Having my studio upgraded

[asegai]

Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie here and I need some piece of advice to upgrade my studio.

Right now I'm experiencing some latency, noise and a quality not so good as I wanted when I'm recording.

For the reasons mentioned above I'm having my studio upgraded, however I'm not quiet sure of what I need to buy and what I can do to improve the gear I have and so I need some help!

So here's what I own:

Yamaha MX10
Boss GT-10
Shure SM58
Shure PG58
Epiphone Triggerman 60 DSP
Marshall Bass State B150

Fender Squier Jazz Bass
Epiphone SG Faded G-400 Worn Cherry
Fender CD60CE

Cubase LE 5
Sony Soundforge 8

Well this is my gear and the software I use. About how I connect it it's pretty easy:

- to record vocals I plug the mic to the mixer which is plugged by USB to my desktop.

- to record bass I plug the marshall to the mixer (by direct out) which is plugged by USB to my desktop.

- to record guitar I either plug the guitar to the boss and then to my desktop by USB or I plug the boss to the amp, and mike the amp with a mic which is plugged to the mixer...


What I thing I'm doing wrong:


So from what I've read I guess I'm getting those problems mentioned above because I'm connecting all the things by USB and I might need a soundcard? Or with good asio drivers I can fix the problem? If not what soundcard should I get is audiophile 2496 good? (since it's affordable to me)

By the way is my mixer anything good? I bought it some years ago and by that time I didn't knew anything even less than I know now

About my recording techniques I'm I doing anything wrong apart from the soundcard?

Cheers from Portugal

 

[ranjam]

I'd start with a decent interface. There's some good ones from M-Audio, Alesis, and Tascam. You don't need a $$$$$ Firewire interface. Just a decent 2-channel USB that rings up at under $200 and you should be a lot happier. Disable your internal soundcard through Device Manager, and use the interface as a glorified soundcard. Monitor through headphones.

 

[asegai]

I'd start with a decent interface. There's some good ones from M-Audio, Alesis, and Tascam. You don't need a $$$$$ Firewire interface. Just a decent 2-channel USB that rings up at under $200 and you should be a lot happier. Disable your internal soundcard through Device Manager, and use the interface as a glorified soundcard. Monitor through headphones.

What specific interface would you advice me to buy? Since I'm buying in euros I can achieve something for a maximum price of 200$ (more or less 150€). And can that interface work with my mixer? Using my mixer connected to that interface would it still maintain its latency levels and quality?

Thanks

 

[ranjam]

Keep in mind I do things a little differently. I like inserts so I can record with compression rather than add it later, as one example. Maybe I'm weird, but I play differently with an effect as opposed to playing clean and adding a cheesy plug in later. Plus, 'printing to tape' as it were saves cpu, so I think I have a win-win. But your needs and ideas of how to do it may differ.
Having said that, good cheap interfaces that have inserts include the Fast Track Pro, the Alesis I02, and the Tascam US-122. As an added bonus, all of those include Cubase LE4 for free. No, wait, The Fast Track Pro gives you Ableton Live LE5. Cubase is better, but if you have Cubase LE5 it's all moot. Get the one you like the feel of and the price is too good to turn down. If you have another Cubase, you can have it on two computers (say your desktop and your laptop) without license issues.