Start Me Up

i'm absolutely behind on recording, haven't a clue about mics mixers or 4-tracks.
At the moment for rough recording i'm using an Iriver h-120 with the supplied external mic, it's crap to make cds with but it works to help me remember/work on something.

What i need is the whole shebang. I'm starting from scratch and so will take what you give me and use it.

My band is 3 acoustic guitars (2 rythym one lead (ish)) and 2 voices.

We are aiming to try and record an e.p off our own backs without having to use a studio, but will need to be shown what to buy.

never mind using it, a good friend of ours is a (trainee) sound engineer, unfortunately he's a little indecisve and wont reccommend what to buy. He changes his mind every week, but i reckon if we bought a set up, he'd do all the recording work for us.

We know that it'll take a long time to get it right, but would feel great about having our very own set-up, enabling us to move at our own pace, and record and mix maybe one song at a time.

I have no preferences between a PC setup or otherwise, and will listen to all suggestions,

thanks for the help

Emmet

Beecher

budget?

we'll say variable, we're not rich, we can easily come up with €200/300, and could possibly stretch to €500/600 if necessary.

Beecher

The Lexicon Omega is very good at around 260 euro, has a maximum of four audio channels of simultaneous recording (the constraints of USB) and a couple of insert-equipped, high-quality mic preamps. The software bundle does suck (Since it now ships with great ASIO drivers you do get Cubase LE) but its a great piece of hardware if you have good mics. Review here.

The Original MBox can be bought from Thomann for aroud 290 euro now, and has quite a similar hardware spec to the Omega, but you do get pro toos LE which is beter than Cubase LE. Afaik the Mbox has no Midi inputs which sucks (Thats why Im choosing the Omega over it for myself, plus I allready own Cubase SX)

Second hand a Motu 828 would be amazing, cab be gotten for around 300-350 off ebay for the mark 1, review here.

Also been hearing good things about the Terratec phase 88 but havnt had the pleasure of trying one myself. Review here.

My last recommendation would be the Firewire 410, great piece of hardware though I know many people who's computer had compatability problems with the firewire protocol it uses. Review here.

Then all you need is a few mics (say 2 sm57's for the guitars, and 1 or 2 sm58's for vocals depending on how you plan to record) and voila.

Moojuice

I have an mbox pro tools setup at home and it is the business. I use a software drum machine so I have no need for more than two inputs. If i ever do need to record live drums ill rent a studio for a few hours.

How ever you will need a good mike. I picked up a rhode Nt1-A for 160 euro a year ago. A great mike and great all rounder for vocals and especially nice on acoustic guitar. i got an amazing acoustic guitar sound using it and some well place duvets.
Go for the mbox and try and get a Rhode NT-1A and/or a Shure SM58. Another good all rounder. Especially for guitar amps and vocals.
Mbox + good mike= infinite possiblities........

sei046

i bought a phase 88 and software bundle which had Cubase se and it was great. I am still using the phase with cubase sx now. I just run the desk into phase