How's this piece of equipment for recording vocals?

[chiefraven]

Hi guys, a friend of mine recommended me getting this for recording my vocals, i was wondering if anyone could give me some inputs on how good this thing is. I am looking to get a mic and a preamp for setting up a little studio at home so i can practice and record my own jazz vocals. (i'm a beginner by the way)

anyway, the equipment my friend suggested was th is: FireWire Solo Firewire Mobile Audio Interface for Songwriter/Guitarists.

here is the equipment:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FireWireSolo-main.html

here is the detail specifications:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FireWireSolo-focus.html

let me know what you guys th ink

 

[cpc]

hey, i think you're the one i was talking to last week about getting a mic and such for a jazz singer. im not sure how much you want to spend but i got my stuff in the mail yesterday and tried it out. a 99$ shure sm58 mic, 5 dollar lo z microphone cable, and 50 dollar ub802 behringer mixer all from musiciansfriend.com . the first thing i noticed was that it was quite noise free and silent. i was expecting a little bit of noise, but what i got was pretty darn silent, just clear vocals. im sure its not up to professional standards but im quite happy so far. as a begininer i think this mixer does just fine, dont let the super high tech people talk you out of it. i put the mic input gain up to 10 decibles and its perfect for the line in on my computer. and theres 50 decibles left to spare! plus i can raise the main mix and line 1 15 more decibles each. which shoudnt even be needed. theres even lights to tell you when its recieving signal, more volume, and when it's going to clip. i can even play instrumental tracks on my computer and sing along to them into the microphone 10 feet away from the speakers and it doesnt pick up the song from the speakers! which is extremely convenient when im too lazy to use headphones haha. the only slight problem i've had so far is a couple of times when singing REALLY loud close to the mic it has clipped or distorted some , not sure if its the mic or mixer, but you're not suppose to yell so close to the mic anyways, just back off a few inches when you belt those loud notes and it works fine. this also happened when i sung softer but REALLY deep right close to the mic. not sure why this happened once again but just backed a inch away and it was fine. i might have just had the lo frequency up on the mixer by accident without realizing. either way its easily fixable. if you go with this combination and its in the price range and what you're looking for i dont think you'll be dissapointed. but if you want more high tech equipment or special pre-amps, condensers, and better soundcard for a studio type environment then maybe look elsewhere.

 

[cpc]

i do hear good things about m-audio, its a little more striaght forward ..but once again its how much you're willing to spend. also check out this from m-audio http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/fg=141/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/701368/

i hear good things about that and its only 150 dollars compared to the 250 of the other one you showed me. straight forward external sound card with all the inputs you'll need, less cords, hooks up right to a usb input on your computer. but once again, the 50 dollar mixer i got works fine for me (so far). so it really just depends on what you want and what you're silling to spend.

 

[chessrock]

I'm sure it will get the job done. M-audio makes some really nice audio interfaces.

 

[PhilGood]

I'm sure it will get the job done. M-audio makes some really nice audio interfaces.

I've had problems with the M-Audio Quattro. The more tracks I add, the longer the tracks get and the more out of sync. This may be a problem with compatibility with my software, but of the other 3 devices I have, none have a problem besides the Quattro. This also may be because it is a 4 channel USB device. I'm about to throw it back through M-Audio's window, so to speak. This doesn't have me totally against M-Audio, as I'm thinking about a Delta 44 or 1010. Those are PCI cards and shouldn't have the same offset problem.

 

[paddyponchero]

I've had problems with the M-Audio Quattro. The more tracks I add, the longer the tracks get and the more out of sync. This may be a problem with compatibility with my software, but of the other 3 devices I have, none have a problem besides the Quattro. This also may be because it is a 4 channel USB device. I'm about to throw it back through M-Audio's window, so to speak. This doesn't have me totally against M-Audio, as I'm thinking about a Delta 44 or 1010. Those are PCI cards and shouldn't have the same offset problem.

USB is crap for any kind of synchronous transmission, I assume you have the latest drivers:
http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.driverdownload&ID=292

The only disadvantage of the Delta 44 is the lack of a SPDIF which is useful for synching if you want to add another card.

 

[PhilGood]

The only disadvantage of the Delta 44 is the lack of a SPDIF which is useful for synching if you want to add another card.

Hmm. Good to know. How about the 1010?

 

[chiefraven]

.

so this equipment is pretty decent? or should i just get a regular preamp ? or a external soundcard? by the way what would be some decent preamps for beginners

 

[chiefraven]

hey riznich, can you show me something you recorded with your setup? and could you show me a sample of something you made with your m-audio PhilGood? I'd like to see how well they work.

 

[cpc]

well yes i could, if soundclick would ever work again. it's been down for over 24 hours