Critique My Setup!

[brandoj]

I have been traveling these forums for about 2 weeks now, and following is the question that has arised. Basically my question is: Do I have an adequate setup for recording?

I am running on a very low budget, but of course, I want high quality sound.
The only thing I actually had to purchase in the following setup is the e-mu 0404, preamp, and headphones. All the other stuff is either borrowed for a long period of time, or given to me by various people I know. I would be able to hook all this stuff up and try to record, but my computer's having freezing problems (im reformating right now). I don't know if I need a different preamp, or if I need one of those snazzy M-box things or whatever. Just tell me whatever you think.

My setup:
Guitar -> custom build headphone preamp -> e-mu 0404
e-mu 0404 -> Project/one reciever -> BSR BR-1550R speakers/shure e2c's
Shure Beta 58A
Hart electric drumset w/ Alesis DM5 18bit DAC

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

[mikemorgan]

I have been traveling these forums for about 2 weeks now, and following is the question that has arised. Basically my question is: Do I have an adequate setup for recording?
If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Just one, do you have a recording device?

 

[mikemorgan]

I need one of those snazzy M-box things or whatever

yes, you need one of those snazzy boxes to get sound into your computer's hard drive, and some snazzy software to go with would be kewl

 

[brandoj]

Just one, do you have a recording device?

I assumed that the E-MU 0404 and my computer was a recording device. Maybe I'm mistaken.

yes, you need one of those snazzy boxes to get sound into your computer's hard drive, and some snazzy software to go with would be kewl

I thought that the 0404 could get sound into my hard drive... Also, the 0404 does come with bundled software, which I thought would work well enough, although I could be mistaken on this as well.

 

[mikemorgan]

"The 0404 is a 24-bit/192kHz* PCI audio interface that delivers everything you need to record, mix, and play back audio on your PC with hardware-accelerated effects and soft mixing. It works with all major PC audio and sequencer applications offering faultless analog and digital I/O, pristine sound quality, and all the hardware-accelerated effects, mixing, and monitoring of E-MU's popular 1820M, 1820, and 1212M Digital Audio Systems.

I/O includes 1/4" analog, optical and coaxial S/PDIF, and MIDI. 24-bit/192kHz* A/D/A converters deliver an incredible 111dB (A/D) and 116dB (D/A) signal-to-noise ratio. E-DSP hardware acceleration taken from E-MU's more expensive systems gives you an effects processor that can deliver over 16 simultaneous hardware-accelerated effects. The E-DSP processor frees your computer from running CPU-intensive plug-ins to boost performance. It ships with over 500 effects presets with allowances to add more plug-ins to your system as needed.

E-DSP also provides zero-latency, hardware-based mixing and monitoring via the included PatchMix DSP mixer, so no external mixer is needed. The E-MU 0404 ships with ASIO 2.0 and WDM drivers, Steinberg Cubasis, Steinberg WaveLab Lite, SFX Machine LT, and a trial version of Minnetonka's diskWelder BRONZE.

The 0404 PCI is now shipping with the new Power FX software update, giving users the ability to run over 600 hardware-accelerated effects as VST plug-ins for Cubase™ and other applications. Power FX also introduces EMU's first expansion plug-in, with new reverb and delay effects."

Looks like you've got everything you need!

 

[brandoj]

Well it's good to know I have the ability to record. But is there anything else I should consider getting as far as sound quality goes? Obviously I could always purchase more expensive equipment, but that's not what I'm asking.

 

[tourettes5139]

A mic preamp. Unless the EMU has a preamp already, I don't know for sure. A mic preamp is essential to getting even a decent recording.

 

[brandoj]

Would a a preamp that used to be used for headphones work? Or not?

 

[mshilarious]

Would a a preamp that used to be used for headphones work? Or not?

I would expect that it wouldn't work well, if at all. A headphone amp is looking for a line level signal (1V or so), and doesn't need to provide too much gain, it just needs to be able to supply more current. A mic preamp on the other hand will receive a tiny low-impedance signal and boost it way, way up to line level. A mic preamp will typically also supply phantom power, which your 58 doesn't need, but someday soon you will buy a condenser mic, and then you will need it.

Edit: I'm trying to avoid real work tonight, so I just tried it with my 55SH (I have a Beta 58, but the 55SH was closer ). It did work, but I had to crank input and output gain to 11 on my Oz headphone amp (yes, the Oz does go to 11!) Also, I was using a hi-z transformer. On the whole, it sounded terrible--a textbook impedance mismatch sound. If you found a mic-line level transformer, that problem might go away, but you'd still be drastically short on gain.

Anyway, for the $20 a transformer would cost you, you'd be halfway to a cheap mic pre, or a fifth of the way to a passable one

 

[brandoj]

Thanks for the help. So, if you guys had my set-up, and a fairly limited budget, what would you buy? A mic preamp? Anything else?