Yeah.. Another NEWBIE Gear question

[Crash ©]

Don't ya just love 'em...

Looking at recording mostly accoustic driven stuff... Solo guitar w/ vocal, small Bluegrass groups (4 or 5 folks), suicidal chick music, folk, etc...

Looking for a semi-portable setup and not wanting to go the 4 track cassette route...

Here's the lowdown on what I've got in mind

Toshiba Satellite Laptop, 512mb, 1.2Ghz Celeron, CD-RW, at least a half ass sound card, 2 Firewire via PCMCIA and 2 USB. Have had it a while so there's no going back or changing this puppy anytime soon...

Alesis MultiMix8 FireWire Mixer, can shoot 8 tracks to the laptop in one shot (hopefully). For what I've got in mind that'll generally be about 4 more than I'll ever need. We did a recording last summer and only had one group that needed more than 8 channels, but try and find something with 13+ channels on the cheap. Some of 'em will just have to learn how to share a mic. Prolly run that basic Cubase stuff that comes with the Alesis and see how it works out for the final mixing... Might be handy to have a unit that you can do recording AND mixing with... Kinda the two birds with one stone deal..

Fostex PM-2 Monitors

MXL-990 Mics.. Sure that'll make most of you cats cringe but they fall into the budget really well.

With all the obligitory mic stands, cables, heaphones and misc junk to put it all together I'm thinking the bill is gonna come in at about $900.. Looking for other (better) options in what I've got layed out that I might have overlooked..

Thought about the Firepod and the Mackie unit (w/ the firewire plug-in) but both are a bit higher priced and the Firepod doesn't have much hands on control other than channel levels.. Does have 8 full XLRs though..

Looking to keep this as low powered light weight and portable as possible, good chance of doing location stuff.. Location like in an open air park with a couple of mics in the middle of a jam circle... Yeah.. Lotta background noise, but damn earthy sounding.. Just hook a 700watt 120vac power inverter I've got up to the truck, run an extension cord and plug it all up.. Prolly making it sound a lot easier than it's gonna be...

Anyroads.. Just soliciting comments, advice, hair styling tips, etc... Thx

--
Rob Duncan
Corodva TN

 

[LfO]

Just a vote of confidence for Cubase (though I'm more of a cakewalk fan myself...) - I don't know of anyone who uses a seperate app for recording and mixing. Mastering, yes, but not mixing. You may find that the cheap version you have isn't good enough, you may not. I'd suggest checking out kvraudio.com for free plugins to expand your mixing power, assuming your Cubase comes pretty ill-equipped and allows plugins.

 

[Richard Monroe]

No real complaint with the concept. You've already got a pretty good laptop, and you have a pretty good plan to use it. You also have a pretty good handle on the reality of peripherals (good cables can kill you). You're right about one other thing, too. The concept of doing this with MXL 990's makes my skin crawl. It makes the budget, huh? Tell you what- I 'll kick you in the balls for half the price of a 990, and it will be an equally positive experience with less lasting damage. At least get one decent vocal condenser, even a cheapie.- MXL V67, AKG C2000B, AT2020, Studio Projects B-1, anything. Hell, for what you are doing, there's a lot of cheap dynamics I'd put up before a 990. Just my opinion.-Richie

 

[jkokura]

It'll do...

If it were me I'd get a different firwire interface like the Firepod...or an M audio firewire device...But then again I prefer rackmount stuff and I'm not a huge fan of mixers until you get into a little more expensive stuff like the A&H GL series or the Mackie Onyx...

I agree also that you should look at getting a good Vocal Mic...it's worth it to spend a little more here for the music you're recording. I would say you need an LDC for vocals and a pair of SDC's for acoustics (I think that's what you said you're recording)...after that it's just variety.

Jacob