Mic pre and SBLive! will do?

[BluesJr]

I have a very nice amp and want to record myself playing, but offcoarse with nice quality.

I was thinking about buying a Multitrack recorder, because the PC I own will not be dedicated to recording. I know that the price for quality recording can be very high so I want to take it a step at a time.

The first things on my list that I have on my mind right now will be a SM57 mic and a decent preamp, because I think the pre's on a Multitrack will not be sufficient to get the quality from my amp through the SM57 to the recorder.
I have a SBLive! soundcard on my PC and I was thinking that for now maybe a good solution would be to get the sound from the mic through the preamp to the SBLive! via a digital output on the pre to the digital in on my card (spdif?).

My question is if this is a good solution, or will the situation I just sketched not work, because of signal loss from getting it to my SBLive?
Or is it better to get a Multitrack and a SM57 first to record and then add a preamp later on?

Thanks..

 

[Jeyan]

It is a very good idea, but going digital has its advantage as well as disadvatages. By going digital from preamp to soundcard, you are eliminating most of the line noise which is good. We also have a couple of disadvantages which are
1) High cost for a good preamp with digital out
2) you cannot mix two spdif sources together without expensive equipment.
The better idea would be to buy a mixer with digital out, so you can plug everything in your mixer and run a digital cable from mixer to soundcard.
The even better idea is to get one of those soundcards with multiple inputs and good preamps.
good Luck!

 

[tdukex]

I have a very nice amp and want to record myself playing, but offcoarse with nice quality.

I was thinking about buying a Multitrack recorder, because the PC I own will not be dedicated to recording. I know that the price for quality recording can be very high so I want to take it a step at a time.

Thanks..

A large portion of the people use their regular PCs for recording. I can mix 16 - 20 tracks on my PC with no problem. I run Sonar 2.0, Soundforge 5.0, ACID Pro, various plug-ins, etc.

IMO buying some good software and using your computer is a much more powerful and versatile way to record than buying some cheap digital POS recorder.

BTW, for $149 you can buy an M-Audio Audiophile soundcard that will sound much better than the SB Live, although the SB will get you started.

M-Audio also sells a great little dual preamp called the DMP3, which can be bought < $200. These two items and an SM57 will give you an amazingly good sound for the price.

 

[BluesJr]

.. ready to let go on the stand alone solution..?

My PC is a P3 500mhz with 265mb ram.. I have 2 HD's in it (14 and 80gigs both @ 7200rpm).
Another thing I can do is dual boot the bastard (win2k will do or is XP a must?), so it will be kind of dedicated to recording, in a way.

- Is recording possible with this PC or is it too slow CPU wise?

I've been reading some about recording solutions since my post and maybe I can pull the PC thing off.. It would give me much more power and flexibility like you said..

The M-Audio Audiophile 2496 is the first thing that comes to my mind, like you suggested.
Delta 44 I think is too much.. I do want to record a Yamaha Clavinova Piano together with guitar, but it will be through it's midi feature, so I will not need the extra inputs.... (it does lack the digital in)

- Or do I, because sending the line-outs of the piano into the soundcard will be a nicer sound for plain piano sound, which means for simultaneous recording I will need 4 in's/out's?

I will almost definately be using a mixer, probably the Behringer UB1204 (or UB1202 will also do?) because I would like to use Headphones to listen to what I'm doing and to record and listen to recorded tracks simultaniously. I think I understand that you will need 4 busses for that (or 2-2 busses like on this mixer?).

- Will this mixer also be sufficient when I want to record the guitar and piano simultaniously or do I need one with even more busses? Maybe even another mixer (not too pricey) is something you recommend..?

The Behringer mixer's also got mic pre's and I heard about them being pretty good (compared to a DMP3 for example the difference is not that big when using a SM-57 and the acoustics in my room are sure not good enough to want a better preamp I think).

- Is this true? Or do you still suggest using the seperate pre-amp?


What's your opinion about all this?
I will only be simultaniously recording piano and guitar, and mostly just guitar, which I want to record good (I think most of it will have to do with my own recording qualities anyways). I will not expand to anything more in the future!! Singing will be added but it will be seperately recorded from everything else.
And I really don't want to spend more than necessary.. for real quality recordings with a whole band I have a 'real' studio of a friend of mine at my disposal, so this is just to have a home solution to let me free my creativity.

Sorry for the extra questions... and thank you so much for the great help so far!

 

[tdukex]

I think your computer will be fine. I started on a Celeron 333mHz/128 RAM/4GB 5400 and it worked fine.

