Home recording acoustic and vocals

[GLynn]

I am a singer songwriter interested in recording at home. I recently purchased my first acoustic/electric guitar. A Tacoma C2C Chief with an onboard Tacoma E4 Preamp: Prefix Plus EQ with a Matrix pickup by Fishman, and two Shure mics, a Beta 58A for vocals and a Beta 57A to place in front of the guitar. For editing software I have Cool Edit Pro and, of course a computer. I still have approximately $1,000 to play with. I plan to pick up a better sound card and may go with the Audiophile 2496. Rather than a guitar amp, I plan to buy a guitar pre-amp and a couple of speakers. Any suggestions on make and model of pre-amp and speakers and how do I get the sound into my computer? My guess is to buy another mic, place it in front of a speaker and plug it into the soundcard? I appreciate any comments or suggestions. Thank you in advance.

 

[PFDarkside]

Alright... this is what I'd do...

You have a guitar with a pre-amp, sweet. That will get you a certain type of tone, now you need the other type, the mic'ed acoustic tone. I'm seeing two signal chains:
1.Guitar Pre-amp -> Processor -> Soundcard.
2.Mic -> Mic Pre-amp -> Processor -> Soundcard.

No offense, but I don't like the dynamics you bought for your application. THey are great for loud amps, screaming vocalists, etc, but not for a soloist like yourself. I'd keep 'em or take them back and get a good condensor mic (see the mic forum, tons of choices) get an inexpensive tube mic pre-amp and play around with that.
The processor is for effects, reverb, delay, chorus, but you can add those digitally in Cool Edit also... (but I do prefer a unit instead of software). I bet that with the right mic and pre you can get a sweet sound with your stock soundcard. BUT if you want to replace it, it's fairly straightforward. Just open the case, slide it into an unused PC card slot, then follow the instrunctions on installing the S/C. But, like I said, the processor and S/C can wait for now. I'd practice getting a good mic sound you like first, then color it with the other items.