in a small band, the mixer will come in handy.

If on the other hand its going to always be just YOU, then it would not be needed. A better audio interface with at least one microphone pre-amp may be all you need.

Regardless, I think the best thing to do first is to read & learn. And there are some great sources listed in this thread. Many people rush out and buy stuff and then try to figure it out. You will ultimately be happier if you figure it out in reverse: First, decide what you want to be doing recording wise in a year. Next, decide what your budget is. Next, do some research on the web and in places like HR and decide which software program(s) will let you do what you want. THEN you will be able to decide what hardware will best work within your budget, your goals, and your software library to let you do what you want.

If that sounds like a lot of research - well, nothing good ever came without putting in some time first.
 
That set up is perfect for starting out. I used about the same set up for years and recorded a lot of good songs. If the speakers ar powered you do not need a receiver, just an 1/8 stero to stereo rca adaptor.

what O/S are you running? Does you acoustic have pickup? I'm guessing that you want to record guitar and vocals at the same time. You would need a multitrack recording app. I started with N-Track Studio. The m-audio 2496 can record 2 mono tracks, so you can run an rca cable from you mixer rca out's to your rca in's on the sound card. hook your mic to channel one on the mixer and pan it all the way to the left. have your guitar on channel 2 and pan it all the way to the right. you'll have to set you recording program up once installed. you can still hook your head phones up to the speakers with this set up. I think you want to have something like your old set up but sounding better. The Berhinger isn't the greatest mixer but will be better than what you had. I used a used peavey 8 channel mixer I found for 100 dollars. That was 12 years ago and I still use it for monitoring. Should be no need to disable your on board sound. You should be able to select the m-audio when setting up your recording app. Make sure you get the newest drivers for the soundcard as well.
 
dastrick said:
Here's what I suggest to make your life a lot easier.

Sell the mixer and the soundcard...or return them if you can. Then get yourself an audio interface like the Presonus Audiobox or TASCAM US-122MKII USB 2.0 or something similar.

And read Tim's post. Lots of good info in there.
Click to expand...
HEy Y'all, I'm new to the site, marginally experienced with computer multitracking, and very familiar with home recording using portastudios. I've got a tascam us-1641 and an old gateway computer that I got for free, used for a year w/ acidpro7 till recently when it broke and now needs replacement. Does having this interface of mine mean that I don't have to worry about anything on a new computer except processing speed and memory?
 
madBush said:
HEy Y'all, I'm new to the site, marginally experienced with computer multitracking, and very familiar with home recording using portastudios. I've got a tascam us-1641 and an old gateway computer that I got for free, used for a year w/ acidpro7 till recently when it broke and now needs replacement. Does having this interface of mine mean that I don't have to worry about anything on a new computer except processing speed and memory?
Click to expand...

If it worked with the old Gateway then you should be alright with almost any newer computer.
 
I just want to add one piece of advice to what has already been given:


Never, never, never, never, never take advice from a Radio Shack employee about home recording. :spank:
 
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