Newb seeks setup guidance

[guitarjam6]

First off, thanks for the wealth of information and suggestions on this site. I feel like I have learned a great deal in the short weeks I have known about this place. I play guitar and bass and after recording for a few days back in April at www.bridgestudio.com I've been trying to learn everything I can about PC based recording. Up until now all of my recordings have been done with a Peavey RQ2310 converting the RCA master outs into a 1/8" SoundBlaster 7.1 card. You can hear recordings at the links in my sig. Anything will be an upgrade from here.

I have been acquiring things for the past few months so I can record my band (drums, guitar, bass, sax) and other local bands live and do studio demos. I have a general idea of the equipment I need that will give me the ability to capture a relatively quality sound. So far I have:

PC- Athlon 2400/1gig ram/200gigHD
Software- Acid Pro 6.0 and kompakt sampler it came with
Mics- Shure Beta 58, SM57, PG52, (3) PG56, (2) PG81 Condensers, Samson CO3 condenser, Naiant MSH-1 w/sax mount
Mixer- Peavey RQ 2310 (I don't think this will help much)

I need your help from here. I am looking at purchasing a Firepod, the hp4 headphone amp w/ (4) AKG M80 headphones($199 deal from MF), and a pair of wharfedale diamond 8.2 powered monitors.

I feel the preceding items would round out what I have now and provide a solid beginning foundation to record on. Please let me know if I'm looking at bad quality stuff or if the setup doesn't mesh well for any reason. Any educated opinions are GREATLY appreciated. I've never done this before, so I may be way off. Hopefully once I'm more experienced on matters I'll be able to contribute more on the boards.Thanks again ladies and gents

 

[pipelineaudio]

The PC is more powerful than ones Ive mixed many many albums on. The mics are a good start. The Firepod is something I've done one solid and well recieved album with so far, and will likely do a few more on. You might have some handy uses for that mixer for monitoring purposes. The PC and firepod will likely give you low enough latency to set up separate headphone mixes and such.

Though Acid 6 is a giant leap forward into the twisted painful path that Sony has needed to take for years into combining Acid and Vegas, it still isnt as much DAW as a composing tool. I would reccomend REAPER instead of course (Im a bit biased, but was VERY involved with Acid and Vegas over the years, and REAPER was the answer for me to combine them)

Make REALLY sure youve got a TI or Via chipset for your firewire card or you will have some issues with the Firepod

This is my newest Presonus rig for doing small mobile recordings: A Firestudio and two Digimax FS's so you can tell Im a presonus fan

 

[beezelbubba]

I have the Wharfedale monitors.I've never had any other decent monitors, so I can't compare them to anything, but I like 'em.
I've been messing around with Reaper and am impressed enough to recommend it!

 

[pacman9000]

i hate the newer budget shure condenser mic's for vocals, but I'm no expert, I just like to trash the newer harsh sounding shure condenser mics whenever i get the chance.


I think AKG is a better company, I'm sure there's many more.