Creating a little home studio

E

Ed Wood

New member
Hello to everyone, I'm a new user form Italy.
I'm trying to create my little personal studio at home, just to record in a decent way some acoustic music(Elliott Smith/Nick Drake style).
I'd like some advices about what to buy:
My setting right now is:
A tascam Portastudio 05, 4 tracks
A terrible shure 606 mic, but i'm about to buy a shure Sm57 or Pg57(i'd like to know also if there's a big difference between the two).
A double cassette deck.
A laptop with basically no soundcard.


Now, i've got a really low budget, and i'd like to know what could i buy to start. The Mic is a prerogative.
I'd like to make analog recordings, then to pass everything to the computer to clean a bit and burn. Which CHEAP usb soundcard do you suggest? my tascam has a Rca(i think..) out.

For now i finished my questions hope someone'll help.

Ps. Hope also this is the right section

Bye

Ed
 
Welcome, Ed.

I have an SM58, and a PG58. I think the SM sounds a bit better than the PG, but not a great amount. Go to Shure's website, and you can look at the specs of both of them, and maybe even look at some others, just to compare. Someone else can suggest a soundcard, as I just import most stuff from my 4 track from the memory card. I do knoe that creative has a USB interface for about $40 that will let you transfer that way, and you can plug some external speakers into it if you wish. Take a look and see if it helps.

Godd luck.
Ed
 
A Little Help

If you have a decent computer your alredy on your way..Really the only money you half to spend rite now is on a sound card,a lower level aardvark,you can find them on ebay....Just plug straight into your sound card,no stomp boxes or you will probably fry it.( you can do the stomp box thing though aardvark though)..you control your volume through windows soundcard options in your control panel.(your recording volume).O you need a program to run ,My sugestion would be cakewalk or sonar ,sonar is a little intimadating but theres a tutorial it will help you get started..& that program my friend is the pc equal to mac's pro tools..Now you can get this for free if you want to download bearshare peer to peer ,but i didnt tell you that,...& I hope that doesn't get me any shit...but good luck
 
Dogman said:
Welcome, Ed.

I have an SM58, and a PG58. I think the SM sounds a bit better than the PG, but not a great amount. Go to Shure's website, and you can look at the specs of both of them, and maybe even look at some others, just to compare. Someone else can suggest a soundcard, as I just import most stuff from my 4 track from the memory card. I do knoe that creative has a USB interface for about $40 that will let you transfer that way, and you can plug some external speakers into it if you wish. Take a look and see if it helps.

Godd luck.
Ed
Click to expand...

do you mean Sound Blaster Mp3+? it's around 50 euros, really ok. Hope the quality will be decent.
Anyway, it is possible to pass directly the tracks on the computer or first i'll need to mix them on a mastering deck? or can i use the computer as master?

Thanks for the answers, they really help!

Ed
 
Here's the thing I bought. http://creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=207&product=154

If you want a cheap way to connect the portastudio to the pc, it works. Nothing great, just records in stereo. You can get a program to mix with on the pc. There's a few freebies, and some good, inexpensive ones.

I don't know how much a sound card will cost, for something you want, but you can run a cable to the soundcards mic input also. Just depends on what you want.The Soundblaster device is inexpensive, and lets you use other speakers if you want.
Ed
 
perfect, i'm trading on Ebay for that soundcard :)

I still have some questions:
How to get the best sound performance, recording basically guitar and voice on two separate tracks, with my tascam?
Any tip? Cos right now the sound quality is really low and the volume too, probably cos of the Mic(Shure 606 :( ).

Some more questions from the newbie still to come :D

Ed
 
Low volume, might be caused by not using a preamp. I'm not sure how your deck works, so someone may be able to help answer if you need to look into a seperate preamp.
 
Dogman said:
Here's the thing I bought. http://creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=207&product=154

If you want a cheap way to connect the portastudio to the pc, it works. Nothing great, just records in stereo. You can get a program to mix with on the pc. There's a few freebies, and some good, inexpensive ones.

I don't know how much a sound card will cost, for something you want, but you can run a cable to the soundcards mic input also. Just depends on what you want.The Soundblaster device is inexpensive, and lets you use other speakers if you want.
Ed
Click to expand...

ok i finally have the soundcard. Now what do i have to do? i tried to connect the portastudio to it, but after how to make it recognize from the computer? i can0t make Acid recognize the signal in rca input of the soundcard, just from the Mic one. Which free or cheap program shall i use to work on my tracks? just to put all the tracks on the computer, mix them and then maybe clean them and equalize a bit.

Thanks!

Ed
 
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