help needed on accoustic recording

[Drago]

Hello all

I would be very grateful if some of you could spare the time to give a beginner some advice.

Ok.....I play 6 string accoustic guitar and a 12 string accoustic guitar,
the latter with built in pick-ups, and I sing. Folk-type stuff. I have a
fairly good PC........128mb RAM, 10 gig hard drive, pentium II, a CD writer
and a soundblaster live 'value' soundcard. I record using Cool Edit Pro
multitrack software.

I currently record using a shure VR116L electret condenser microphone with
1.5V battery-power using the soundblaster live mic input. I have tried
playing the 12 string using the card's line-in input but it isnt too good.
So I tend to just mic the guitar. I normally do vocal tracks and guitar
tracks seperately. (that's all I can do with the soundblaster). I have no
external mixer or pre-amp etc. I also have a small sony condenser mic and a
cheapo plastic computer mic. I bought the shure condenser electret mic
because soundblaster-live needs an electret-type mic and I thought it would
be a step up from the plastic computer mic and the sony. It is really not
much improvement and I think the best sound-source I have is still the
cheapo plastic mic (please dont laugh) which produces quite a warm vocal and
after getting rid of hiss and PC noise (using cool edit pro) and adding
reverb etc produces a respectable vocal and guitar sound.

I want to step up a bit. I have a budget of around $500 dollars (I am in
england but would probably import from US as a dollar over there seems to be
worth a pound compared to UK prices....that electret mic cost me £89 over
here which is around 125 dollars!). Mainly I am after a better, richer vocal
sound.

So my problem is, what will get me the best bang for the buck in terms of
improving my sound quality. Should I go for a better mic....a pe-amp.....a
mixer......a better audio soundcard or some combination of all four. I would
prefer to record two tracks at once but I am prepared to continue recording
one track at a time if the gear that uses that option gives the best sound
quality.

What do you think I should buy? I would be enormously grateful for any
advice.

Mucho gratias to the scaly-one for providing the best source of music-recording advice on the Web!

regards from
Drago

 

[drstawl]

I think a better soundcard would get you the best bang for the buck. I've seen the Gina for $299 (US) but there are plenty of others like the Lexicon, the Gadget Labs, the ISIS and the MidiMan that seem to be pretty nice cards as well. With the $200 left over, you might get a pre-amp, but I think saving a little more and getting a good condenser mic (and a phantom power source if needed) would be the ticket to great acoustic guitar recordings.
Keep in mind that the more sensitivity you introduce into your recording chain, the more control you need over the background noise in your recording environment. Tonight I was recording an acoustic guitar track with a $75 dynamic mic (much less sensitive than the mics I'm recommending) and the sound of the toilet in the next room filling up was very clearly picked up as background.

 

[Drago]

Thanks Dr. Stawl.......would a Gina (or other audio card) plus a good condenser be enough? Or would I need a pre-amp as well ie would the soundcard's pre-amps be ok? If I did not have a pre-amp what could provide the power source?

I also take your point regarding background noise......because my current devices aint so sensitive that has not been a major problem up to now