Home recording

[billabob]

Hey. Im pretty much brand new to home recording and would like some help. My current set up is orange dual terror head through orange 4x12 cabs. i have and alesis multi mix usb, cubase le4 and a dynamic mic. I would like to know wat would be the best way to go about recording. Atm i just mic up my cab with the dynamic mic plug into the mixer then connect to my laptop via usb. However my recordings always seem to come out pretty quite and lacking, any advice? im gonna upgrade microphone to shure sm57 as my current mic is abit poor. Will this make all the difference or is there something else im missing?
xxx

 

[suprstar]

That's the way to do it, do the LED's on your multimix output meter light up? Ie can you confirm the mixer is getting a decent signal? Maybe the mixer is getting a signal, but not sending it to the usb properly, ie your mixer is broken..

What kinda mic are you using? Is it an xlr mic? If it has a TS connection instead, that's your problem - you're running it into an input that expects a line-level signal, which is far stronger than a mic signal. In that case an sm57 (or any other xlr mic) would totally fix you up right away..

If the signal is too quiet turning up the gain on ther multimix ought to fix it. If your multimix gain is cranked and your signal is STILL too quiet, either the preamp or the mic is toast..

 

[AlanSwenson]

Sm57s are great for guitar cabs. Also make sure you have the mic close to the cabinet, a few inches from the speaker grille. The further away the more "room" sound you will get. And aim the mic at one speaker, half way between it's center and its out most edge, not directly at the center of the cone and not just in the middle of the whole speaker cab (common mistake). You may already know this but, if you don't it will help your recording.

 

[billabob]

ok thanks for the tips on the mic placement mate. i tend to put my mic as close to the grill a possible and off centre of the top left speaker. Also ive been using the mixer through some pa system and the lights are working fine but when i plug it into the pc them done come on. Is this just a setting that ive messed up, is this the reason? Cause i do use and xlr connection but it could be the mic broken. i think it was about a £30 mic under the brand of
LE system.

 

[suprstar]

If the channel is getting a signal, and the main mix has a significant output, but the USB isn't picking up any of it, then it sounds like your mixer is broken.

 

[billabob]

ok well wat mixer would you recomend i replace it with? for now i only need it for recording guitar so 2 xlr inputs would be sufficient.
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[suprstar]

I had a yamaha mw-10 that served me well for years. I dont think it really matters, any usb mixer will do the same job. It more depends the features you want. If you get more inputs, you can keep all your stuff plugged in all the time, ie no swapping cables around every time you want to change the source. Different mixers have inserts, aux busses, fx, different types if inputs (rca, trs, xlr), stereo channels, etc..

 

[billabob]

ok cheers mate. ill probably look into getting an alesis multimix 16usb then so when i start recording drums ill have enough inputs. Or would you recommend something better in that price range?
xxxx