Questin on this sytem...

[Jadeed]

Hi all...
I need to record some demos at home.They will be done with sampled drums (fruity loops), and everything else real.
So i basically need to record guitar, bass and voice.

I need to record two tracks at a ti me for guitar, not more than this.

I thought I need this stuff :
2 Mics
1 stereo pre for the mics
1 soundcard capable of recording two analog inputs simultaneusly.

Is this right?I was thinking of an SM57, SM58 for mics
Th beheringere valve stereo pre, and a Luna II soundcard.
Will this work?I have a PII400, 320Mb RAM dedicated to recording, with 4 HDs (a total of about 180gb), two graphic cards, two monitors and a soundblaster awe64 gold.I use n-track for recording, and fruityloops for drums.

will this work?suggestions?I will be recording mostly death metal songs.

thank you!

 

[Slackmaster2K]

Yep

Don't know about the Luna. The board favorite for cheap entry level 2 channel is the m-Audio Audiophile 24/96 which starts I think around $150.

Everything else you got will work. Whether it'll do what you want is impossible for anybody to predict. You picked decent enough gear, and any recommendations in the same price range would be extremely subjective. The best way to get into this is to bite the bullet and get started....once you're going you can start to nail down what you want from there.

Judging from what I think is the kind of music you might be making, you might instead look into the POD or J-Station instead of mic'ing your amp. Mic'ing an amp is difficult, especially if you're not in an area where you can really crank it as loud as you need it to be, or your room acoustics suck. Direct devices like the POD allow people of just about any skill to get decent enough distorted guitar tones without having to have much experience or make a whole lot of noise. Now these amp modelers aren't great for real clean and bluesy tones IMHO, but for heavier shit they sound good. Hell, Meshuggah uses them on stage live. And really, even for clean tones they usually sound better than what somebody new to recording can get from an amp & a mic. In a few years if you reach a point where your recording and mixing chops are really decent and you start hearing the limitations of the POD, then it might be time to start mic'ing that amp. Just my opinion!

Slackmaster 2000

 

[Jadeed]

Yep

Don't know about the Luna. The board favorite for cheap entry level 2 channel is the m-Audio Audiophile 24/96 which starts I think around $150.

Everything else you got will work. Whether it'll do what you want is impossible for anybody to predict. You picked decent enough gear, and any recommendations in the same price range would be extremely subjective. The best way to get into this is to bite the bullet and get started....once you're going you can start to nail down what you want from there.

Judging from what I think is the kind of music you might be making, you might instead look into the POD or J-Station instead of mic'ing your amp. Mic'ing an amp is difficult, especially if you're not in an area where you can really crank it as loud as you need it to be, or your room acoustics suck. Direct devices like the POD allow people of just about any skill to get decent enough distorted guitar tones without having to have much experience or make a whole lot of noise. Now these amp modelers aren't great for real clean and bluesy tones IMHO, but for heavier shit they sound good. Hell, Meshuggah uses them on stage live. And really, even for clean tones they usually sound better than what somebody new to recording can get from an amp & a mic. In a few years if you reach a point where your recording and mixing chops are really decent and you start hearing the limitations of the POD, then it might be time to start mic'ing that amp. Just my opinion!

Slackmaster 2000

thank you for your reply!
I'll give a look to this MAudio, you say it is capable of recording two mics a t a time?
As for what regards recording guitar, I'm going to try.I have a rocktron chamaleon with line out and speaker simulation, and will use that too.I was thinking of recording two mics and the line simultaneusly to get a really heavy sound.No problem about volume, neighbourhood is deaf .I recorded a few things before, and have done two commercial records in studio so I know a little bit about recording, by watching the soundman do his things .If this setup is enough so it's fine, I'm on my way .I think this computer can handle the recording process fine, also I can go to a friend's system when needing the final mixdown, he haves a DAW specialized on effects and synths, not recording, so no problem about that.

thank you,.....any other suggestion is welcome!

 

[Slackmaster2K]

Yeah I think your setup is fine. I mean you can't go wrong with the SM57 and 58. Not too keen on the behringer pre, but what the hell it's probably cheap and will work....there might be better choices though, how much does it cost?

The audiophile can be found here http://www.m-audio.com . It has 2 analog channels and 2 SPDIF channels, plus MIDI.

Any soundcard is capable of recording two channels of mono audio because all soundcards will be stereo. You simply instruct n-Track to record Stereo->2 mono tracks and voila...

Slackmaster 2000

 

[Jadeed]

Yeah I think your setup is fine. I mean you can't go wrong with the SM57 and 58. Not too keen on the behringer pre, but what the hell it's probably cheap and will work....there might be better choices though, how much does it cost?

it's about 120 Euros.more or less 110$, i think, it haves a valve and it's stereo.I thought it was fine, if there's other choiches (available in Europe at a competitive prica) it's even better
btw, maybe i can get it for free for a few months from a friend, so that's real good

The audiophile can be found here http://www.m-audio.com . It has 2 analog channels and 2 SPDIF channels, plus MIDI.

Any soundcard is capable of recording two channels of mono audio because all soundcards will be stereo. You simply instruct n-Track to record Stereo->2 mono tracks and voila...

Slackmaster 2000

Right i didn't think about it me fool!I'm giving a look at the m-audio...nice thing...mmm

 

[TexRoadkill]

I'd agree with just about everything except slack's recomending a POD.

I also think you might get more flexibility getting a condensor mic over a 57/58 combo. A 57 and a MXL v93 or 67 would be a good combo for different situations.

If you do go with just dynamic mics you better have a nice clean pre or you will have problems with hiss on any quiet parts.

 

[Slackmaster2K]

Don't get me wrong, I despise my POD, honestly But, you can't deny that when it comes to knocking out good sounding demos, it just can't be beat. A guy could spend months or years trying to mic various amps in his bedroom before he gets a sound on tape that's half as good sounding as something that can be dialed in on the POD in 30 seconds.

The POD in my opinion, is a "good enough" device. You'll fool 3/4 of the people every time, and 1/4 of the people some of the time. Again it depends on the style you're playing and overall depth of your recording. If you're making truely professional recordings, then you've already got it made and there's little reason to use a POD.

Anyways, I hope this doesn't turn into one of "those" debates Especially because I'm usually the guy saying that the POD sounds fake.

Slackmaster 2000