Newb questions on starting up, Acoustic Guitar + Vocals.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Houda
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Well seeing as how I'm recording an acoustic guitar and vocals I'm assuming I won't need to be dealing with midi seeing as how i wont be going anywhere near a keyboard, so basically the latency isn't going to make any difference for me.
 
Houda said:
Well seeing as how I'm recording an acoustic guitar and vocals I'm assuming I won't need to be dealing with midi seeing as how i wont be going anywhere near a keyboard, so basically the latency isn't going to make any difference for me.
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Well,that^ is true to a degree but a "fast" system shows good attention to driver design and that NI are not making dubious claims about their product just to gain sales (if others "fib" about latency, what else? Noise? Distortion?).

But you must go as your guts guide you (as me old mum used to say). I hasten to add that I have no connection at all with NI and merely give my observations in an attempt to inform and help.

Dave.
 
Well I was planning to get the NI Audio 6 but its about $280 in Australia which is out of the price range, dont really want to spend more than $200 at most on the interface so il have to keep looking :/

Is something like the Tascam US-600 or 200 good?
 
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Houda said:
Well I was planning to get the NI Audio 6 but its about $280 in Australia which is out of the price range, dont really want to spend more than $200 at most on the interface so il have to keep looking :/

Is something like the Tascam US-600 or 200 good?
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Morning H.
Not read anything bad about the Tascams. I checked the specs for the US-600 and it seems workmanlike. I had a Tascam US-122 briefly and it seemed a solid performer. As with almost all budget AIs the mic preamps were low in gain, lower than my Fast track pro and a tad noisier but noise was said to have been improved on the later US-144 MK 2 and so probably on the 600.

In any event you really need capacitor mics for acoustic guitar (my son uses an SM57 but then we do have an A&H mixer!) although you could probably use a dynamic for voice. But since small cap mics are comparable in price to good dynamics I would go for the higher sensitivity/lower noise option.

In your first post you said you had both desk and laptop? This makes usb the only real option since I doubt either computer has a TI FW interface and even if the laptop did it would have no bus power and you don't have the budget for extra "bits"!

Lastly for now I see the 600 comes with Cubase LE5 and there is almost certain to be a tutorial, either with the AI or downloadable. Cubase is one of the top five perhaps "pro" softwares and so well worth getting to grips with.

Dave.
 
Doncha just love the mark ups on everything we pay here in Aus?

There are quite a few Tascam users here on HR and most are positive. I've never used a US 600 but I did use a borrowed US 122 for a while (when I was back in Leighton Buzzard...just a bit down the West Coast mainline from Ecc83) and it was fine. At that point I was using it on the output of a Soundcraft mixer so I didn't push the pre amps though.

The few queries I've seen about the Tascam stuff seems to involve drivers for Windows 7--but if you do some digging, that seemed to only be the first versions about 3 years ago. Since then, all seems good.
 
Bobbsy said:
Doncha just love the mark ups on everything we pay here in Aus?
The few queries I've seen about the Tascam stuff seems to involve drivers for Win-7 but if you do some digging, that seemed to only be the first versions about 3 years ago. Since then, all seems good.
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Hmm I must investigate!!!! the only reason i was avoiding tascam was because i heard it had crap compatibility with windows 7.

But with the laptop thing, my laptop hardrive died due to overheating, cleaned it out and such but its still dodgy. Planning to buy a new desktop end of the year, will post about it later once i see how much money i save up. But yes id definetly wanting to be going USB rather than firewire.

Thanks for the input peeps :)

Oh but i was suggested to use Syballius over reaper by a friend, suggestions/thoughts?
 
If it was Sibelius you were recommended to use, it's a completely different animal to Reaper (or, indeed, any DAW).

SIBELIUS is a tool for composition and notation of music, not really for recording and mixing at all.

(I know this because I have a mate back in the UK who makes a good living composing music for adverts and such--but who dreams of doing film scores and eventually writing symphonies. He's a big user of Sibelius but he used to come to me to record and mix stuff for him--and he'd do incidental bits of music I needed for theatre sound design. Oh, and we spent far too much time in the pub together.)
 
On the issue of Tascam and Win 7, THIS THREAD by Jimmy69 may help set your mind at rest a bit. Even if it's not the model you're considering, the "Tascams don't work with Windows 7" urban myths seem to refer to all of them!
 
Quick question. Would recording my acoustic using two sdc and a direct in from the pickup be worth it? Not sure whether i should go for the Tascam us-200 or the 600, not sure if its worth spending the extra money for some more inputs
edit: Theres about a $50 difference in the price, us-200 - $140ish us-600 $190ish. It helps that the Australian currency is higher than US right now :D
 
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Well, that depends a lot on a mix of the sound you want to achieve and the quality of the pickup.

Personally, I tend to prefer stereo SDCs to any pickup I've ever heard but your tastes may vary.

That said, unless it leaves you without food for a week, I'd go for the extra inputs. I've always found that your need to inputs (and this is both for recording and live mixers) always expands to be one or two more than you have! Two extra mic inputs never hurt and they open the door to things like using two close SDCs and a more distant LDC for room ambience...or maybe doing a scratch vocal while recording your guitar or tons of other things I haven't thought of yet.

It's always easy to spend somebody else's money but, if it was me, I'd go for the US 600 at that price differential.
 
Hmm makes sense, il probobly end up going with the bigger one but il see how i go THanks!
 
Sorry to bump my old thread but I thought I'd do this rather than create a new one. I bought a Tascam US-800 and it arrived today. Its picking up my sEX1 fine. The problem lies in my direct in, I'm trying to get a recording of my guitar via its pickup, its connected and I'm getting a signal on the interface and in reaper but its not recording anything anyone know why this is? I can hear it fine through my headphones.
edit: I'm guessing I'm not doing something correctly in Reaper.
 
Not that familiar with Reaper but, is track 1/2 selected and rec' armed?

Have you got the Tascam in "stand alone mode" perhaps? This looks from the manual that it disconnects the usb feed to the computer but preserves the monitoring signal.

Dave.
 
Yeah it was on 1/2 and it was armed. I'm pretty sure Its not stand alone mode as my mic was being recorded
 
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