If there is a Guitar Center nearby I guarantee you can talk them down to $199 (maybe even $179) for a Delta 44. It almost always works for me. It's worth the extra $50 IMO for the extra two inputs and the breakout box. However, soundwise I expect the Audiophile to perform just as well. Myself (and a few others on this Board) talked Guitar Center down to $119 on the DMP3.

I have a Behringer MX802 mixer. The UB series is supposed to be better, but I can tell you that the DMP3 kills my Behringer. That said, the Behringer served me very well for two years before I could afford some better equipment. I still use it for a headphone amp. And if you are tight on money the UB 1202 will give you four mic preamps and 12 line inputs and a headphone amp for $80--not bad--it's a good place to start and you are not out a lot of money. You will still only be able to record two channels at a time with the Audiophile, however.

 

[TexRoadkill]

Re: .. ready to let go on the stand alone solution..?

I do want to record a Yamaha Clavinova Piano together with guitar, but it will be through it's midi feature, so I will not need the extra inputs....

You will still need to record the audio off of the yamaha at some point. You don't have to do it at the same time as you record guitar but eventually it has to be done if you want to hear it on a final mix.

 

[BluesJr]

Re: Re: .. ready to let go on the stand alone solution..?

You will still need to record the audio off of the yamaha at some point. You don't have to do it at the same time as you record guitar but eventually it has to be done if you want to hear it on a final mix.

So I will need the 4 in/out's of the Delta 44 if I want to record guitar and piano at the same time? It cannot be done be the Audiophile?

 

[tdukex]

Re: Re: Re: .. ready to let go on the stand alone solution..?

So I will need the 4 in/out's of the Delta 44 if I want to record guitar and piano at the same time? It cannot be done be the Audiophile?

Like I said above, you can record two tracks at a time with the Audiophile. Yes, you can record guitar and piano at the same time--you can record a dozen instruments at the same time, but the result will be a two track recording with all of the instruments on it. Each instrument will not have its own track. You will not be able to adjust the volume, pan, or add effects to individual instruments without affecting everything else on the track. 2 inputs = 2 tracks, 4 inputs = 4 tracks.

For example, you record a vocal, two guitars, and a stereo piano at the same time for a total of five inputs. You plug all of the equipment into your mixer, adjust the levels and panning the way you want, and record out from the mixer's left/right main outs into the Audiophile's left/right ins. You capture all of the instruments but because the audiophile only has two ins everything is on two tracks.

 

[BluesJr]

Thanks alot for all this.
I'm really sorry for the confusion I caused, but I understand the having 2 in's means 2 tracks now.
I was confused because I looked at pictures from the 2 cards (Audiophile and Delta) and I saw that the two in's of the Audiophile are one L (white) in and one R (red) in (like you mentioned). I was under the impression that a L and R together are one channel (just like my piano has a L and R out).
On the other hand I see that the Delta 44 has 4 in's, but with different jacks (bigger) and they don't read L and R, so I thought that these are stereo in's...
Maybe you can clarify this for me, if you're not tired of answering my silly question's.. I just can't find anything about the difference between these input-types on the net.

 

[tdukex]

Thanks alot for all this.
I'm really sorry for the confusion I caused, but I understand the having 2 in's means 2 tracks now.
I was confused because I looked at pictures from the 2 cards (Audiophile and Delta) and I saw that the two in's of the Audiophile are one L (white) in and one R (red) in (like you mentioned). I was under the impression that a L and R together are one channel (just like my piano has a L and R out).
On the other hand I see that the Delta 44 has 4 in's, but with different jacks (bigger) and they don't read L and R, so I thought that these are stereo in's...
Maybe you can clarify this for me, if you're not tired of answering my silly question's.. I just can't find anything about the difference between these input-types on the net.

The L/R channels on the Audiophile are really just two mono (unbalanced) channels: channel 1 and channel 2. When recording you could pan either channel L/R, so the L/R channel designation is a misnomer IMO. It's really channel 1 and channel 2.

The inputs on these two cards, although they use different plugs, are all single channel. The Audiophile accepts "unbalanced" RCA plugs. The Delta accepts 1/4" "balanced" TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) plugs--the same plugs you will see on stereo headphones--thus the confusion. RCA plugs have one conductor and transmit one signal. TRS plugs have two conductors and transmit two signals. The two signals may be the L/R signals of a stereo transmission (like with headphones) or they may be the same signal transmitted twice with the two signals out of phase with each other (a balanced signal). Balanced signals have the benefit of canceling out RF noise from the transmission. In the link below, Light gives an excellent explanation:

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=59380