the home studio

THANK YOU KINDLY

(I mean: thanks, awesome)

bump

I would not bother recording acoustically at home without a decent preamp. you can get away with the right cheap mic if your preamp is decent. odds are high that plugging the best mic in the world into a tascam's built-in "preamp" will result in a dingy sounding recording. so read up on mic preamps.

your best answer is probably the m-audio dmp3, which does wonders for acoustic recording. however, unless you get a good deal on one it will eat up most of your $200 budget.

http://www.amazon.com/Midiman-M-Audio-DMP3-Microphone-Instrument/dp/B000095JBC

a secondary option at a lower price point is the audiobuddy. it's a very nice preamp that will get the job done and can be had for around $50. stay away from ART, behringers, or presonus. some people get good results from them but overall the quality control from those companies is not the best.

http://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-Audio-Microphone-Preamp-Musicians/dp/B001E3TWNI

the groove tube brick preamp is also very good, but only if you stumble across some serious cash or find one cheap.

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Groove-Tubes-BRICK?sku=482845

when it comes to budget mics, it's hard to make a good recommendation since you really have to make a love connection between your voice and a mic. voices are idiosyncratic instruments, and so are cheap mics. go into the shop and try a few out, preferably in concert with the preamp you'll be using. I hate shure mics, they do nothing for my voice, but people like them because results are predictable. MXLs are not very well made.

take a look at CAD mics. you're not going to be able to afford an e100 or e300, but they make great mics and although I've never actually used one, the GXL3000 seems like a good bet for $100.

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/CAD-GXL3000-Microphone?sku=270366

this forum is good source of info:
http://homerecording.com/bbs/index.php

and googling a term like "mic shootout" can return interesting results like this:
http://www.transom.org/tools/recording_interviewing/200508.mic_shootout.html#

as a last bit of advice, when it comes to mic'ing acoustic instruments placement is key. moving a mic an inch can have a big effect on the sound, so play around in the beginning to find out where the mics sound best in the room you're recording in.

Whoa, thanks, that's really helpful. Maybe the DMP3 and one of the studio projects mics (B1 or B3)..

wow i really dropped the ball on this one timewise.

so yeah, i'm actually a big fan of the MXL 603s, but i think the need to buy a phantom power supply kind of diminishes the utility of condenser mics given your budget. i would buy something a little more geared to non-vocal recording than the 58 though - first thought would be a audix i5, which should be about 100 USD, and is a great utility/toolkit mic.

sorry if this arrives too late, was busy with a bunch of dumb store crap for the last few weeks.

Ah, s'alright. I did end up purchasing the dmp3 and the SP B1. A lot of this was due to E3's advice, but also the thinking that having a good preamp will always come in handy down the road. I'll post results when I start recording.

G00blar how did you make out w/ the dmp3?

am just heading over to n/a's thread to report.

i'm really gearing up (no pun intended) to get back into home recording, which is why i asked about preamps on the other thread. i took a reel-to-reel four-track i bought for cheap to the shop for an estimate on repairs (though it's been a month and i haven't heard anything), am looking at getting a decent mic and preamp. i've got a month or so between grad school semesters and i'm hoping to get some writing and recording done in the extra spare time.

reel to reel, sweet! hope you can find tape for it...

i bought a couple of used reels on ebay to test it out; unfortunately the four-track needs mechanical work before i can even get that far

it doesn't look like the reel-to-reel will be repaired by the end of this semester so i'm thinking of just buying a cassette four-track off craigslist OMG WTF

don't you already have a cassette 8 track?

yeah but it's been falling apart forever ... at least one of the sliders has to be taped down for that track to work, sometimes it has to be turned upside-down for a different track to work, etc.

I never particularly liked the tascam 244 (aka the brown box) when I was using it in the late 80s but a whole lotta people seem to love them nowadays.

but that's where the SOUL is, maan.

i'm getting excited about recording again too, maybe just because it's cold outside? a dude i play in a couple bands with is going to write songs to some of my beats, and vice versa.

xp

there's a tascam 244 closing on ebay tomorrow

Hey guyz, anybody use a usb midi keyb? I'm lookin for somethin mad compact like the Korg Nanokey or the Akai LPK25. Also lookin at usb mics, but everything I read says you gotta put up with mad latency. T? F? Recommends on those for instruments and/or vocals?

that nanokey looks a little too stripped-down, like maybe you would want something with a mod wheel or some knobs to control parameters?

i've got an old m-audio oxygen controller that works fine (and now that i'm getting a new computer, i'll actually be able to use it without terrible latency!)

Something with only two octaves of keys would probably drive me nuts, but the Akai has dedicated octave up/down buttons which helps a bit. They're also bringing out the MPK, which is the same width as the LPK but with knobs and pads as well.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep07/images/AkaiMPD24header_l.jpg

i use this, but i also want to get a lil keyboard when i feel like bustin melodies bc figuring out chords and shit on this is a hassle

Also the keys on the Nanokey are little better than calculator buttons really, and there have been some issues with individual keys coming loose.
Generally it's worth spending a little extra for a good MIDI controller, as even the mid-priced ones last for ages. (example, I've had this Evolution MK-149 for 10 years)

rip mark danjer

the phrase "usb microphone" has the same effect on me as those photos of things with holes in them has for trypophobes

Afternoon good ppl, I've got pretty much no experience w/ home rec, but I'm looking to get a new pc to record acoustic guitar as well running ableton, & other bits of software.

