Next piece of gear?

M

McShredsAlot

New member
Hey everyone. This is my first post and hopefully this is in the right forum.

Anyways I'm trying to decide what piece of gear I should get next for recording.

Right now I have a Presonus 44vsl interface. And a Blue Spark condenser mic. I am recording all electric guitars through amplitube 3. Eventually I plan on getting an Sm57 to record a mic'ed cab but because of volume that's not really an option. Anyways I'm not sure what I should get next. My room isn't sound treated and I honestly have no idea how to do that. My recordings don't come out too bad so sound treatment isn't high on my list.

But I don't know if I should get a preamp, another mic so I can record acoustic guitar better, etc. What are your opinions? What are the benefits of getting the gear you think I should? Thanks!
 
And I forgot to say I do have m-audio monitors. as well as a nice pair of studio headphones. Both are fairly new so I haven't memorized the exact models.
 
That's gonna be tough

You could either expand your preamp collection or you microphone collection. Seeing that room non-treatment doesn't bother you.

Maybe a SDC to record your acoustic guitar.
 
Get your eventual plan into action and get an SM57... there are ways of recording electric guitars that don't involve massive volume... but then, I guess by your name you're a shred head and that probably ain't gonna happen, is it?
 
Not so much anymore haha. It was a nick name from my old bands manager. I really have no knowledge of micing cabs and stuff. But I live in an apartment which is why the volume is a problem. Can I use an SM57 for other things besides micing cabs?
 
you sound happy with what you have, you already excluded the room and cant really go high volume, but if you like your recordings now maybe you dont want to mess with it.

You really mentioned acoustic guitar recording as your point to improve...

+read the sticky on recording acoustic guitars its great.

my 2 cents, save your money until you know what you need for sure.

one thought on Acoustic recording is there are some decent acoustic guitar pickups these days too, it doesnt have to be mic'd.
 
We use the Focusrite Pro 40 Interface with 8 pres. There very clean, transparent and quiet. We've used this application prior to growing to a larger and still use it now at our studio. Mainly because its expandable and you can connect another 8 preamp unit making a total of 16 channels simultaneously. Good starting point with the option to build on it later on. Also a good mic for acoustic guitar that's not a lot of money is the Rode NT1A about 229.00 and The AKG C 1000 149.00 great for guitars and you can use them on your guitar amp cabs! Shure 57s or 58's are good for micing amps because they are dynamic and dont pickup a lot of room sounds, more of a direct mic. As far as treating the room you should treat areas where reflections are the worst, start by clapping your hands in the middle of the room..then place some Auralex panels in those areas to knock down the reverberation. Hope this Helps
 
"Auralex panels"

Auralex makes the acoustic foam stuff you see everywhere - it will not help with bass trapping. Auralex also makes bass traps and diffusers. For acoustic treatment, read everything in the 'Studio Building and Display' section of these forums. Glad I didn't waste my money on foam a couple of years ago!
I'd suggest an SM57 or 2 (or the GLS clones I got, every bit as good). I prefe them when recording acoustic to a condesnor which picks up more of the room sound than I want.
 
In a situation when acoustics are being excluded it makes sense to compensate by upgrading the speakers and their amplification. The worse the acoustic climate is, the more critical is your choice of speakers and amplification. When you have neither good acoustics, nor good speakers, nor good speaker amplification, the performance of the other upgrades will be shadowed by these issues, giving you little return on investment...
 
Next piece of equipment has to be a Tascam 80-8 or Tascam 388... and of course EVERY stinking strat and tele I run into.
 
The best bang for the buck improvement for my studio was acoustic treatment. Bass traps and absorption panels. You'll never know how good your recordings and mixes can sound until you do it in a treated room and you can find everything you need to do it yourself on this forum. A SM57 is a good choice for a utility mic and the price is right. A good large diaphragm condenser mic will work well when recording acoustic guitar and some good budget choices are, Oktava, Rode and Nady. Get one of those and when you can afford it send it to Michael Joly for modification and you will have a really great sounding you can use on acoustic guitar and vocals.
 
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