ideas?

[when8]

After my first post...i have gone off and read a lot of posts and I have decided on the intial set up of, what i suppose is, my "project" studio. Could you give me any comments to see if i have gone down the right track.

Soundcard-M-Audio Audiophile 192 or an emu-0404...whats the better choice?

I will probably use a behringer ub802 mixer as a kind of interface type thing

Preamp-studio projects VTB1

mic-studio projects B1 and Shure SM-57

I'm running Cubase SX 2.0 and have downloaded the blockfish compressor and the ambiance reverb plug in.

For this project i will be recordidng all guitars (acoustic/electric) bass and voacals whilst the drums will be tracked by a friend and sent to me to mix etc. Is this a reasonable set up and what sort of results are obtainable using it? Do you have any suggestions for improvements and alternatives etc

thanks for you time...im sorry if this posts twice as the forum is playing with me in ways i wish it wouldn't!!

 

[manning1]

yamaha mg mixer imho is a better choice than UB.
check out cad and beyer mics sometime.
kvr-vst.com has a slew of free vst's.
also check out noisevault.com and simulanalog.org.

 

[genob]

i agree with "manning1" use the yamaha mg mixer series... i currently own the 12/4 which is super quiet and works very well. i don't record drums so i have no need for anything more than 3-4 tracks at a time.... 9 times out of 10 i'm just doing 1 track (guitar, bass, vocal, etc..).

i'm not a fan of the sm 57 for recording... i like it better as a live sound mic.

both cards are nice for the $$$....

my advice for your project studio would be take it one step at a time. get things together piece by piece and make sure everything is to your liking...

 

[when8]

thanks

awesome, thank for your advice, i think i will use the yahama mg range after your advice!

what sort of quality is obtainable with this kind of kit?obvioulsy i not thinking it would be up to pro quality

thanks again

 

[genob]

awesome, thank for your advice, i think i will use the yahama mg range after your advice!

what sort of quality is obtainable with this kind of kit?obvioulsy i not thinking it would be up to pro quality

thanks again

you'll get better "quality" than you think

The most noise will be injected from your mic's, and instruments... the mixer is quiet enough where you won't hear any type of audible noise... think about getting a decent "noise gate" (u can usually get a noise gate/compressor/expander all in one for under $150)... dbx, behringer, etc...

the noise gate will kill the any hiss or very low ambient noises picked up in your guitars/mics during idle time (time when you're recording but not playing anything).

also you can invest your money into a yamaha mixing board that has decent pre's and scratch the preamp you wanted to buy for now. I use the yamaha pre's and got GREAT results when recording everything from vocals to bass guitar. Plus this yamaha board has 48volt phantom power for your condensors.

later on you can start getting into super high quality pre's but for now your mixing board can do it very well....

 

[notbradsohner]

the "quality" will obviously depend on your gear, but an even bigger part is going to be your recording knowlege. (mic placement, eq, mixing, mastering, effects) These will only come with time and experience, so get cracking!

 

[manning1]

if you dont have a good noise gate in cubase, powertracks that i use has an effective noise gate that i like, and will save you a bunch over an external noise gate. just import the track into powertracks , set the noise gate threshold around -23 to -18 db (depends on your sig level), process - then export back into cubase. it costs 50 bucks and includes a slew of other fx and features you might find usefull. including vocal pitch correction and harmonisation. try the demo sometime.

 

[mattamatta]

Cubase should have a noise gate.

I use SX 1.0, and at least on there there's the "Dynamics" or "VSTDynamics" plugin or something along those lines.

Compressor, de-esser, limiter, gate all in there.

I probably wouldn't use any of the compressor type functions, much better can be had for free or cheap, but I use the gate from time to time.

 

[when8]

thanks guys for all your advice, im sure i will continue to post all manner of stupid questions but hopefully some good recordings will come out of it all

once again thanks