Why in God's name are you going to drop a bundle on recording gear when you don't know what the hell it does? You are headed for a major league mistake, brother, one that you will regret for months or years. I've spent the price of a pretty good new car on pro audio gear over the last 2 years. I spent 8 months spec'ing gear before I bought anything, and there are still a few things I wish I'd done differently. Your first mistake is buying a Behringer mixer.
What you need to do is this- Spook around on this board for at least 3 months, studying mostly microphones, mic preamps, and studio building and display. Explain to people what you intend to record, where you intend to record it, and what you intend to do with the recordings afterwards. Then create complete gear lists with every piece of equipment involved. Every power conditioner, every cable, shock mount, pop filter, the instruments, headphones, headphone amps, tuners, right down to the chair you're going to sit in while you do it. When you can get 5, just 5, of the top fifty posters on this board to agree you have a plan, then buy.
Right now, the brands aren't as important as the peripherals, and the peripherals vary depending on your intentions. Recording classical music, or hip hop, or metal, call for very different setups. My setup is designed to record real acoustic sound in real acoustic space with minimal processing. This means I can do a real good job on a string quartet or a bluegrass trio. My setup would suck for hip hop. No synths, no modules, almost no FX. I'm more likely to use 2 mics to record an 88 piece orchestra than I am to use 42 tracks to record a pop song. That's just me. I chose the tools to do the job I want to do. I built my studio around the front end, not the back end. 60% of the money I've spent was on instruments, microphones, and mic preamps. Most of the rest was room conditioning, the recorder itself, A-D conversion, and peripherals- mic stands, headphones, cables, shock mounts, pop filters, power conditioning.
All I'm saying is- you're *not* ready to buy anything except a really great instrument, if you play one and don't have one, and books on home recording. It's time to do some homework, not to buy stuff you don't understand yet. In general, things that you really should study:
bass traps
diffusors
gobos
vocal isolation booths
compressors
reverb units
power conditioners/voltage regulators
shock mounts
pop filters
patch cables
mic cables
patch bays
headphones
headphone distribution amps
monitors, active and passive
mic preamps/channel strips
amp modelers
hard drive digital recorders
standalone digital recorders
digital audio workstations
sound cards
audio recording software
high speed CD duplicators
open reel analog recorders
dynamic mics
ribbon mics
large diaphragm condenser mics
small diaphragm condenser mics
boom stands
uninterruptible power supplies
mixing consoles
racks
multi-effects boxes
lava lamps (critical)
When you can speak reasonably intelligently on all of the above, contrasting the prices, advantages, and disadvantages of entry-level, mid priced, and high end examples of each, you will be ready to spend the price of a pretty good car on recording equipment. The good news is- this is a pretty good place to start that learning process. Good Luck.-Richie
