Next thing to buy?

[toadiesXJ]

Hi, i would like to introduce my self. I'm 19 years old and got the 001 back in may. I am a poor college student barly making the bills. so anything over $50 is alot [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Since i'm getting more addictive to recording, whats should be the next big purschased.

Right now i have

001
2 shure 57
1 shure 58
3 RadioShack Drum Mics (for the money they rock)
2 crappy mics

I'm thinking about saving my money for a multi channel pre-amp, not a mixer. I don't under stand the idea of spending $800 on Protools with a built in mixer then spend more money on an external mixer.

So what should i buy next? DigiMax? what is recommended. What about a good pair of Moniters? I saw a pair of Roland MA-8s at Mars Music for like $80. not bad.

Chris

[pk_hat]

hello and welcome,

what type of music do you plan on recording?
this could help in narrowing things down, particularily your need (or not) for a preamp at this time. whatever it may be, I would steer you in the way of monitors. If you can't hear it right, your not gonna mix it right, thus playing your bounced masterpiece on your friend's hi-fi and acknowledging that 'something's not right'.

I say go with monitors first.

[toadiesXJ]

thanks for the info.

I play rock n' roll!

I was thinking Pre-Amps because i have the drum set miced with 5 microphones all at line level inputs, doesn't sound all that bad either. but i figure i could get it a better tone.

I only record 1 guitar at a time, and use 2 of my 57s.

I'm going to look for moniters probably next. How much should i spend for a good pair?

[pk_hat]

Originally posted by toadiesXJ:
thanks for the info.

I play rock n' roll!

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Yeah baby, yeah!

ok cool, well, in that case some good preamps are key. thing is, you're cutting corners in certain areas and seem satisfied with the lo-fi approach, which I think is quite admirable these days, so if you like the setup, keep it. I say this because you also seem very limited financially, so I couldn't recomend getting a great preamp, when you're feeding it a Radio Shack mic signal, and that's not accounting for the drumkit quality, and more importantly, the person behind it.

Same with monitors. you either get decent stuff now and upgrade to great stuff later, or you get crappy stuff because it's in your price range, only to realise you've wasted time and money in a few months, as your passion for recording grows stronger and you learn more about it.

I'd say go with a $399 pair of Alesis M1 mk2 actives. They seem like the greatest bang for the buck at the moment, plus you don't need to spend extra cash on a power amp. Don't get too enthused about $80 speakers, you'll be hating them in no time.

[Jeff Dhungana]

If you're on a tight budget, right now I cant think of a better pair of monitors than the Behringer Truths. They run for about $399 new and you can probably get em for less used. The cost is definitely justified by performance, and although they're not the best, they will be a crucial addition to your system. Or you can go old school and get the Yamaha NS10s (which they stopped making) used and the cheap Alesis ra100 or something. You can always upgrade later. If none of these appeal to you, there are a lot of choices for monitors in the under $400 category. Just remember that monitors are probably the next most important part of your rig besides your PC itself.

Good luck w/ ur recordings.

Jeff

[pk_hat]

seems that we're down to the wire in the sub $500 monitor category, looks like Behringer Truth vs. Alesis Mk2 are the strongest contenders.
If I was in the market for monitors, I'd probably go with Alesis, as the latest Sound On Sound gave them a very favorable review. Personally, I'm done with Behringer stuff for good, I think it's garbage that starts to show it's value (or lack thereof) over time.

You can do a search for monitors under $500, there was a lengthy thread devoted to that a while back, though some will probably chime in here with their votes.

[vocalvoodoo]

I just picked up some M-Audio StudioPhile SP-5B's today for $299. They are self powered and I am also on a tight budjet. In the $500 and below range, they sounded the best to me. Not the greatest but what do you expect for $299?

[tptman]

I've got to say that if I were shopping for a first set of monitors, I would look pretty hard at the NS10's. I mean, anything else in this price range is most likely getting replaced if you ever get more serious about it or decide to got to the next level. However, if you go with the NS10's, you've got the same set of monitors that are sitting behind plenty of 80 input Neves and SSl's, know what I mean? There's a debate about this on another part of the forum, but, jeez, if the most respected of pros use them (even just as a reference), its worth a shot, and you'll have a piece of gear that will last you for some time.

my .02

Peter

[tptman]

I meant to say, yeah, get the Genelecs [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Dave Ellington]

If when recording one guitar amp or the drums you wouldnt be able to record much else in the same room why do you need 8 channels such as the digimax offers?

I am not a professional engineer. In fact, I generally just play with synths and drum machine'sso I may be WAY off base.
But, I would find a couple of high quality stereo pre's, a few more good mics, and get some mid range of the low end monitors. Then, if you get the urge to record bass, guitar, and drums in a live performance you can record the "strings" direct and maybe using "pods" and then if you do not like "pod tone" re amplify the guitar parts later.