Potential home studio set up

[Mr Benners]

Hey all,

After much deliberating, I have come up with the following as the base for a home studio. I already own a PC, so that's no trouble, just wondering what everyone makes of the other gear.

Shure SM57 (for instruments)
Behringer B1 (for vocals)
(Stands and leads for these)
Behringer UB1202 mixer
M-audio Audiophile 2496 (Line in/line out interface for the pc)

All accounted for, the total cost is about 300 English pounds.

Primarily, I'll be using it to mic up guitar and bass amps and record vocals for my bands recordings, and use the mixer to do the drums (or hire a mixer with more mic inputs). I'm hoping with the quality of the gear, I can get a pretty good recording.

Any comments or advice is much appreciated.

[ThePinkPanther]

Wait....are you only getting 2 mics?

And you don't need to mic the bass amp, you can do line in for that.

[10571z]

seems a ok setup. but ull need more mics to do drums... the sm57 will go well on snare adn you might need a few condesers and a bass drum mic.

maybe these if ur on a budget ive heard good things about them

http://www.behringer.com/C-2/index.cfm?lang=ENG

[PremierManiac]

And you don't need to mic the bass amp, you can do line in for that.

You can do that with any amp, bass or guitar of any kind, that has a line out.

[Hadji]

You can do that with any amp, bass or guitar of any kind, that has a line out.
But it isn't recommended for guitar and it is for bass.

[airborne50caliber]

All the gear is good, the weakest link is your vocal mic. Behringer make good rack gear and decent mixers but their transducers are really not that good. It will be okay to start with, but will always be your weakest link.

[Mr Benners]

Cheers folks.

I'm not actually buying the drum mics myself, as I personally don't drum. They'll be rented and borrowed off friends when we need them. I know about DI the bass, but it can also be nice to blend the two sounds (mic and DI).

I'm getting two mics to start with, the two that I need at the moment (one for vocals, one for instruments). I'll expand later, when I have the money to.

To airborne50caliber, what would you reccommend me as a good vocal mic for around (preferably same as or lower than) the same price as the Behringer? (It's 66 quid, if you didn't know)

[darrell]

If you have the mics and inputs, micing the bass amp AND going direct is a good idea. That way, you can play with both tracks and have more to work with to create that perfect sound that you are looking for.

[Seafroggys]

sm57s on every instrument?

They're not bad, but there's better out there. They kick *** on guitar amps, snare drums, and certain types of keyboards (my college's Rhodes electric piano, for instance).

However you'll want more condensors, especially for vocals. An SM58 might be good live, but you'll want a good condensor mic for studio.

[FatherKeeL]

... MXL has some very decent vocal mics to a modarete price...

[Mr Benners]

Cheers for all that folks.

So anyhow, I've spoken to a few people (face to face) and discovered that I'm not going to be needing a mixer. This is because I'm only really going to be doing one instrument at once, and to do drums my band are borrowing all the gear (mixer + mics) off a mate.

SO, I'm looking to get a rather snazzy soundcord instead. As in a nice shiny one that's good for recording from mics as well as generally kicking ***. I would really REALLY prefer if it had one of those nice front panels too, as getting down on my hands and knees aint fun. I'm also assuming that I'll have to swap the XLR-XLR leads for XLR-1/4" jack ones too? Any input towards this would be appreciated.

I've heard good things about the Audigy range and my dad owns a Terratec DMX6 which is pretty good too. Unfortunately its on his PC, not mine.

Thanks in advance again, its been helpful so far.

[gaz12369]

Presonus Firepod, as the K will tell you:thumb:

[airborne50caliber]

I'm also assuming that I'll have to swap the XLR-XLR leads for XLR-1/4" jack ones too?

NO. You would be then going from mic level to line level without a preamp. Assuming you want your signal chain to be

Mic --> Soundcard -> Computer

Then you don't want a soundcard, but an INTERFACE. The firepod is a bit big for your needs, a firebox will do from presonus (and there are a lot of other manufacturers that make this stuff at the moment). But the key idea is you will have preamps that take XLR-wired mic level signals and preamplify them. Remember this, always.

[Mr Benners]

NO. You would be then going from mic level to line level without a preamp. Assuming you want your signal chain to be

Mic --> Soundcard -> Computer

Then you don't want a soundcard, but an INTERFACE. The firepod is a bit big for your needs, a firebox will do from presonus (and there are a lot of other manufacturers that make this stuff at the moment). But the key idea is you will have preamps that take XLR-wired mic level signals and preamplify them. Remember this, always.

Thanks dude, you've been really useful in the various questions I've asked on this forum. I had kinda figured what you said, but all the sound cards I looked at didn't have XLR inputs, so I ended up thinking... yeah. I'll check out interfaces and put up a couple that interest me, you seem pretty clued up about all this.

[airborne50caliber]

I actually don't own a firewire interface.. :lol: But glad I can be of use. Famous small format firewire/usb interfaces include

Presonus Firebox
EMU 1616M (For Laptop, Needs an optional adapter otherwise)
Tascam US-122 (Usb. We have these in music tech at school, good stuff)
Focusrite Saffire