Best bedroom recording for £300, Which Interface and Mic??

[JJ Gabor]

OK, so I have decided to put my Guitar GAS on hold and concentrate on getting stuff to record my own music at home. I have been told i need an interface and I know I need a Mic!

I don't want to record my full band as we go elsewhere; Just me with my electric/acoustic/bass guitars and some singing. 

I do all of the percussion on the computer, but i would like to  send drums and vocals to my outboard effects and rerecord them for example ( I am new to this so tell me if my expectations need tempered).

I would also get a nice Mic, but £300 is the budget so I don't know how to apportion it between the two items. I have mic stand/xlr cable already.

Any Ideas???

JJ Gabor

[ugly casanova]

okay first of all you need an interface, as you just said.

i would recommend you the alesis io-2:
- two-track recording via usb (1 !) - that would mean that you can record from two sources/mics at the same time.
- 2 XLR mic inputs with phantom power (for condensor mics) / 2 stereo line inputs
- ultra low-latency




if you want to record singing you need a pop-shield (you can simply make one with an old pair of nylons)

for the mic you have several options:
dynamic mic - 'normally' used for recording amps. you can go for a shure 57 which would be the best solution.
condensor mic - either small or large diaphragm, best used for vocals. if you have a thin voice i'd recommend a large diaphragm mic because it makes your voice sound more big.

if condensor mics are too expensive for your budget, you can also go for a dynamic microphone for singing. maybe anyone else here can recommend any good ones.

[JJ Gabor]

Thanks, the Alesis looks a good price!

I notice you only mentioned inputs, does that mean i wouldn't be able to send tracks to outboard effects and back?

The mic issue seems fairly complicated.  Maybe I am hoping for 2 much to expect 1 mic for everything

[greyman]

I've had pretty good luck with the Blue Snowball Mic and Garage Band.  It's a simple USB mic, nothing fancy or insane, but good for messing around.
http://www.bluemic.com/modules.php?op=m ... prod_id=18

+1 on the pop shield.

[Oyster Boy]

Even though it's just you. I'd still suggest the firepod. It's a good investment.

And as for a mic, I'm a fan of the apex 460. it's a large diaphram tube condensor, and it's very versitile.

that'll put you just a little over your 300 lb limit though. not too much, just a little. you can get the 460 for a couple hundred american on ebay usually.

[JJ Gabor]

The Firepod looks great very flexible.

And a tube condenser! I thought they normally cost as much as car...

This would come to about £450.  It does look very nice, maybe i should get the mic first and then save for a month or two for the interface.  Interesting.

Thanks
JJ

[ugly casanova]

i would do it the other way around because with that interface you can go via line input from the guitar or amp into the computer. thats better than nothing 

other 'cheap' condenser mics:
http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_tbone_sc40 ... nmikro.htm
http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_tbone_sc450.htm

and what do you mean by outboard-effects? if you mean pedals you can of course use them with your amp and then place the mic in front of your amp for guitar recording.
if you mean rack effects it depends on the way you want to use them.
i think you mean, that you want to 'rerecord' old guitar-tracks and use effects on them, right?
well, i'd use software-effects then, because they are easier to control - you can even change them in the mastering process if something doesn't sound right to you.
you can get those with cubase or fruity loops.

[JJ Gabor]

Cool.

I have a Moogerfooger ring modulator and Phaser and they are great for tweaking drum tracks live on playback.  I sometimes run rhythm patterns from my cheap casio keyboard through it.  I have been writing a lot of drum tracks on the computer now, and i would love to send these to the Moogerfooger so I could tweak it live and rerecord (I hope this is making sense )

I understand what you are saying about getting the interface first - this makes a lot of sense now I think about it.

I haven't even thought about software yet!!  I probably should be. 

I was assuming that whatever interface i bought would come with something to get me started.  What do you folks use for your basic recording software, do you recommend any that are more flexible and expandable?

Thanks
JJ

[ugly casanova]

that asio thing comes with cubase which is the standart for digital music. you can do patterns, notes and record tracks. and do mixing and mastering.

[Oyster Boy]

I wouldn't go so far as to call cubase the standard. Yes some people out there swear by it, but really Pro Tools is the standard, with Logic Pro being used widely as well.

[northern_dirt]

I wouldn't go so far as to call cubase the standard. Yes some people out there swear by it, but really Pro Tools is the standard, with Logic Pro being used widely as well.

Cubase outsells PT in the home studio market..

But PT is the "studio" standard in Music, Television and Film..

(Im a loyal PTer.. doubt ill ever learn any other system..
though I did used to use Soundscape when our editors
had a mix of avids and discretes... soundscape is garbage

[JJ Gabor]

Thanks for the advice.

I have used Cubase before and found it quite intuitive.

[fuzzjunkie]

I would get the interface and a dynamic mic like the Shure SM57 to start. it is a standard for miking guitar amps and snares, but will also make demo quality vocal tracks. loud singers like Bono use mics like that as their main recording mic. not as sensitive as a condenser, but it shields a lot of background noise. after you pick up a better vocal mic, it will still get plenty of use.

a good condenser* is much more sensitive and will get a fuller sound, but also pick up a lot of background noise...including a spinning hard drive, shuffling feet and breathing...i wouldn't rush out to spend money on one until you feel you really need it and have a proper recording environment.

most interfaces come with at least a beginner version of cubase...some like the mackie units come with tracktion and the digidesign products come with beginner pro tools. if not, there's always reaper or garageband!

* when i say good condenser, i mean those starting at £500.

[JJ Gabor]

Background noise will be a problem I think because i live on a busy road!!

Maybe an SM57  (it is certainly more affordable) then move onto bigger things...

[mezcalhead]

I'm using a Mac with Garageband and a cheap M-Audio USB interface. I started with a condenser mic but I found I was always tweaking it a lot - there are great sounds to be had from it but it needs a lot of attention to placement, ambient noises etc.

I bought an SM57 recently and I wish I'd started with it - cheap and does the job well, you pretty much just plug it in and it sounds good. As fuzzjunkie says, even if I bought several other mics I imagine myself still using the SM57 regularly.

So that would be my recommendation too - SM57 or SM58 (which is apparently the same thing or similar but with a pop shield).