New user needs new gear.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Samantha
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Samantha

New member
Greetings, all.

I am a female musician from Sweden, 24 years old, trying to build my own little homerecording studio. I need some advice what would be best to buy next.

So far I have these gears:

Recording Device:
P4 1.8Ghz, 512 MB RAM, 46 GB HDD
SoundBlaster Live! Player 5.1
Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.0.3

Synthesizer:
Korg Triton Le 61

Effect Processor:
Zoom Studio 1024

Mixer:
Behringer Eurorack MX 602a

Microphones:
Generis ADK A-51s
DMG03a (Allright, I know, it sucks but it is still there).

Amplifier, headphones and speakers:
Technics SA-160
AKG K-66
Yamaha RH-5M
Pioneer CS-595 70w

The microphones and the Triton LE is connected to the tiny mixer, which either routes them via the Zoom 1204 just or directly to the soundcards line-in. And from the soundcard lineout to a ordinary stereo for playback.

I am not that technical yet, but I guess my next buy would have to be a limiter or a compressor. That is what keeps the right volume on the song, right?

I do most all kinds of music, from techno to pop, metal and orchestral themes.

Please let me know what would be next logical step in my setup.

/Samantha
 
Welcome to the board. Just my opinion, but I'd upgrade my sound card. The SoundBlaster is usable but you'll get an audible improvement by stepping up to a decent card.
 
Welcome Samantha, always nice with some more Swedes :)
I agree that your next buy should definately be the soundcard, you got some great equip (triton etc) and the soundblaster just doesn't keep up. Also, all sound travels through it and brings down the qualtiy of the rest of your gear.
Where in Sweden do you live ?
 
You may look into an audiophile soundcard and one of the new RNP preamps, depending on what you want to do you may opt for a card with more inputs.
 
Thank you for your replies!

I am a bit confused, regarding the soundcard. I did use to have a better soundcard; a Hoontech Sountrack 128 DDMA. But I really did not note any bigger difference beside some solutions with the MIDI. How much would I have to pay do get a decent soundcard that can match the rest of my - budget - setup?

(The Hoontech card turned out to be an poor victim of static power when I was going to change something in my computer, which I at the moment can't remember what it was).

As I am now focusing on the singing, I was thinking about the limiter or compressor. How far back in the "chain" would you think they would be needed. I mean, is there anything else that you would recommend buying first, after the soundcard?

/S

PS. I live in Sundsvall.
 
A very good soundcard still providing 2in/2out + digital in/out and Midi 1in/out is the M-audio Audiophile 24/96.
Records in 24bit 96kHz, which is better than CD (16/44.1)quality.

In Sweden, buy it from Musikbörsen or some local store, prcie about 2000:- SEK
 
Stefan Elmblad said:
Records in 24bit 96kHz, which is better than CD (16/44.1)quality.
Click to expand...

How much more space does a recording fill in the harddrive recorded in 94/96 instead of 16/44.1?

It would be nice to record in a quality better than CD, but that must be almost impossible to hear? Atleast with my stereo and speakers. :-)

/S
 
Samantha said:

How much more space does a recording fill in the harddrive recorded in 94/96 instead of 16/44.1?
Click to expand...
a bit more than 3 times as much.
Upgrading to 24/96 with for instance the mentioned M-audio Audiophile would mean as much as more dynamic range, less noise, better A/D and D/A converters.
And when you're planning on using effects on your recordings which wil always degrade the signal in some way it is better to have the best possible signal to work with.
 
So if you wanna record 24/96 you better get a dedicated hard drive for that, I would say, to play it safe between 60G and 80G. You´ll also need a program to dither down your 24/96 recordings to 16/44.1 for cd.
 
At this point--although I don't think it is necessary to record at 24/96--I would upgrade the soundcard for better AD/DA converters. If you can save for the Delta 44 ($229 US) that would be best. If not, the Audiophile ($179 US) has a great reputation.

Then I would upgrade my monitoring system, mic preamp, and microphones in that order.

At least that's the way I did it.
 
I really don't mind composing in 16bit to save space. Actually I almost always use 16bit 44.1khz, sounds great!

None of my music is that critical, I'd use 24bit for jazz or classical.
 
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