F
Falconer
New member
Hi all. I'm starting to work at setting up my recording gear. Here's my desires...
1. Home recording - I'm a guitar player and want to put down my (mostly electric) guitar tracks over backing tracks I build with Band-in-a-box. That will eventually expand to other musicians. My guitar rig is mostly a Variax 700 through a Pod XT Live. Some vocals, probably. So multi-tracking but mostly one track at a time, then mixdown.
2. Live recording - Ability to go to a club, set up a console, mic everything, and get a decent live recording. Multitrack would be nice. I've done a LOT of live recording, but not for the past 15 years, so gear has changed a LOT since my time at the board. ( I don't plan to spend the bucks for all the live recording gear now, just have the basics and build on it over time)
3. Keep the expenses down. (of course)
So I've been looking at options that will allow me to do this yet expand eventually. I have a decent computer or two (PC not Mac) and want to use digital storage and not tape. For live recording, it would be nice to be able to utilize a laptop. I have a couple of older but adequate ThinkPads.
I'm thinking of finding the following used gear to start...
1. Mackie 1604 VLZ3. From what I can read, the main diffs between that and the older VLZ are the preamps and the insert jacks, which can make a bit of a difference for direct channel outs.
2. Audio interface like the Tascam US-1641
I was considering something like the Mackie Onyx 1640i, but they're so expensive. I couldn't justify the price just to go to a firewire interface, as nice as that would be. The other problem with that is that my laptops don't have FW. I things go well, I suppose I could always trade up to the Onyx eventually.
I have Audacity and Reaper which will suit my needs for a while until I get better at working with digital mixing software.
I've found the interface between the PodXT and the computer is weak using the built-in sound card, thus the desire for the US-1641. I currently play through headphones most of the time and expect that I could record and get the same sound/quality I hear on those.
So given all that, what am I missing? Does this sound like a reasonable beginning plan? I don't need to worry about room acoustics or condenser mics at this point; 99% of what I do will be direct instead of mic'd.
Any suggestions/recommendations/warnings?
Thanks in advance!
Charlie
1. Home recording - I'm a guitar player and want to put down my (mostly electric) guitar tracks over backing tracks I build with Band-in-a-box. That will eventually expand to other musicians. My guitar rig is mostly a Variax 700 through a Pod XT Live. Some vocals, probably. So multi-tracking but mostly one track at a time, then mixdown.
2. Live recording - Ability to go to a club, set up a console, mic everything, and get a decent live recording. Multitrack would be nice. I've done a LOT of live recording, but not for the past 15 years, so gear has changed a LOT since my time at the board. ( I don't plan to spend the bucks for all the live recording gear now, just have the basics and build on it over time)
3. Keep the expenses down. (of course)
So I've been looking at options that will allow me to do this yet expand eventually. I have a decent computer or two (PC not Mac) and want to use digital storage and not tape. For live recording, it would be nice to be able to utilize a laptop. I have a couple of older but adequate ThinkPads.
I'm thinking of finding the following used gear to start...
1. Mackie 1604 VLZ3. From what I can read, the main diffs between that and the older VLZ are the preamps and the insert jacks, which can make a bit of a difference for direct channel outs.
2. Audio interface like the Tascam US-1641
I was considering something like the Mackie Onyx 1640i, but they're so expensive. I couldn't justify the price just to go to a firewire interface, as nice as that would be. The other problem with that is that my laptops don't have FW. I things go well, I suppose I could always trade up to the Onyx eventually.
I have Audacity and Reaper which will suit my needs for a while until I get better at working with digital mixing software.
I've found the interface between the PodXT and the computer is weak using the built-in sound card, thus the desire for the US-1641. I currently play through headphones most of the time and expect that I could record and get the same sound/quality I hear on those.
So given all that, what am I missing? Does this sound like a reasonable beginning plan? I don't need to worry about room acoustics or condenser mics at this point; 99% of what I do will be direct instead of mic'd.
Any suggestions/recommendations/warnings?
Thanks in advance!
Charlie
