Microphone Recording Help.

[CloudStrife_715]

I'm fairly new to recording and I thought Id purchase some inexpensive recording gear to get started off on. I have a Behringer Eurorack UB1201 Mixer, and three Nady SP-5 Dynamic Microphones. I record with one mic close to the grill of my cabinet and I use the DI out also on the head and plug it into my mixer. I have the mixer going straight into the sound card of my computer and I record with Cakewalk Sonar v6 Professional. I have a Marshall AVT 50H Amp Head and a Marshall MG Cabinet. I have it sounding alright but the quality isn't good enough to blast it on your speakers to rock out on. Also when I record Acoustic with just the mic it sounds like there is alot of excessive noise or static in the background. It also does this with just clean electric guitar. I'm sure my distortion signal could be cleaner too, I just cant hear that static due to the distortion of the amp. I want to know what types of mics I need to record heavy distortion guitar and Acoustic guitar.

 

[Lo-Fi Mike]

ok

I'm fairly new to recording and I thought Id purchase some inexpensive recording gear to get started off on. I have a Behringer Eurorack UB1201 Mixer, and three Nady SP-5 Dynamic Microphones. I record with one mic close to the grill of my cabinet and I use the DI out also on the head and plug it into my mixer. I have the mixer going straight into the sound card of my computer and I record with Cakewalk Sonar v6 Professional. I have a Marshall AVT 50H Amp Head and a Marshall MG Cabinet. I have it sounding alright but the quality isn't good enough to blast it on your speakers to rock out on. Also when I record Acoustic with just the mic it sounds like there is alot of excessive noise or static in the background. It also does this with just clean electric guitar. I'm sure my distortion signal could be cleaner too, I just cant hear that static due to the distortion of the amp. I want to know what types of mics I need to record heavy distortion guitar and Acoustic guitar.

the only use i can see out of the Nady SP-5's would be a talkback mic, or something to record scratch vocals. So they can serve a purpose.

if you are looking for mics that are inexpensive, render good quality recordings, and you are interested in distorted guitar amps and acoustic guitars, I would ger an
SM57 and an MXL V67 total cost about: $190.00
zzsounds has a factory resealed on the mxl

you can use the 67 on acoustic & vocals, and a combination of the 2 on the amp.

the next thing i would be looking at would be a delta 44.

 

[CloudStrife_715]

Thanks for the information, Ill give it a shot once I get some money for it.

 

[BlackHawk2029]

i second the delta 44 motion. I used mine for a good long time with good results. your pc sound card will limit you like you wouldnt believe, as it is made for a crappy little mic. The A/D converter in it is most likely a big POS and the sample rate wont be very high at all. you should be recording at at least 44.1 (cd quality) for any real acceptable results, UNLESS you are going for a real low-fi sound, in which case i've found my pc sound card works beautifully.

 

[hairylarry]

troubleshooting

Hi,

I am not familiar with the Nady mics but they shouldn't be giving you static. My suspicion is cables or sound card setup. Trouble shoot your rig like this.

If you are getting static in your recordings listen to your input carefully through the headphone out on your mixer. If that's clean the problem is in your mixer output, computer, or the cable. Swap out the cable. Check your sound card settings. (should be at least 44.1K and 16 bits per sample) Try recording to a different computer. Some computers have static in their audio path whatever you do. If it's your computer try a different sound card.

If you can hear the static in your headphone output from your mixer then the static is earlier in the path. You can swap the mics. If the static varies from mic to mic they may be the problem. Borrow another mic and try it.

Another way to test your mics is take one to another persons recording setup and try it there. If it's good there it's good. If it has your static and he gets clean recordings with his mics you know it's the mic.

If it's not the mic then the problem may be your mic cable or your mixer. Try another cable. Test your mixer by swapping inputs. If one input has less static then the other then your mixer may have dirty controls.

The trick to troubleshooting like this is carefully isolating the problem. Also don't assume you know what is wrong. A lot of people have thrown money at a problem to find it was a cable or connector. Remember 90% of all electrical problems are cables and connectors.

Finally listen carefully to your environment. What you are perceiving as static in your recordings may actually be some kind of noise in your environment. To check for this I listen for noise. With the room quiet I really crank the gain and listen through headphones. Sometimes I hear clocks ticking or other noises that I've just learned to ignore in my daily life.

If it is the mics I just wrote a reply you might want to read in the cheap cheap cheap thread.

Thanks,

Hairy Larry