Studio upgrade..(All suggestions and recommendations appreciated)

[Prospect (VA)]

Whats up everyone

Im in serious need of some upgraded equipment. My sound is average at best right now Im using a delta 44 soundcard, studio projects b1 mic, and an ART Studio v3 mic pre amp. I record in adobe audition. Now obviously my pre amp is my biggest problem. Its so old and outdated that it barely supplies the phantom power anymore to the microphone but its what ive used for such a long time that Im not familiar with a lot of better pre amps and what effects to look for. The microphone could also use an upgrade but it actually isnt that bad. The vocals come out pretty clean but theres no warm tone to the vocals (which I think is primarily the pre amp) and I usually have to do a lot of editing to get the vocals as good as they are which I think takes a lot away from the vocals. The soundcard I dont believe is an issue it works really good. Like I said my vocals are good but not great. Honestly I know a lot of people with the same or even worse equipment than me that have better sounding vocals than me, so that I dont understand? Maybe its just my mixing capabilities? Any suggesstions on what to do or look for would be much appreciated. Unfortuneately I have a small budget of only about $200-$250 but I know that even with that I can atleast get a better pre. Im not looking for anything extrordinary just better sounding. Thanks. Also if anybody has the time and is willing to I can send some of my songs to you and maybe get a better recommendation for equipment that way, or if anybody is good at mastering or mixing let me know im interested to see if anyone can make anything I have sound better than I can because like I said maybe its my mixing as well. Thanks a lot

 

[Kevin Deschwazi]

The mic and soundcard (I’ve used both) are capable of very respectable results if everything else is as it should be. The mic pre I’m not familiar with.

Others may disagree but much of what makes a live recorded source sound the way it does, goes on before it actually gets to the mic. I’ve moved a couple of times in recent years and it’s quite incredible how different my voice and my guitar sound recorded through the exact same equipment but in different acoustic environments. That’s not to say decent equipment isn’t worthwhile but if your recording environment isn’t suitable then don’t waste your money.

If you’re sure your mic pre needs upgrading go for it, I’d recommend the DMP-3 by M-Audio (cheap, 2 channels, bags of gain, sounds good). Try a search for it here, you'd be hard pressed to find a bad word said about it. I wouldn’t be at all surprised though if the dissatisfaction with your sound has little to do with the gear you’re using.

Don't sweat the mixing stuff too much, it's important don't get me wrong but that will come with practice. You should really be getting nice sounding raw tracks anyway, the mixing process is then just a case of getting all those nice tracks to gel and sit together nicely (not a turd polishing exercise ).

Check out the studio building forum and google for John Sayers and Ethan Winer, those guys have web pages with lots of great info on acoustic treatment.

 

[Daisy]

If you're not happy with the vocal tracks, usually it has to do with any one of five things:

1) Bad match between voice and microphone. It happens. Even really good mics can sound bad if the voice is a bad match for it.

2) Mic positioning; Standing eiter too close or too far from the mic.

3) Technique; either your voice sucks, or you're not singing with enough confidence or conviction; not "working the mic" due to lack of experience or poor headphone monitoring.

4) Lack of perspective; when listening to your own voice, you lose objectivity. It's entirely possible that your vocal sounds great, but maybe secretly you don't like the sound of your own voice, or are just overly critical of it.

5) Poor understanding of EQ and/or compression. Vocals are a very dynamic track, and need to be compressed if you want them to sound half-way decent. And if you don't understand how attack and release times, along with ratios and threshold settings affect the sound, then you're at a big disadvantage, because you'll be leaving it up to chance or lucky guesses.

 

[ausrock]

Good points from both Kevin D and Daisy but I'd have to give priority to your acoustic environment before anything else, of course, if you're sure your preamp is just about on it's way to God then definitely look at replacing it.

Improving your recording environment need not be expensive but without having a clear idea of what you have to work with, it's virtually impossible to give any useful advice.

 

[tmix]

Honestly,
I can't really add to Kevin's or Ausrocks advice.
To me,with my experiances, they are right on track.