[spegeddd]

whats up everbody, here is how everything is going in my room...

m-audio keyboard midi controller (axiom 25 key, should have just went with a 61 key)
electr. drums that are midi-to-usb
sonar 6 with lots of VSTs/VSTi

i get real nice quality sounds from the VSTi's (Addictive Drums VST is sweet) but what really sounds bad in our recordings are the guitars & vocals. for the guitar & bass we have it plugged into this amp and we have a crappy mic that sits infront of the amp. reading these forums however i just found out that i could've ran the guitar cable to my sound card with the help of an adapter. anyway, now my computer's sound card is some very generic PCI. Since the mic we use is really crappy, I was looking at getting this mic & preamp set

M-Audio MXL 990/991 Recording Mic Duo and M-Audio AudioBuddy Package ($99.99) - guitar center

since the thing plugs into my sound card, would my sound card be reducing the recorded quality any? all I know about it is it has the basic 3 ports on it (line in , mic, and line-out?) and it is ASIO compatible.

Just thinking of things to get to add onto my studio equipment. I was looking at USB mixers, but since I mix the tracks with Sonar's Console, would a usb one benefit me in any way with my setup? Or could anyone recommend me some (not expensive) toys I can get to help improve my setup? I am good with the software but the hardware well I lack the knowledge

[Tekker]

Hi spegeddd, welcome to the forum!

What is the guitar amp that you have?

If you get a decent mic and preamp, miking a guitar amp will generally give a better sound than going in direct. So far I have yet to hear any amp simulator effects that come close to a nice sounding 'real' guitar amp.

Yes, if you are using your standard sound card it will degrade the quality. Standard sound cards are not meant for serious audio recording.

It sounds like there are three different areas here:
New audio interface / preamp
Guitar recording (mic vs. direct in)
Vocal recoding (mic)

What budget did you have in mind? Do you want to stay at around $100 or would you be willing to go more?

-tkr

[spegeddd]

thanks for the reply man, and the tip on using the guitar amp rather than direct. the amp is marshall not very big at all, and as far as budget goes i would not mind investing more than $100, I just thought the m-audio mics were a sweet deal for what I needed. Now I know it's not really the case anymore :-p I guess I'd also have to get a sound card with that too. Or would it be better to get an audio interface w/ preamp (usb?) and a set of mics?

[Tekker]

You're welcome.

Just a few more questions:

How does the Marshall sound (tone wise)? Does it have a good sound that you want to record?

How much do you want to spend on everything (max budget)?

Also, how many tracks do you want to record at once? Do you plan on recording just one track at a time or would you like the option to record more tracks at once (with a multiple input audio interface)?

-tkr

[spegeddd]

the tone from the amp is OK, could be better but nothing I can really complain about I am borrowing the thing . I'd like to stay under the $300 range for everything.

I have a small room but if I got a multiple input interface, could I effectively record vocals and guitar at the same time? Would they leak into each other's mics? (I could throw the singer in the closet hah). If my room is too small to do this or if the mics to make this work are way expensive then I'm fine with doing like how we've been. drums & keyboard at one time, then guitar then vocals separately.

[Tekker]

Originally Posted by spegeddd

I have a small room but if I got a multiple input interface, could I effectively record vocals and guitar at the same time? Would they leak into each other's mics? (I could throw the singer in the closet hah).

There probably would be a large amount of bleed through, especially the vocal mic picking up the guitar amp. But things like bass and electric guitar could be recorded together (if the bass was recorded direct there'd be no bleed).

Two inputs would be good because then you could have some options for recoding individual instruments as well. Such as using two mics on the guitar amp.

Audio Interface: M-Audio Mobile Pre (USB) ($150): This will give you two inputs both with mic preamps. It is USB1, which I'm generally weary of, but the USB2 interfaces and/or Firewire interfaces are a little more expensive.

Vocal Mic: Either the Studio Projects B1 ($120) or the Marshall Electronics MXLV67g ($100).

Guitar Mic: The Shure SM57 is an industry standard for guitar amp miking, however I have heard very good things about the GLS Audio ES-57 ($30) which is a clone of the SM57. It's much cheaper ($70 cheaper!) and from what I've read many people actually prefer it over the real SM57.


So with the Studio Projects b1 that'll put you at $300 even. The MSLv67g will save you a little bit at $280, but I recommend going with the B1.

-tkr

[Stratrat]

Originally Posted by Tekker

...Guitar Mic: The Shure SM57 is an industry standard for guitar amp miking, however I have heard very good things about the GLS Audio ES-57 ($30) which is a clone of the SM57. It's much cheaper ($70 cheaper!) and from what I've read many people actually prefer it over the real SM57...

I've been reading a lot of buzz lately about the Sennheiser e609 being a great mic for amps also. It's very comparable in cost to the SM57 - might be worth a look.

[Doug]

A great resource (besides our inestimable Tekker) for questions about mics and such is the usenet news group rec.audio.pro which can be googled from, er, google . generally the posts are of high calibre and most of the regulars are proven professionals in recording.
From google, select groups under "more" then do an advanced search with e609 in the "all the words" and "rec.audio.pro" in the group name. And you'll get... 240 threads that discuss the pros and cons of the senheiser e609.