Recording from XLR mics on a budget. Lots of help needed.

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Today (being Christmas) I received a percussion microphone pack, which of course all feature XLR connectors on them. Unfortunately money is tight (I am a student), and buying separate cables, and a mixing board is very pricey and almost impossible for me in my current situation. So how would I go about recording drums using these 7 mics, in a cheap and effective way? Remember quality on a budget is the goal. Would it be an XLR snake to USB? D'SUB? Firewire? Connecting to a laptop and some recording software? Help me out here, please! :)
 
Your going to have to spend a little bit for an interface google up and take a look at the Tascam US1641 then you can down load Reaper for a software it's free till you find that it's good for you or not. And the XLR cords.
You don't have to use all 7 microphones. Maybe Kick, snare and the overheads! for starters.
 
I got a 10 pack of GLS XLR to XLR cables from Amazon for 80 bones, 25 foot each, get very good reviews, seem very solid. You can get a similar set from Musician's Friend for about 50, but they get really bad reviews.
 
Ya I found a pack of XLRM to XLRF (Male - Female of course) for I think $60 or $50 dollars, it was an 8 back that received all great reviews. They have them in store so I might take the $65 I have on hand and purchase those. As for a mixing board, my Grand Father has an awesome one (He seems to think he always needs the best equip.), so I might be able to con him into letting me borrow it. If I were to go that route, would it be best to run a line out from the mixer and go straight to my sound card and record using Reaper? Though my sound card only has a 3.5 mm line in, most mixing boards I have seen have L & R RCA outs, and I have an RCA to 3.5 mm adapter. As for only using a couple of the mic's, I was aware of this option. I would just much rather us all of them of course ;D. Sparing only 3 or 4 to record for now wouldn't be all too bad.

P.S. I seem to have forgotten that I actually own two working mixing boards. One is real shabby though, while the other is quite nice. Unfortunately it only posses 2 XLR inputs, but it does have quite a few 1/4 inputs. I believe it's a 6 channel. What quite of options does that give me?

P.P.S. Thank you for all the help so far! I was getting scared no one would reply, and aid in soothing my plight.
 
You could mix the mics to stereo and record that, but that removes many of the benefits of multi-tracking, namely having multiple separate tracks that can be processed individually and balanced at your leisure. With a mixer and stereo input to the computer you are stuck with the drum mix done on the spot in real time. And, generally speaking, the sound card in your computer will have some sonic and functional disadvantages compared to a proper audio interface. But mixing live to stereo is very educational and worth doing for a while as you save up for an interface with enough inputs to record your drum mics to individual tracks.

Try all the mixers. There are probably good and bad things about all of them and using them is the best way to find out. If you can squeeze a few XLR-TRS adapters into your budget you could probably use some of those 1/4" inputs on a loud source like a drum, as long as the mic doesn't need phantom power.
 
Me and my friend were having hte same issue.... he has a monster sized drum kit and we wanted to be able to have each drum on its own track... and we wanted to do it without breaking the bank.

So here is what we did, and it might not be for efveryone. But sure works for us.

We have 12 mics on his kit.. two full packs. At first it seemed like a Mixer was the way to go, but to get 12 individual tracks running through a mixer gets super expensive. Most cheaper mixers (even the expensive ones) have multiple inputs but only the Stereo outputs. As suggested above in the other post, this means you are stuck making sure the drum mix is perfect as you record it, and doesn't leave you much options for mixing afterwards.

our solution was the Motu 8 Pre Firewire interface. about $700 for one of them. you get 8 individual Stereo XLR inputs with pretty decent Pre-Amps on them. They dump indiviually via FireWire onto your computer / recording software. Stack another 8pre on there via Optical cables and you now have 16 individual XLR inputs that can be recorded simultaniously.... all for $1400. Or in your case, you'd only need one to cover all your mics.


Here are your other expenses though ;(
Your computer has to be good enough to handle all that data being dumped to it... (2.3 Ghz Duel-Core with at least 2G RAm would be hte minimum in my opinion..

You still need recording Software too.... I use CuBase Studio on my PC which cost me like $500.... My buddy use's garage Band which came free on his MAC laptop!!



(PS - you can never have too many mics! don't listen to the Nay Sayers)
 
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This is my final proposed setup
micsetup.png


Will this work? What are your opinions? I need the Phantom Power Supply for the two Condensor mics. Because Phantom Power can't be transfered through 1/4 to my XLR mics, right?
 
You could put the two condensers on the XLR inputs and all the dynamics on TRS in order to skip the external phantom supply.
 
Yes I know but I want to individually control the EQ and Volume of the Snare and Bass, that's why they will exist on the XLR inputs. So would my proposed setup be proper and work?
 
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