starting an acoustic home studio

  • Thread starter Thread starter billo94
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billo94

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hi all, about to finish high school for the summer, and im up for getting into recording with the many acoustic instruments in my house - mainly for guitar but i dont know much about recording yet... what would i need to get a cheapish set up?
i was considering the shure sm57 or something similar for a mic and the alesis multimix 4 USB mixer? I would also need to get software eg ableton.

Other than these things, what else would i need (i already have leads, headphones, good speakers on my computer and stands)

cheeers
 
What's your budget?
Computer speakers are NOT monitors, upgrade these first.
The Shure is a great all-around mic.
Download Reaper software - its free to try out (for as long as you want).
For an interface - how many tracks do you want to be able to record at one time (now and in the future)?
 
well my budget isnt massive, i only wanna spend up to £200/$250
i can easily look into reaper and monitors
and for the interface, i only ever want to record just myself, so i only need to record one track at a time
cheers for the advice
 
I record a lot of acoustic instruments too. I think you should consider some type of condenser microphone for that intead of a 57. There are many condensers that would be ok for about the same money.
 
+1 on preferring a condenser mic if I could only have one.

But you can save yourself some money on the mixer. If you only have one mic and only yourself to record, just buy an inexpensive USB interface rather than the mixer.

Bob
 
ah ok thats actually very very helpful! And yeah i'll defintely save money on the mixer if i only need an interface like that.
And i'll look into condenser microphones
thanks a lot for all your help!
 
for the $30 difference I would get the 4 input mixer - then when you add mics you can record from multiple mics at once and get better sound from your acoustic guitar
 
for the $30 difference I would get the 4 input mixer - then when you add mics you can record from multiple mics at once and get better sound from your acoustic guitar

A+ 100% ..... without a doubt!
 
for the $30 difference I would get the 4 input mixer - then when you add mics you can record from multiple mics at once and get better sound from your acoustic guitar

I totally agree, actually. If you can get something with 2 XLR inputs (2 microphone cord inputs) then you'll be able to record your guitar in stereo, and that's a really cool thing. Something like an Audiobox USB would work...not sure how much those are. There should be a few interfaces with 2 mic inputs for around $100...stay away from firewire devices and go with USB. That's my 0.2Cents after having tons of problems with firewire devices and no problems with USB devices.
 
for the $30 difference I would get the 4 input mixer - then when you add mics you can record from multiple mics at once and get better sound from your acoustic guitar

I'm normally the first one to suggest that having a mixer is the way to go--but it's got to be a proper mixer.

The Multimix 4 has only 2 mic pre-amps plus two line level inputs. It has only a single L/R output and no Auxes at all to set up monitoring so bringing the DAW output back into the mixer when multiracking is a no-no. The channel EQ is a Mickey Mouse 2 frequency system so is useless. There are no faders, just little knobs every bit as fiddly to use as a simple interface.

Frankly I would indeed go for a 2 in, 2 out USB interface (there's lots to choose from). If I was going to suggest a mixer, it would have to be a more expensive one with most of the extra facilities I list.

Mixers are great and I'm a fan--but it has to be a "grown up" mixer to be worthwhile.

Bob
 
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