what's best ??

[@iro]

Hi guy's I'm totally new here and I have some questions, I'm currentely recording on my D12 (korg) and I'm thinking of going for pc based recording. can I get with my laptop and prob. some new stuff (mixer, soundcard) the same result as I have now ? or should I stay with the korg ?

My gear for pc based recording is now:

A celeron 1700 640 ddr with cubase sx installed

An edirol ua-1a (I use it to trasfer from the d12)

and that's about it, I do have a pa mixer but it hase only 2 out's

what do I need for good recordings? a new soundcard ? mic pre amp ? new mixer ?... and what would be your choice ?

Thanks,

Sven

ps: sorry for my bad english

 

[cstockdale]

hard to say without knowing more about what you play, how you record (multi tracking or overdubbing one track at a time), etc.



The whole signal path is important.

The mic records the signal, the preamp amplifies it, the mixer routes the signal, and the soundcard converts it to digital. Your sound is only as good as the weakest link in that path. A decent mic is important, a decent preamp is also very important, a mixer is debatable (only in the sense that you can route directly to the soundcard depending on what you have). You see what I am saying?

Budget is critical. If you have hardly any money, get an Audiophile 2496, and try to find a used Mackie VLZ or VLZ Pro mixer (1202 or 1402) . This will give you a good soundcard and decent preamps and a mixer. If you can't afford Mackie, Behringer is tolerable but go for the UB series (has better preamps, but not as good as Mackie).

But, for the same amount of money (depending on what you pay for a used Mackie), you could go for the Delta Omni Studio w/ Delta 66 card (4in/out, S/PDIF, Midi), which functions as a mixer, and has pretty nice preamps that rival the Mackie.

A PC based system is infinitely more flexible than almost any stand-alone studio-in-a-box simply due to all the plugins, the ease of editing, unlimited tracking, etc. Heck, sell the D12 on Ebay, and use the money towards audio hardware for recording into your PC.

If you need more than 4in/out capacity, then seriously look at the Delta 1010, or the Aardvark Q10. With these, however, you will need a mixer that has as many discrete sends as there are ins on teh soundcard, and that is where costs start to rise.

 

[@iro]

hey, thanks for the tip... tomorrow I'm going to a music store and look for some stuff...