Starting over...

[getuhgrip]

I bought a bunch of stuff before doing any real research. All I knew was that I couldn't accept what was coming out of a Blaster Live and a Samson dynamic. The up-side is that I didn't go deep money-wise, and I'm able to sell most of it to some kids at work. I'm going to be like Harvey Gerst in reverse for the next couple of weeks and try to get good unambiguous information in bite size bits.

I'll start with soundcards and then move on to learning how to replace my Behringer mixer, Samson mics, preamps, effects, ect.

Note: I want to be able to record a guitar amp, small bass amp (or direct), acoutic drums, yard-sale Yamaha keyboard, and vocals in a 12X12 room. Only me...one track at a time. Monitoring is by way of a stereo receiver. The only medium I'm concerned with is CD's. No tape, no ADAT. 60's & 70's rock primarily.

I bought a Darla24 before I started learning anything about mics and cables, or anything else for that matter. I bought it unaware that I might desire midi capability at some point and that Darla didn't support it. It also hadn't occured to me that better mics use XLR connectors and Darla's breakout box only accomodates 1/4". A few things I still don't understand are why the 8 outputs, and why there's no adjustable input.
This uneducated purchase was based on skimming the most basic specs (24 bit, 96kHz, ect.) on various boards in the $300 range.

I'm willing to spend more. So, based on my needs, what do I need to be looking at? What's important...what's not? I will be upgrading my mics and mixer, so I assume all cables will be XLR. I have Ntrack now, but in my ignorance, I liked the simplistic interface of Powertacks Pro better. I'm hearing alot about Sonus, but that's another story.

Anyway, I'm at your mercy, and thanks in advance!

 

[Cyrokk]

hmm..

in replacing the mixer i'd actually look into studiomaster consoles.. I'm in a similar situation in that I record alone.. one track at a time.. I have a studiomaster diamondhead 16-2.. yeah that's right.. it only has two sends and returns.. but honestly that's all you need if you are the only one in your band.. they are reasonably priced, durable, with very decent sound quality..

Of course you could always go with the mixer functions in the software packages.. but if you still want to get a stand-alone console.. look into studiomaster..

Cy

 

[tubedude]

Somewhat in the same boat here, only I'm keeping what I have already.
I'm going to start with a VERY high grade pre, Langevin or better. Probably a Focusrite ISA110, about $1700. Avalon makes the M5 that is real nice, for about $1500. The Langevin dual is about $1200 but I've not heard much about it. If you must be a cheap ass, go no less than a Grace Design 101, $600, but this might not do it for ya.
2nd, a Lucid converter.
Then, GOOD mics. Probably Sennheiser dynamics and 2 Neumann small condensers, and maybe a middle line Soundelux large condenser for vox. Eventually I might get brave and buy a Valvet and use it for vocals and masterbatory episodes and take it on dates and to dinner.
If you want quality sound, this is it. Plain and simple, not much more to it than the front end. Everything else can be low cost basics. Put your moeny in the front end. Put your money in the front end. Put your money in the front end. Say this over and over and over. Save for whats really right instead of buying whats real close. Real close sucks ass for dinner while you sit around wondering why the $2000 you invested sounds like a Tascam 4 track through a Dogpile mic.
Skimp, and thy sound shall be skimpy. Its in the bible. Believe it.
Depends on what you want. If you want quality, ask around. The whole truth and nothing but the truth. Thats what I tell
Paul

 

[tubedude]

Oops

I forgot we were in the soundcards forum
Anyway... make sure you get something with S/PDIF in and out if you plan on growing and getting a fat front end with fat converters, like the Lucids.
I would suggest getting cheaper cards with s.pdif that work together (so you can expand) and putting the moneey into the converters. I know its expensive, and I'm not sure your goal is the same as mine. But, for less than $900, you can have a Lucid AD and a card with spdif ins, like a midi man or something.
I also forgot to mention the Vintech 1272 preamp, goes for about $1300 and its a dual channel. Its doubtful you'll find anything that nice (and plain looking) for $1300, especially 2 channels. Probably the best buy right now, could easily be over $2000.
Front end man... front end...
Paul

 

[CyanJaguar]

Man, I love where tube dude is coming from.

If you get the tried and true gear, everything else seems to fall into place as far as soundquality.

Hopefully, I'll be sporting a grace 101 someday soon.

Anyhow, a good way to do it is this. Since you will only be recording yourself..

get a use roland vs880 on ebay for like $300. It give you eight inputs and outs.

get a lucid ad9624 for like 700 and use that to record into the vs880.

either stop there or get a card that has spdif so that you can fly the tracks from the 880 into your pc for editting OR you can go directly from the lucids into the pc.

 

[getuhgrip]

VS880 is a stand alone hard drive recorder? I initially looked at those but folks talked me out of it in that I already had several computers and all I really needed was a serious soundcard.

I may be wasting words here. Let me go see what this 880 is.

 

[getuhgrip]

C7, lost my connection while posting reply. Reply wound up as a new thread, "horse, cart, blah, blah". Check it out.
Thanks