I have a midi controller & a unidirectional mic, but no preamp or anything. I have a fairly low budget, and am trying to work out exactly what I need, what I can scrape by not spending too much on and where it'll pay to invest £. If anyone has wisdom&recommendations as to sound cards, midi ports, the necessity of preamps &c. they would be noble indeed if they could enlighten me.

I recently bought a Tascam US-144mkII - very happy with it so far.

MIDI Interface, stereo mic pre, lin input, headphone and line out - all in a box the size of an external hard drive. Connects to the PC via USB2.0, very low latency, about £130.

lin input = line input

that looks neat. would I still need a decent internal sound card to run my sound through my hifi?

I'm guessing not, but that I would need an extra line out to be able to play different things through headphones and speakers?

I don't know how the interface would work with an internal soundcard. I bought the Tascam because my old PCI Soundblaster didn't have drivers for Windows 7 when I upgraded.
The Tascam has a line out on the back, but that plays the same thing that's coming out of the headphone socket on the front. However, there is a monitor mix control (the top left knob), where you can dial in the balance between direct monitoring of the inputs and what's coming from the computer.

the edirol ua-25 comes recommended by me, could be worth checking it out as an alternative. i haven't used the tascam.

The focusrite saffire series are useful because they have OK preamps and function as good soundcards. I find when there's a budget the best bet is to consolidate these things.
If you want DJ style headphone + out outs don't get the edirol ua-25 (unless you're ok with splitting the mono outs)

actually just noticed you're on a PC. Might work with one of those asio sound card ghosting programs. Is it asio4all?

I'm appreciating these suggestions! so maybe the focusrite saffire 6 would cover everything. I don't know anything about asio sound card ghosting, something that wld allow you to get stereo out of two mono outs? anyway I'm leaning towards the sapphire, I think.

shouldn't be a problem with the saffire as I'm pretty positive it has multi outs. Want to list your computer specs + budget? Sometimes you can get some pretty great bundle packages. Have a look on gumtree too, you can get some great gear for cheap if you're quick and willing to travel a bit.

I'm getting a new comp so specs are ??? (prob decentish w/ lots of RAM) and budget is w/e I have left over afterwards.

get a presonus firestudio, best box in this price range

k so I figure I should upgrade my recording setup - at the moment I'm recording to minidisc with this mic which I think would be okay for my needs if the convoluted and messy passage from that to a .wav on my computer didn't diminish the sound so much. So... what should I do? I really don't know anything in this area. (I'm mostly recording from guitar amp but there'll be some acoustic stuff too. I don't really need anything too fancy, just something that isn't full of unwanted fuzziness and digital artifacts.)

idk how you can soup up yr gear but i wld be very interested in some merdeyeux music

Do you have a Mac or a PC? What software are you already using to grab the audio from the minidisc?

Does your minidisc have a digital out?

nah that's the biggest problem with the minidisc, i can (as far as i can tell) only deal directly with its files through the specific software, which doesn't seem to run on windows 7. and even if i could get the software to run, it seems that converting the files out of the sony format is still a pain. so atm i just have a shoddy line out direct to laptop, recording it in audacity. though i also have ableton, i assume that could be a better option.

ogmor, i record pretty much every sound i bother to make! lots of lo-fi loop pedal noodling here https://soundcloud.com/eeeeeein

For micing a guitar cab you'll want something like an SM57, which really needs a pre-amp/USB interface to connect it to the computer. For that I use one of these http://tascam.com/product/us-144mkii/

oh and a mic stand of course

that's useful, thanks. The SM57 is famously useful for micing anything you'd ever want to mic, right? And would a mixer with USB output do the job of the Tascam thing? Something like http://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/MIX02AU-6-Channel-Mini-Mixer-with-USB-by-Gear4music/K82 but less rubbish than that particular one probably is?

The 57 is versatile, definitely can be used for guitar cabs, drums. For acoustic guitar it's reasonable but not great. I use mine for vocals as well (with an external pop shield), but I'm a fairly basic singer so a more expensive mic would be a waste for me. The stereo Sony mic you mentioned earlier would probably be better for acoustic guitar. But I don't know how you'd connect it directly to a PC - through the line in perhaps? Maybe someone else can confirm that. I use a Zoom H1 (micro SD card recorder) for acoustic guitar anyway. I mix in the box, and I've never owned a mixer with a USB output, so I don't know how that might work out.

Talk to me about sound-blocking/sound-absorbing curtains -- I want to hang one over each of three doorways (one to the garage, one to the crawlspace, one to the main floor of my house) and another one over the basement stairway. Primary goal is to reduce sound leakage out of the basement so as not to bother my family/neighbors, but dampening some of the reverberation within the basement would be nice as well. Eventually intend to take additional acoustical measures but this is the first step. What kind of curtains/sheets/blankets whatever should I use?