Setup for recording acoustic album

[solo.guitar]

Wow lots of great advice here, thanks.

I've been reading several articles on acoustic room treatment, and am still a little confused as to what exactly I'll need, since it differs for each room.

I'm also renting this house so whatever I'll do needs to be able to be undone... anyone else in the same situation?

My closet is big enough to turn into a small isolation booth, just barely big enough to get fit a couple mics in there and play guitar, so maybe I can make something out of that and not have to treat the rest of the room so much, except for monitoring, etc. That could save a lot of time/money, but then again, if I want to record more than 1 guitar at a time it wouldn't be possible.

Pair of MXL 603s, M Audio DMP-3 and M Audio Delta 44 with the rest.

I've heard good things about the DMP-3 so maybe I'll try that out. I also see a deal online for an MXL 603 + MXL2001 for $100...does this sound like a pretty good deal?

I'd like to try out some of this stuff before committing to it, maybe some of the local shops have some microphones, I don't know. They didn't have any preamps, and only had a small selection of mixers and other recording gear last time I checked...but they should have microphones...

Anyway, thanks again for the replies, I'll look more into it later, I'm on lunch break right now.

Take it easy

 

[XLR]

I've heard good things about the DMP-3 so maybe I'll try that out. I also see a deal online for an MXL 603 + MXL2001 for $100...does this sound like a pretty good deal?

I'd like to try out some of this stuff before committing to it, maybe some of the local shops have some microphones, I don't know. They didn't have any preamps, and only had a small selection of mixers and other recording gear last time I checked...but they should have microphones...

My comment about gear trials was aimed more at high end gear... still good though to try anything first. The DMP3 and 603s combination is such a standard and good quality low end setup that anybody would be fine just buying it outright IMO.

My closet is big enough to turn into a small isolation booth

Personally, I'd use the biggest room available and treat that. I've never liked the sound of closets. There are very cheap ways to do room treatments.

EDIT: I'd add too that getting into serious recording with the aim of producing an album is only practical IMO if you're realistic about the results expected. If you're a pro guitarist and want truly pro quality results in the recording you'd be smart to go to a good studio. There's a long learning curve towards "pro quality" home recording. But it's a really fun learning curve.

Tim

Tim

 

[bubbagump]

To throw yet another wrench in the works... the EMU 1820M (and 1616M) have probably the best bang for the buck convertors out there. For my money and keeping things simple to start with and allowing for expansion (the EMUs have lightpipe in for later super expensive convertors if you want them) an 1820M, a couple of good omnis, a few bucks in room treatment, a gobo or two, and a decent pre (Grace, ADL600, Great River, even those Onyx pres are good). this is not the higest end setup in the world, but it will sound pretty durn good and you might even have a few bucks left over. My 2 cents.

 

[solo.guitar]

What makes some A/D converters so much better/expensive than others? I've never used an A/D unit before, but to my knowledge, they just take the analog signal and convert it into digital format...like they sample it at whatever sample rate?

I'm guessing some are more accurate than others?

I'll have to look into that some more...

I'd add too that getting into serious recording with the aim of producing an album is only practical IMO if you're realistic about the results expected. If you're a pro guitarist and want truly pro quality results in the recording you'd be smart to go to a good studio. There's a long learning curve towards "pro quality" home recording. But it's a really fun learning curve.

And I'm guessing a really expensive learning curve...

Probably not one I could afford in the short-term, but I feel I can get by with less-than-pro gear, not entry level, but something decent. I have a nice guitar with a nice sound, and I think if my room is properly treated I can get by. The recordings I've made so far, just toying around with my current setup, a lot of my friends thought they were done in a studio...but I guess that's because they haven't done any serious recording themselves...

I'm not really aiming for a 'commercial' sound, I'd rather have it sound authentic. I doubt my CD would hit it big anyway, but I already know some people, about 75-100, that are waiting for me to record the album, and as long as it sounds good that's okay with me. They probably can't tell the difference anyway.

 

[bubbagump]

Convertors are exactly that... some more accurate than others. This is manifested in a few different ways. First is jitter. Essentially, jitter is a measure of how consistant the space between the samples is. Think of it like dominoes falling.... if one domino is sort of late or early in the sequence, the pattern is smeared. That is super simplified, but hopefully you get the idea. Jitter is also effected by the clock used. That is another reason I suggest the EMU, the clocks in those things are quite excellent for the price point. You also have filtering issues in convertors. At the high and low end of the frequency scale there is a cut off filter. Now the filter is not a brick wall.. it has a slope to it. Crappy slopes means good stuff gets cut out, smeared, etc. Lastly, you have all the stuff feeding the convertor. A 10 cent POS opamp before the convertor is not going to be the same as a discrete tweaked signal path feeding a good convertor.

 

[Elmo89m]

THe problem with that MXL 603 MXL 2001 package is that for acoustic your going to want two MXL 603. And while your looking stuff up look up XY micing.