Getting started

[Eprex]

My short term goal is to be able to hear my drums and my father's bass guitar through headphones. The idea however, is to buy affordable equipment that I can later use to record my drums once I've accumulated more mics.

I have a few pieces of equipment in mind but I know nothing about this area of music. I'm not interested in purchasing a mac right now and I know my computer is less than ideal. Here are the stats cnet.com/laptops/toshiba-qosmio-x305-q701/4505-3121_7-33088931.html

It has eSATA and minifirewire, but I'm not sure if mini firewire is useable with firewire interfaces and it's just a difference between connectors

CAD M179 mic for the drums
Focusrite interface. Either the saffire pro40 (if I can run firewire) or Scarlett 8 (if using USB)

Plug the bass directly into the interface (is that possible?) and set up two isolation headphones. Eventually move on to micing the bass cab, the bass drum, snare, better overheads, etc.

So what am I missing? Surely my life can't be this simple!

Thanks in advance.

 

[Eprex]

Oh yeah, and I'll need a copy of windows 7. Should have upgraded awhile ago.

 

[Eprex]

After perusing the sticky thread above I believe I answered the majority of my questions. Seems like my set up would be more than adequate as a jumping off point. After buying everything I'll have to also consider properly soundproofing the room.

I could still use a definitive answer in regards to FireWire on my pc

 

[Eprex]

225 views and I'm talking to myself. Should I try gearslutz?

 

[DarrenVocal]

For the audio interface you might want to try using the Line 6 Pod HD300 etc etc. If you want record something clean and simple then that should be all you need.

 

[Chili]

225 views are probably spam-bots. This place dies out during the weekend.

After reading your first post, here's some quick thoughts

What do you mean hear you drums and father's bass? During tracking or after? Playing together? Need more specifics on what you're asking about.

Yes, you can plug a bass directly into an interface if it has a Hi-Z or instrument input. That's the only way I record my bass.

Firewire *should* be fine, but it seems only certain firewire chipsets work properly with audio interfaces. Much research is needed.

Don't know what your laptop is, but there is no real difference with using a pc or a mac except for the price.

Interfaces should be chosen based on functionality and price (if you're on a budget). Most are comparable in quality and performance. Some might have driver issues or less then nice mic pres, but read reviews and forum posts and you can decide. No one can choose for you. I have the Scarlett 2i2 and like the recordings I get from it. It's not perfect, but....

welcome to the site.

 

[gecko zzed]

The common wisdom is that you need TI chipsets for firewire to work properly.

However, I have run my Presonus Firepod successfully on two computers and a laptop, all of which have Via firewire chipsets.

You should check what chipset you have. Presonus, for example, show which chipsets are compatible on their webstite.

 

[Eprex]

225 views are probably spam-bots. This place dies out during the weekend.

After reading your first post, here's some quick thoughts

What do you mean hear you drums and father's bass? During tracking or after? Playing together? Need more specifics on what you're asking about.

Spam bots on here? That's strange. The idea spawned from my dad wanting to jam with me but complaining that the sound wasn't good enough to motivate him. So I told him I could affordably run our instruments through headphones. However, I'd rather spend a few hundred bucks and have a decent interface that I can eventually use to fully record my drums (6 mics or so) than buy something really, really cheap.

Firewire *should* be fine, but it seems only certain firewire chipsets work properly with audio interfaces. Much research is needed.

Hm okay, maybe somebody can chime in. I'm told that mini and regular firewire are the same thing but they differ in connectors. It seems the focusrite pro 40 is getting more solid reviews than it's USB counterpart.

welcome to the site.

Thanks! Apparently I signed up for an account a few years ago and never used it!

 

[Eprex]

The common wisdom is that you need TI chipsets for firewire to work properly.

However, I have run my Presonus Firepod successfully on two computers and a laptop, all of which have Via firewire chipsets.

You should check what chipset you have. Presonus, for example, show which chipsets are compatible on their webstite.

Great, thanks for the advice. I'll do a little searching tomorrow and post here.

 

[Chili]

Hm okay, maybe somebody can chime in. I'm told that mini and regular firewire are the same thing but they differ in connectors.

The connector doesn't make the difference, it's the chipset that handles the data flow that does. As GZ noted, he gets good performance from his Presonus using a VIA chipset. I have a new UAD Apollo and it only accepts TI chipsets.

As for spam-bots, yup, they're here all the time. I see two as registered users and for sure, most of the Guests are bots.

 

[Eprex]

The connector doesn't make the difference, it's the chipset that handles the data flow that does. As GZ noted, he gets good performance from his Presonus using a VIA chipset. I have a new UAD Apollo and it only accepts TI chipsets.

As for spam-bots, yup, they're here all the time. I see two as registered users and for sure, most of the Guests are bots.

I had read that mini firewire is like 4 prongs and 'regular' firewire is 6 prongs. I'm talking out my @%$ at this point, so I'll do some research tomorrow. But I agree that chipset is important too, of course.

"It is a 4-pin firewire port which works in the same way as the 6-pin firewire ports found on Macs, except that it doesn't provide power to the external device. "

From here forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=73534

 

[gecko zzed]

My Laptop takes a mini firewire connector. The firepod has its own power supply.