Setting up home studio for daughter that is in Musical Theater

[lkosova]

Hello all,

My kids use Garage band. I will up to Logic pro once we get going with this all. I am looking for audio interfaces/mixer and mics at this point. I have a Sennheiser E835 that I used for speech recognition software. My daughter is starting a high school of the performing arts and is in Musical theater. She does auditions and has parts in plays,sings etc.

I also have a dedicated home theater (21 long by 15 wide by 8ft high). She will use this to record her parts, practice, have other kids over (yes they will all be over here). These are really talented kids.......

So I am looking at the Tascam usb us-600 or the Mackie fx8 pro mixing board that I am told I can use as an interface plus it has some eq and other toys plus they can plug in more at the same time....

Mics i have been suggested is anything from the mxl $100-150 mics to the Bluebird Blue for vocals.

My daughter also just likes to write songs and sing etc

Guitar center has a sale that ends Sunday that is $100 off of $499....so I want to try to get there with the best bang for the buck. I know I need xlr cables and mic stands but those really are not that expensive.

Some have suggested the Shure Beta 58a, mxl 990/991 bundle, Blue Bluebird condensor etc.

I really did not want to spend alot and let her grow into it but the Blue mic is like $259 and with the $100 off if I buy the interface/mixer, I thought that would be a good deal to start and can add others later.

We already have electric guitar, Casio 271 keyboard with midi, acoustic drums. I have the Senn e835 for another vocal mic till I get something better.

What suggestions do you have and is this the right thinking??????

Thanks so much,

Larry (cool Dad)

 

[lkosova]

Sorry....did not see where to edit the first post......I also have some M&K 85 monitors and have various Cary Audio amps that can be used for playback.

Thanks,

Larry

 

[lkosova]

Ok last time I reply to my own post.....it is a casio w210 and should I think about a mic preamp or wait on that. Which one??? I hear the presonus tube is ok???

Again just starting out and trying to figure it all out.

Many thanks,

larry

 

[mjbphotos]

Wait on the mic preamp.
Guitar center has those $100 off deals all the time, so don't rush into it.
First things first - how many separate channels are going to want to record at one time? The Mackie only has a stereo (2 channel) USB output, so that means only 2 separate channels, or you will be mixing multiple mics/instruments together to record at one time.
I use the Mackie ProFX12, but I only need 2 channels at one time, at most, and I am mostly using it do allow me to have everything plugged in at one time - 2 (or more) mics, stereo Casio WK500, stereo amp DI, Guitarport and Boss600 outputs all go into it, I just use the Faders and output volumes to control the paths.

If you want to be able to record more than 2 channels separately at one time, get an audio interface with that capability first, like the M Audio Fast Track Pro, for example.

 

[lkosova]

Mike,

Thanks so much. Thanks for bringing me back down to earth on this. Having multiple things plugged in at the same time is a plus and in reality having just two channels is ok. I was looking at the Tascam us-600 which I think can only have 4 things plugged in at one time. The Mackie as you know just allows to have more things plugged in and has some basic eq, faders etc controls that might be useful.

Again, I appreciate any opinion you might have and I am learning all the time about this. Just want to have decent vocals and then mix in the rest for what we are trying to accomplish. Some of this will be just her practicing and using this all for self evaluation and some of this will be her making songs or having classmates over and recording stuff.

All the best,

Larry