Need help on recording rig

[PurpleMonkeyDW]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of spending a bit of money on a better recording rig and would appreciate a bit of advide as I've never bought recording gear before.

I'd have about €200 max to spend on gear to record acoustic and vocals (nothing studio quality but just something decent enough to start practicing acoustic covers with a decent result). Currently I'm using the recording feature on my camera and it's a pain in the ass.

First of all my sound card is rubbish with massive amounts of lag recording multiple tracks...so I guess the first thing I need is maybe a Line 6 TonePort (or Pod studio, whatever it's called now).

I was also thinking of investing in a Shure mic (either the SM57 or SM58). Would one of these be enough to record both acoustic and vocals at the same time (after buying an audio interface my budget would be kind of restricted)? Or maybe I'm better off looking at a condenser mic around the €100 price range?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[AthenasGhost]

if you want to record with just 1 mic, recording guitar and vocals at the same time you might want to look at a condenser, they will pick up more and be more balanced if you place it between a guitar and vocals and it doesnt sound too bad either. if you are doing guitar first and then recording vocals later you could go with something like a shure sm57 or 58 and close mic guitar, then close mic vocals later.

if you want little to no lag you need to buy an audio interface (by example i have a tascam us-122) and you set the output of the audio to the interface so the audio doesnt have to go through your soundcards buffers first.

cheap and good condenser is the MXL 990, (google it) i own it it was about 150$CDN but sounds incredible for that price, i know other people who own it too. after things like it, prices jump up insanely

[pablo02324]

Currently I'm using the recording feature on my camera and it's a pain in the ass.

I am in the same boat as you right now, except that I just got a new computer with a decent sound card. I was looking into getting the M-Audio - USB Audio/MIDI Interface with Preamps which is around $199 and a m-audio condenser mic, or one of the mics that you mentioned... Or a M-Audio - Producer USB Microphone with Session Recording Software, which is around $99... Desicions, desicions....

[Jared R. Boyd]

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Native-Instruments-Guitar-Rig-SESSION-Full-104911268-i1398776.gc
and
http://www.guitarcenter.com/MXL-990-Condenser-Microphone-with-Shockmount-273156-i1126975.gc

your going to go just barely over budget, but you will get much more high quality software. And if you need to you can go for a slightly cheaper mic.

-Ryan

[PurpleMonkeyDW]

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Native-Instruments-Guitar-Rig-SESSION-Full-104911268-i1398776.gc
and
http://www.guitarcenter.com/MXL-990-Condenser-Microphone-with-Shockmount-273156-i1126975.gc

your going to go just barely over budget, but you will get much more high quality software. And if you need to you can go for a slightly cheaper mic.

-Ryan


Thanks for all your help so far.

Yes I've been looking at the MX 990, the guitar rig session is too dear for me. Ultimately I don't want to fork out too much if I suddenly decide that I'm just not good enough to sing. Just need something that I can play back instantly (and also do multi-tracks if I need to add guitars).

Would that Toneport power a condenser mic? Or does it have to have phantom power?