Next piece of gear?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jason M Hancock
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Jason M Hancock

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Maybe I should post this in the newbie section, but I'm not sure that any of you recording gods, demi-gods, and minor deities will see it over there. I'm ready to purchase my next piece of gear and I'm not sure what I should get. My simple recordings of a couple of guitar tracks, a rhythm section from a Boss Dr-5, and vocals have a lot of hiss and sound distant. I'm sure I could get rid of the hiss and bring the sound up if I just knew what to use. Here's what I'm currently using and I think I've maxed out on the features that everything offers:

Ovation supershallow acoustic/electric six string
SM-57
Tascam Porta02mkII (very humble...)
Boss Dr-5 Dr Rhythm Section
Alesis M1 active monitors

I generally record the guitar direct and using the 57. So, which piece of gear below (settin aside questions of cost) would best improve my sound and maybe get rid of or lower the hiss? Many thanks in advance!

direct box
pre-amp
eq
compressor
 
Since your problem is a hiss, it could be a problem with the protastudio, however, be aware the items you listed are not really going to remove hiss. Also, depending on the compressor you get, more hiss may be added. What you might want to consider is a noise gate. Behringer makes the Intelligate for around $200.
 
I would second Sonic Misfit's comments about

1. It may be the Portastudio itself.

2. A noise gate may help imensely if most of the noise is more "backround" ie when the guitar or vocal track is silent.

But I would add that a good preamp may help if you are not getting a good signal to noise ratio.

Try this to find out:
Record a clean track from your DR 5.
Your DR 5 should get a good strong enough signal to your Portastudio without a preamp (and do not use any built in preamp on this). Set your levels at unity...no boost/no cut and adjust your output from your DR 5 until the levels start to peak or go just a tad above.

Listen with your headphones as you track...are you getting the same level of noise with just the DR 5 going in ? If the noise is much less and also less on playback with just the Dr 5 and all your other tracks with the mic are much noisier you may not be getting a hot enough signal to tape.

The direct box alone can be good for bass and sometimes for acoutic/electric guitars with the built in piezo pickups like your Ovation. I don't think the direct out high imedance from your Ovation straight to the Porta will get the lower noise/ less hiss you want.

If you don't do much vocal the direct box would be the less expensive way to go.

If you want to use the mic for vocal and guitar etc you will need some kind of Preamp other than what is built in your Porta.
 
Next equipment

The hiss is from the portapotty oops...studio.

Get you a roland 1880, or yamahamds4(mini Disc),a tascam 788..
even the boss br 532 will do for what you have going on right now.They all make some pretty good digital recorders... and there are many to choose from and price ranges to match...
dump the MKII. Trade it off, pay someone to take it... ebay it...
You will be pleased if you go digital.

I'm sure you'll get a lot of different opinions.Thats why I love this place.

Gidman
 
Don't Laugh Until You've Tried This

Go buy a cable that has a stereo 1/8" mini jack on one end and 2 1/4" mono jacks on the other,and plug the mini end into the headphone output on the DR-5,and the 1/4" ends into your recorder.Crank the slider for the output on the DR-5,and you'll have a lot hotter signal going into your recorder,now you can turn the gain down.Result: better S/N ratio.
 
It could be the drum machine if you aren't using an original Boss adapter. You should try to indentify where the hiss is coming from by a process of elimination.
 
"Go buy a cable that has a stereo 1/8" mini jack on one end and 2 1/4" mono jacks on the other,and plug the mini end into the headphone output on the DR-5,and the 1/4" ends into your recorder.Crank the slider for the output on the DR-5,and you'll have a lot hotter signal going into your recorder,now you can turn the gain down.Result: better S/N ratio."

-I'm going to try this.


The hiss is a combination of the Porta-stud and your cables.
 
Thanks!

Scooter B, thanks a mill for the tip. I'll try those points this evening.

Gidman, I'm definitely going digital sometime in the near future. Probably a Korg D-1600...quite a jump, non?

Thanks, everyone!
 
Get rid of the tape. Nothing but hiss to deal with. Go digital. Nothing but hum to deal with:D Sorry, I couldn't resist...I've got a bit of a patchbay problem that I'm trying to figure out.
 
I'm picking up some low level hum somewhere along the path. I've run from each of the units straight into my soundcard and it isn't there. It's only present after it passes through the patch bay.

Bad ground? Crappy patch cables? Any ideas or recommended solutions would be more than welcome Bruce.
 
Are you inadvertently unbalancing a balanced line?

I suspect it's not the patchbay, but a ground loop problem between the interconnected gear.

You could pick up something like the hum eliminator (Ebtech) and connect it between the pieces of gear until you find the unit that causes the problem....

Bruce
 
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