help!

[tahoe menthol]

Alright so i'm an 10 yr musician who is just now getting into live sound and home recording. I know absolutely nothing about mics, recording software, mixers, or anything pertaining to the afformentioned. I'm trying to get feedback as to what i should do to start my own little home recording project with an extremely tight college level budget. I don't want complete garbage equipment but something that won't hurt my wallet all that bad. I'm looking for mics and software that i would need to record acoustic instruments and vocals and the things i would need to fine tune these tracks for good music quality. And mics that may record acoustic as well as electric instruments such as my guitar. i appreciate your help and sorry for the oblivion of recording knowledge.

 

[Armistice]

You probably will get a better response if you tell us exactly what instruments you want to record, what style of music etc. etc. More info is good...

So far I'm seeing voice and electric guitar, presumably that means you want to record amplified electric guitar, ie. your amplifier. The conventional wisdom is that you would need two different mics for those purposes - LDC for vocals and a dynamic for your cabinet

And what sort of acoustic instruments? If it's a guitar, then that's another different type of mic again - again most would recommend an SDC.

It is of course possible to compromise - a lot depends upon budget, so throw some numbers in there as well. How much do you have to spend.

Long time since I was at college, so I don't really know what a college budget affords you..

Cheers

 

[tahoe menthol]

well my main concern right now is recording acoustic guitar and vocals and other acoustic hand drums such as congas and djimbes and maybe even a banjo. mostly just singer-songwriter type stuff for now and maybe some blues. I would also like to record my electric guitar which is a custom strat ran straight through a traynor ycv20 but thats not a huge worry right now. As far as my budgets concerned i can spend no more than maybe $350 all together. I found a package deal at my local music shop where its a standard samson condenser mic, a peavey usb mixer, and a shock mount for roughly $250. Not including cables though. And as far as the mics you listed haha I have no idea what any of that is really. I really appreciate your feedback though it seems like no one wants to help those who seek common knowledge.

 

[Armistice]

Well that might be because about a million people come past and ask that same question... and it is common knowledge - seek and ye shall find...

I'd suggest you bounce on over to the Microphone forum and read a couple of the sticky posts there... that will get your knowledge level up a bit so you know what LDCs and SDCs and dynamics are.

So your Samson condenser is probably an LDC - large diaphragm condenser.

You need to bear in mind that people spend thousands and thousands and thousands on home recording audio gear - $250 will get you some basic equipment to practice with and learn some concepts... you're not going to record a masterpiece though..

I know nothing about software recording packages as I don't use them, so someone else will pop along sooner or later and help you out there.

You can use an LDC on both vocals and acoustic guitar if that's your only microphone... you'll get better acoustic guitar results (probably) with an SDC however. And a dynamic is like a Shure SM57 - for miking a guitar cabinet. Again, you can use your SDC for that, but the results may be a bit clean...

Luck...

 

[TeyshaBlue]

This doesn't quite meet the criteria of common knowledge.

You posted a very vague, and ill defined question....basically asking us to read your mind and then fill in the blanks.
That's not how this works. When you ask for help, it's incumbent upon you to actually provide little factoids like what type of music, instrumentation, and what your overall goal is for these recordings.

You did reveal this in your second post while chiding us at the same time for not reading your mind. So, let's start over.

If you don't have alot of experience multi tracking, then I'm not sure I'd jump straight into the USB/DAW world. What are your computer's specs.....OS, Processor, RAM, HD, etc....? Computer based DAWs can have a pretty steep learning curve. But if you do go this route, then the Peavey USB mixer package is a good start. Be aware that you might only be able to record 2 tracks at a time using that USB mixer/interface. You can use Reaper for your recording and editing software...it's free and alot of folks on this bbs use it and love it. There's a section dedicated to Reaper in this bbs...check it out when you have time.

 

[gecko zzed]

well my main concern right now is recording acoustic guitar and vocals and other acoustic hand drums such as congas and djimbes and maybe even a banjo. mostly just singer-songwriter type stuff for now and maybe some blues. I would also like to record my electric guitar which is a custom strat ran straight through a traynor ycv20 but thats not a huge worry right now. As far as my budgets concerned i can spend no more than maybe $350 all together. I found a package deal at my local music shop where its a standard samson condenser mic, a peavey usb mixer, and a shock mount for roughly $250. Not including cables though. And as far as the mics you listed haha I have no idea what any of that is really. I really appreciate your feedback though it seems like no one wants to help those who seek common knowledge.

Given where you are placed on your path to recording, I think you could do a lot worse than go with that package deal. It will allow you to do reasonable basic recording, and will provide the means for you to start learning about recording.

You will need a software application to record with, and there are plenty of free ones around that you can download. Sometimes you will find an application bundled with the gear you buy.

You need something to monitor with. You probably have speakers hooked up to your computer already, but you will need to connect these to the Peavey mixer. Or, for the time being, you can use headphones. Headphones are not ideal for mixing with, but they will do until you are in a position to get something better.