Equip. Advice for recording

[kuthu]

Hello all, I've come here from the newbie forum having pretty much decided to sell some of what I have and go with a Presonus Firestation to record my singer-songwriter girlfriend and her acoustic guitar. I'll be playing banjo, Native American flute and drums. We can work it all with 4 inputs since she'll need only one for her voice and one for guitar, then I'll over-dub. That's what we're recording, I have a Dell XPS laptop coming for my grad research, which is powerful enough to do hydrologic modeling, so it should be fine (P4 3.4G, 1G ram, 800Mhz bus, 80G drive). The question is that I also already have:

Mics:
-Shure SM57 Instrument/Vocal Mic
-Nady SCM900 Diaphragm Condenser Mic
-Audio-Technica mic- can't remember the model off the top of my head.
Equip:
-Fostex DE-1 Dual Channel Multi-Effects Processor
-Behringer GEQ3102 UltraGraph Pro Graphic EQ
-Behringer MIC2200 Ultragain Pro
-Behringer MDX1400 Autocom Pro Compressor
-Fostex PS-3.1 Monitors (Yes, I know I can do better, it was all I could afford at the time.)

What am I getting rid of? I assume I don't need the compressor and mic pre-amp, but would they be best to keep to pre-amp and use it to power the mics outside of the firestation? I'm not sure about the firestation's pres. Also, I'm assuming that mixing on the computer I can get rid of the EQ and the effects processor. Is this true?

Suggestions on what else is needed/desirable are welcome. The Firestation is at the top of my $500 budget, but I can save for things later.

Thanks all,
-J

 

[13th_Omen]

I'd save the pre-amp. The Behringer (believe it or not) has better pre-amps than the Firestation. You could use the EQ if you need to while tracking, but I yould say that you shouldn't really need it. The effects unit might come in handy if you want to hear effects while monitoring (on vocals) but I would track everything dry. The compressor is handy but if you are not recording drums you shouldn't need it (sometimes I track compression on the kick).

You didn't mention software. What program will you use to record?

I would keep the pre-amp, sell everything else and get good monitors. You'll be happy you did, considering they are the only thing in the studio that you actually hear!