My Studio Budget

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 1:18 pm

you can still record it 'how you want it sound to begin with'. but you have the flexibility there as well. It just depends on what you're aiming to do. there are some drum sounds you are just not going to be able to accomplish with 3 mics.

MojoPin · Post by **MojoPin** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 2:34 pm

Thanks for your replies guys. I'm not going to try and record live drums for now, I'm just going to use a drum machine. As for the mics I think I'm settling on and sm57 and the Mxl 990/991 set.

I'm confused about what interface to use though. I'm going to pass on the sound card rig, it looks like it'd be to expensive. Instead I want to use an external interface but idk which. What are the advantages of firewire vs. usb? I really like the features of the presonus firebox but my pc dosn't have firewire. However I could just buy a PCI firewire adaptor for like 30 bucks, even then I read somewhere that the interface won't work well unless it's a texas instruments firewire chipset, so I'd need to find an adaptor with that?

Also I'm wondering how to get the Octava's to have the right connection. The jacks on them are smaller than a standard mic jack so idk what kind of cable or adapter i'd need.

Al_ · Post by **Al_** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 10:15 pm

James wrote: I'd say this is the start to a dangerous road. You may as well have used the phrase 'fix it in the mix'.

Recording is most enjoyable and successful once you establish the idea that the best practice is to record things the way you want them to sound to begin with. You want some flexibility of course, and you rarely want to slam things with compression when you record them even if that's the final intention. Especially with difficult things like drums it's best to get them sounding good through the mics before you even hit record. The idea of mic'ing up everything and then figuring you have individual control over the elements and can balance them later is asking for trouble.

For the general discussion as the OP doesn't seem to want to record live drums necessarily--I'm in overall agreement with what you're saying here as a "best practices" approach. The problem is you need to have a very good monitoring set up to know the quality of the recording you're getting going in. It can happen that you get the best sound you can in the studio environment (however compromised) and then listen back to things on other reference systems you're familiar with (e.g., the car) and realize that certain elements are borked. At that point, you're only recourse is to go back into the mix and try and sort things out there; at which point having additional control over discreet elements can be helpful.

Pale Ale · Post by **Pale Ale** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:15 pm

There is some SM57 discussion in here so I may aswell say here...So I bought an SM57, never used one before, came today along with a female XLR to 1/4 cable, plugged it in, no sound (well I can tap it & hear it slightly but if I turn my amp really loud absolutely no sound at all. Help!

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:26 pm

you need a pre-amplifier to raise the microphone signal to line level. microphones have an extremely low signal level and so require a pre amp to make them usable. signal levels from lowest to highest are as follows:

Microphone
Instrument
Line
Speaker

Where are you plugging the mic into?

Pale Ale · Post by **Pale Ale** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:52 pm

A Boss Br-600, I thought it had a built in pre-amp but it doesn't so, ok, thanks.

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 2:23 am

that is interesting. you really would think it would have a pre-amp built into it. are you plugging it into the mic jack? not the instrument jack? also, where are you placing the mic in relation to the sound source?

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 4:23 am

Pale Ale wrote:A Boss Br-600, I thought it had a built in pre-amp but it doesn't so, ok, thanks.

It's got TRS inputs rather than standard XLR type inputs.
You will want to purchase an impedance adapter in order to use microphones.

Radioshack link:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2062443

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 5:03 am

yea, but it has separate 1/4" jacks (1 for instrument and 2 for mic I think?) with corresponding input impedance.

Roland wrote:Input Impedance

GUITAR/BASS jack: 1 M ohms, MIC 1/2 jack: 2 k ohms (HOT-COLD), (TRS balanced/XLR), 1.0 k ohms (HOT-GND, COLD-GND), LINE IN jack: 30 k ohms

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 8:06 am

then just an xlr to trs adapter, wtf. this shit is retarded.

Pullover · Post by **Pullover** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 2:39 am

cobascis wrote:you'll need few sm57s and 58s, too.

You might check out the GLS ES57 or ES58 from Orange County Speaker Repair, you can get 3 of them for the price of one SM57. They sound pretty good for the price, their cables are pretty awesome and you can get a 10 pack for 70 bucks.

http://www.speakerrepair.com/mm5/mercha ... icrophones
http://www.speakerrepair.com/mm5/mercha ... mic-cables

MojoPin · Post by **MojoPin** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 1:38 am

Alright so basically this is what I have worked out. What wires, ect do I need in addition to this in order to get things running? I decided on running mics straight to a soundcard on my computer. I was also wondering what people think of 49 vs 25 key controllers, is a longer scale worth it?

Blurillaz · Post by **Blurillaz** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 4:10 am

I'd say 49 is definetly worth it.