Input on this setup

[Slaytanic Dude]

This is what I plan on having

-Computer: Pentium 4, Windows XP, 640 mb RAM

-Sound Card: M-Audio Audiophile 2496

-Mixer: Behringer UB1832FX Pro 18-input w/ mic pre-amps & 24 bit processor

-Pre-amp: M-Audio DMP3

Would this equipment alone with some good mics produce good sounding recordings? Can the M-Audio DMP3 run 2 or 3 guitars at the same time if I wanted to mic guitar amps, keyboard, drum kit, etc. to record while they all play at once?

I'm new to this stuff and am a little confused about how pre-amps work and how they run/connect through the mixer or soundcard. How would I set this stuff up?

 

[Codmate]

I don't know anything about the pre-amp, but apart from that it seems like a decent budget setup. Lots of people I know use M-Aduio soundcards and they're great for the money.

I can't help you with the set-up I'm afraid - I just went and bought an OmniStudio with a Delta66 so I didn't have to worry about all that jazz

One thing I can say though is that you'll wish you had more RAM.
It's cheap at the moment so get a Gig of the stuff if you possibly can.

 

[Slaytanic Dude]

Does the amount of ram simply make the recording run more efficient? A lot of people stress about RAM on here and I dont know why, does it affect the sound quality in any way by running faster?

 

[Codmate]

Does the amount of ram simply make the recording run more efficient? A lot of people stress about RAM on here and I dont know why, does it affect the sound quality in any way by running faster?

It shouldn't affect sound quality - but having more RAM will make the whole system much easier and less clunky to work with.

It will also speed up your music software as it won't have to cache stuff on disc so much, but the main advantage comes when switching between applications.

I'm currently running with 512MB, and the system is certainly usable - but I would like to upgrade to 1GB. The only reason I'm holding off is that I want to upgrade to AMD64 next and this will mean changing my motherboard, CPU and RAM - so I have some saving up to do!

 

[ssscientist]

Can the M-Audio DMP3 run 2 or 3 guitars at the same time if I wanted to mic guitar amps, keyboard, drum kit, etc. to record while they all play at once?

The DMP3 is described as a 'dual microphone/instrument preamp' on their web site - LINK - that means it has only two channels, so your plan to run the whole band thru one of these will not work.

It's a good one, though -- nice and smooth with a full sound.

Beyond that, your setup looks good to me. Now get a'rocking!