I'm thinking about buying some equipment...

[andydeedpoll]

Hey there .

I've spent a bit of time researching the equipment i might need to set up a small home studio. I'd like to be able to record some of the jazz/blues music I've written (for drum kit, piano, electric guitar, bass guitar and trombone/saxophone) and also my band (add a vocalist and take away a trombone ). I'm not looking to sell copies of the recordings or anything like that, but I would obviously like as high a quality of recording as possible. If possible i'd like to use the mixer for live gig use as well.

Heres what i was thinking ...

Oktava MK012, Audix F-12 (with a Shure SM57 to follow.) I already have access to 2 Shure SM58s.

Mixer - Behringer UB 2442 - thinking this should give me some options for gig use and also plenty of inputs for micing drums when/if i add to my mic locker

Delta 44 Sound card.

I currently have no recording software installed on my computer, and to be honest I don't really know where to start with that side of things .

I dont know the specs of my computer, except that it was built quite recently (within two years), its running windows 2000 and that it has 128MB RAM.

My budget is something around £400-£500 (about $700) to start with.

so, any suggestions? would those mics be OK mics to start with? have i completely missed something? should i give up now?

 

[manning1]

you should definiyely consider putting more ram in your pc. most daw
users run 512 of ram. some get away with 256.
on multitrack software just try a bunch of demoes - but ive tried every single one and value for money at 29 bucks i highly recommend powertracks
from pgmusic.com. 48 digital audio tracks, a superb midi sequencer, tons of
built in fx so you dont have to buy plug ins. just try the demo at pg.
on mics there are a million and one out there just try a bunch and see what makes you happy.
on the mixer some folks prefer yamaha mg series. not many choices for low budget use. theres also alto i tried recently - sounded pretty decent to me.
no neve - but at this price point....
ps..a thought on mics - i like beyer and cad. for drum ohds (expensive !!)
try crown pzm's sometime.

 

[wheelema]

A two year old computer is not, in computer years, 'recent'. Depending on the manufacturer you may look into upgrading your processor ($100). Up the RAM to 512 ($75), drop Win2K and upgrade to WinXP ($125). n-Track is cheap, highly regarded, and has it's own forum here ($0... at least initially).

You're on your own with the mixer, no info there. The Studio Projects mics are generally well regarded, and (most) everyone says you can't miss with Shure.

Luck.

 

[andydeedpoll]

thanks a lot for the input.

ive had a look at the MG series, but they seem to be more expensive especially if i want to be able to use 4 subgroups/busses, and i'd like to be able to record a couple of parts at a time onto seperate tracks, where as the UB2442 lets you do that stuff .

i was looking at some other mixers today, with two subgroups and seperate faders for the Left and Right main mix, and i was wondering... if you have four mics plugged into seperate channels on the mixer, would it be possible to have two panned hard left and hard right on the subgroups, and then have the other two panned hard left and hard right on the main mix, and each output running into the sound card... would this let me use the mixer as if it had four subgroups i.e. let me record seperate tracks for all the mics?

or have i gone completely off on this one?