Suggestions/Recommendations for startups.

[inimicus]

Hello folks.

As you can see, I'm a new member here. I have been fiddling with home recording since I began playing guitar about five years ago.

Recently I have made some decent purchases and am looking to further expand my recording hobby/practice.

I recently bought a Mackie 1220 (with firewire option), Shure SM81, and Sennheiser e906. I have a Boogie Mark IV and 4x12 standard recto, Casio PX100, '75 Hammond Century Series 200, and such than I like to experiment with.

My question is, since a lot of you have plenty more experience in the recording field than myself, what your recommendations or suggestions would be. Particularly...

If you were starting out all over, what would you have done differently as far as gear purchases? What is vital to your recordings that you wish you had long ago? What sort of hurdles have you needed to overcome? What would you recommend I pay attention to? Or anything else.

I have been listening to my favorite albums differently, paying attention to the subtle characteristics of the recordings; the chair creaks and soft breathing, tape noise, dynamics of the sound in general.

I am legally blind, severely nearsighted, and I have noticed that my ear is a lot more acute than my peers. I am hoping this would give me an edge in "hearing" recordings... be it of others or myself.

I wouldn't mind in depth details of how you started in the recording field. In fact, I welcome it.

I look forward to any responses

 

[ssscientist]

If you were starting out all over, what would you have done differently as far as gear purchases?

Invest in quality gear.

If you need a cheap piece to fill in a gap or for a special occasion, get it.

But for everday use saving up a bit and getting what you know to be the better piece of gear, be it a microphone, guitar or software package is the way to go.

The good news is that the home recording market has gotten so competitive in the last decade that quality pieces are everywhere and truly cheap shit has been forced off the market. That wasn't always the case. Even the lower-tier brands --- Behringer, Samson, Phonic, etc --- make some good stuff and need to be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Reasearch every purchase. I got burned recently by a shiny new midi controller that turned out to be something I returned because it didn't play well with my every day software. I had to have it because it had gotten a glowing review in my favorite music products mag and I wanted to be the first on my block. Putting too much stock in product reviews and being taken with the newness of a piece of gear are two mistakes I don't usually make anymore, but I did in this case.

The Mackie board, the Shure and Sennheiser mics and the Casio keyboard are quality items, so you've got a good start.

If I were just starting out now this board would be a real find. Be sure you post questions on here when you need to advice about how to do it or whether or not to buy it or on almost any other topic.

 

[Kevin Deschwazi]

I would've made good room acoustics and monitoring the priority, would've saved me much time and frustration.

 

[Micter]

I would have invested in "good" mic preamps. It makes all the difference in the recording process to have quiet, transparent, and clear sounding preamps.

 

[inimicus]

^ The onyx mic pres on my board are pretty wicked for the price.

As far as monitoring... I have been tossing around different powered near field monitors.

Probably until I get the cash I'll use my current setup. Mackie > FireWire > PC (software) > optical out > Pioneer VSX-1014TX > cheap home theater speakers. Too many weird things in between. Compared to Mackie > Firewire > PC > FireWire > Mackie > Monitors...

Reasonable price for a pair of monitors? $500? $1000? I'm a buy-it-once kind of person, so I would be willing to spend a little more if it'll last, though cost conscious as well.