Need help!

laciegradient

Hi.
Still a bit lost after reading the sticky. I'd really appreciate if anyone could help me out a bit.

I'm looking to get some decent equipment for home recording. I want to be able to record drums, piano, guitars and bass etc.
I'm unsure about what recording device to buy. I have a decent PC and good software (FL studio, Cubase) but I was hoping to get a mixer that could be used both with and without it, but thats not essential really.
I've been looking at this one:
http://www.thomann.de/ie/alesis_multimix_16_firewire.htm

Is this a good choice?

I have a budget of 1000euro. Maybe a bit more. I need to get mics with that aswell!

Thanks.

ogy

its not a bad choice. the only things i can see people finding fault with are:
- the highest samplerate you can record at is 48khz, while i believe this is completely acceptable (and actually anything higher is pointless imho) other audio interfaces do offer 96khz and some even 192khz sampling rates.
- the preamps are probably not the best in the world, but probably not the worst either. according to the review at www.soundonsound.com there reasonable but noisy at higher gain settings so if you're using dynamic mics theyll have to be close to the recording source to avoid introducing noise by boosting the gain a lot.
- other similar audio interfaces in that price range have more outputs. this is handy in some situations but probably not that important for just recording.

generally things that do 2 things (mixer and audio interface) are rarely as good as things that do 1 things in my experience, so a standalone audio interace for that price would probably be better, but wouldn't have the mixer functionality you require.

i have a presonus firepod which is the same price but is more of a dedicated audio interface. it can be used as an 8 input mixer but is not really designed for it, as an audio interface though.

for recording guitar, piano, vocals, bass etc you should aim to get the following:
- At least one large diaphragm condenser mic (preferably a matched stereo pair to do some nice stereo recordings)
- At least one dynamic mic
- A DI box

drums complicate things, to record them properly you'd also need:
- a pair of small diaphragm condenser mics (the large diaphragm ones could be used as a compromise)
- a kick drum mic and a mic of some sort for each tom (either specialized drum mics or some dynamics)

as usual you get what you pay for but you should be able to balance a reasonable collection of mics from the remaining €600 after the mixer/interface.
for condenser mics (large and small) look at Rodes or SE Electronics
for dynamic preferably a sure 57 or 58
DI box, a behringer one would do the job

T-bone make alternatives to all these types of mics, theyre not bad, but theyre not great, so you could get a set of T-bone drum mics to complete the package maybe.

Heres what i'd probably do on your budget:
Interface/desk 399
Rode NT1A LDC 189
Sure SM57 98
T-Bone DC1000 Drum Mic Kit 133
T-bone SC180 stereo set 180

going by thomann prices that adds up to exactly €999 not bad eh?:)

doesn't leave you money for leads or mic stands though but theyre fairly cheap.

hope that helps!

laciegradient

Thanks a lot for the advice.
Are there any decent interfaces in that price range with more than 8 mic inputs so I record live playing?

TelePaul

laciegradient wrote:

Thanks a lot for the advice.
Are there any decent interfaces in that price range with more than 8 mic inputs so I record live playing?

2 firepods daisy chained, firestudio (expandable with lightpipie, gets expensive).

laciegradient

If i recorded drums on the firepod would the signals from the different mics get merged into one track on the computer?
Sorry if that's a stupid question.

cornbb

Nope, if you wanted to do that you'd just need a cheap mixer and a simple interface with 1 or 2 inputs. The beauty of something like the firepod is that it allows you to record each track seperately and treat it individually within the computer.

It does get expensive the more tracks you want to record though. You could comprimise by getting an interface with 2, 4 or 8 inputs and then buy a mixer with which to create submixes. The finished product wouldn't be as good then, but thats the sacrifice you might make if you're on a budget.

laciegradient

cornbb wrote:

Nope, if you wanted to do that you'd just need a cheap mixer and a simple interface with 1 or 2 inputs. The beauty of something like the firepod is that it allows you to record each track seperately and treat it individually within the computer.

Perfect. Thats exactly what I want! If i stretched the budget by a couple hundred or so would you recommend putting it towards better mics?
Thanks for all the advice.

ogy

id say mic quality is definitely the most important aspect of getting a high quality recording, closely followed by pre-amp and a/d (analogue to digital) converter quality, HOWEVER, i think for a first set up what i described would be perfectly decent to learn on, you'd learn loads using it and it would probably be a long time before you'd feel the need to buy better stuff. maybe if you had a few more quid to spend itd be worth buying some plug-ins or some real outboard gear. i'd highly recommend whichever waves plug-in bundle you can stretch to as they include very good software EQs, reverbs, compressors etc., not very flashy but very important tools of the trade.

nillox

i have a 4ch mixer and an Mbox2, i just miked up the drum kit, sent it to the mixer, then to the mbox2, only downside was that it was only 2 channels but still sounded better than other times i miked up every part of a kit in a studio.
i actually only used 3 mics, couldnt find the 4th, so i had an sm57 in the middle of the kit and 2 over heads. im shocked it turned out so well.
heres a link to the song i did, the band is redking n the song is lost
http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=1447687441

laciegradient

Blast. No firewire port. Any similar alternatives to the firepod?

cornbb

There's a fairly comprehensive selection here: http://www.thomann.de/ie/audio_interfaces.html