Hey studiomaster,
First off I have a pair of KRK V8's, Alesis moniter 2's, Alesis moniter one's, Edirol's, and a Samson sub. I have to say that when I mixed with the KRK's my mix's sucked! When I started using the $299 pair of alesis moniter ones my mixes became a million times better! I agree with the post about a sub, the sub is very important these days. I have a presonus central station so I can turn the sub on and off with one button. I will do my mix with the sub on then listen to it in mono with the sub off to make sure it's going to work in every environment. I also sell yorkville at my store and to be honest would never use yorkville moniters either. Just being honest.
How do I think you would spend your money the wisest?
A good mic pre!
The behringer is probably hurting more than it is helping. The MOTU has decent converters It would be a total waste of money to get the M-audio. Stick with the MOTU, Use the events, but get yourself some real headphones (AKG K240S $99) that will help you out alot. Spend the bulk of your money on a good mic pre (presonus eureka, mindprint envoice, Grace 101, Joe meek all around $400-$500 and really great pre's) Also work on some really good compressor's (DBX 160, FMR RNC, Aphex compellor all in the $300-$500 range and incredible for the price) The most important thing that would really help your sound is getting enough pre's to stop using that behringer board. You will be shocked at the difference between the behringer and even a decent cheap pre. I would plug straight into the 828 pre's for 2 channels, before I would use the behringer. I am not downing behringer, I own some behringer stuff, but the only boards with even decent pre's for recording are the big blue boards made in germany. The chinese behringer boards are possibly the worst sounding mic pre's on the planet for recording. "That is your weakest link GOODBYE!" lol.
The 3035 is a decent mic I own one myself, but it is a low frequency mic. You could do yourself a favor bye getting a mic with more high freq. response also. The AT4033 or 4040 would be a good choice. But I do feel getting rid of the behringer and getting some good mic pre's would be your best step in the right direction, followed bye good headphones (I own 4 pairs of
the mdr-v150's that I use for the musicians tracking but never in the control room, ALWAYS my AKG K240's)
So that's my advice
1-pre-amps
2-AKG K240 headphones
3-compressors
4-second mic
5-room treatment (I agree the recording room is a very important part of the equation as well)
Hope this helps my friend!
other than acoustic treatment i'd say go with the mic and interface if you get good of enough deal you might have some $$ left for a sub.
