Is this a good setup for home recording?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Osbauro
  • Start date Start date
O

Osbauro

New member
processor ATHLON XP 2.6
motherboard ASUS A7V8X-X
MEMORIA 512 DDR
GEFORCE 4 128 MEM MODEL : 5200 viceocard
HD 80 GIGA MAXTOR 7200
cd burner 52X LG (- 140)
FLOPPY ( UNIDADE A: )
MONITOR LG OU SAMSUNG 17° 590 (-70)
mouse and keyboard and some few accessories

I´ll use ACID 4 and Reason and some other stuff

I´ll record guitars and voice in my house, coming trhought a mixer (ANy suggetions on something on the same price as the beringher Ub1002?)

SHould I change the motherboard and the video card?

Hope you can help me !!!

THX!!!
 
Yes. Your video card is the most important piece of your homerecording setup. GeForce... what a piece of worthless junk.
 
in the world of recording you find yourself with a lot of open windows...the tracks, mixer, effects, editing. Dual view is the way ahead and Matrox make some great cheap dual output video cards. You can pick up a used Matrox G450 for the price of an average night at the pub. And don't be fooled by big memory sizes. A 32Meg G450 is more than ample for multitracking. These are probably the best 2D cards on the market.
 
Dj17 said:
Yes. Your video card is the most important piece of your homerecording setup. GeForce... what a piece of worthless junk.

Dj, didn't I just read you asking what sound card to buy? Doesn't seem like you're in much of a position to make fun of somebody for asking about changing a video card.
 
Osbauro,

I think there are 2 or 3 things that are essential to a computer based home recording set-up. You've got plenty of computer - bout the same as what I've got, and it works just fine for me.

Your video card should present no problems. You could go with a dual monitor card thing, but your video card won't determine the sound quality you'd get from your recording.

Some peripherals and cards can interfere with other cards, though. When I first started out, my sound card and my recording sound card were using the same IRQ numbers, so I had to do some tweaking, but the problem was easily solved.

You are going to need a sound card/sound interface dedicated to recording audio. The choices out there are endless, and you can go with a PCI based card and break-out box, USB interface, firewire, etc. A good place to start in my opinion is the M-Audio stuff. I've used an M-audio delta44 for years and it's been perfect for me. The delta44 that I've got has 4 1/4" line inputs and 4 1/4" line outputs. This means you can route like this:

Guitar/keyboard/etc -> card (delta44) -> computer

or

Mic -> mic pre (either mixer or outboard mic pre) -> card -> computer

Now, you have to determine how many different inputs you want to use at one time. If you are just recording yourself, 2 or 4 is good - I just record myself and i never have used more than 3 at once (I would go with more than just 1, though, for stereo micing guitars, etc). The delta cards are cool, but if you're looking for something a bit higher quality and more inputs I'd go with something like the E-Mu 1820M or the M-audio delta1010 or delta1010lt. The E-Mu card is cool cause gives you 2 mic pre-amp inputs (so you wouldn't have to buy a mixer or mic pre's) and 6 line inputs, with 8 line outputs. You also have an ADAT input, so you can buy something like a behringer ADA8000 or M-Audio octane and get 8 additional separate channels via ADAT, bring your total to 16 separate channels. The card is a bit pricier, but better quality and more expandibility.

The next thing you need after the card is a mic pre (or 2 or 8). If you go with something like the E-Mu card you won't need it, but if you go with a card with only line inputs you will. You can either buy outboard pre's, which are just a pre and nothing else (like the M-Audio DMP-3 - it's 2 good pre's for $150). You could also go with a mixer, which is a good bet since you can use it for multiple purposes. I have an old Behringer mixer, and I recently upgraded to a DMP3 for better mic pre's, and there's quite a difference. If I were you and got a strictly line-in card, i'd probably go with a yamaha mg-series mixer for mic pre's. Get whichever model gives you enough mic pre inputs.

Now that you've got 2/3 of your signal chain covered, you're gonna need some mic's. This is a whole new world of chioces, but the Studio Projects mic's and the MXL mic's are popular. I would get an sm57 as well. Again, your needs determine which mic's you would want. I would go with a good large diaphragm condenser for vocals and acoustic instruments. If you want to get fancier, I've had good luck with a pair of small diaphragm condensers for acoustic guitar. Drums are another story, with more and different kinds of mic's needed.

Finally, you have to hear your mixes, so you'll need some headphones for tracking, and some good monitors for mixing/mastering. Again, lots of choices, but Event, M-Audio, Behringer, and Diamond make some good budget monitors.

Granted all the gear I've talked about is budget gear. You can spend waaaaay more money and get better quality.

Hope this helps, and hopefully I didn't just write a bunch of stuff you already know.
 
also, i think I have the same motherboard as you and it works fine, too. Plenty of PCI slots for adding cards, etc.
 
oh yes

Thx for all the help!!!!!
I forgot to mension that i have to have some kind of video card so that my brother can play his games in the computer (OK that sucks, but he´s gonna leave in a couple of months) Not big games, just normal stuff, CS, MOH, BF etc...
Also, the video card shouldn´t be all that terrible for running stuff like reason that uses graphics and stuff right?

BJW i think i´ll go with the
guitar->mic->yamaha 10/2->audiophile 2946
I think that´s the best I can buy for now... Here in brazil a 99$ sound card easily becomes $200 (shipping and taxes)
But there´s some kind of a good deal at the 2946...

I understood the phone´s but how does the monitoring works? can I use the Yamaha for that?

Any goo tips at cheap(good) controllers and/or cheap midi keyboards?

Thx alot again for all the tips, on mics, cards etc.. I´ll write that down and go after some stuff!!
 
just search under my name for lots of tips on athlons , video cards, mics,
monitors and many other subjects posted in the past year including recording software.
peace.
ps - can beat matrox imho for vid cards.
 
allrighrt

There´s another thing, I can get the Berigher ub1002 for like half the price of the yamaha mg 10... it´s like half the quality and less phanton mics... but that´s what i can pay
:(
I´ll take a look at your posts manning1

thanks a lot
 
Back
Top