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Recording equipment
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| echosystm |
Hi guys,
My production buddy and I are looking into setting up a recording rig. Mostly we will be dealing with vocals, but it would be nice to be able to record an accoustic guitar or some drum hits (very) occasionally.
We both need to buy new audio interfaces, and want to know if it is worthwhile paying extra for an audio interface with good preamps, or buying a cheaper interface (ie. E-MU 1212M) and going halves on a wicked preamp? The E-MU 1616M is about the extent of our budget and we don't really need all that I/O, since we're 100% software. I can't imagine needing any extra I/O anyway, since we can always just go mental on the patch bay if we buy a synth or two down the road (assuming theyre not all USB by then!).
The E-MU 1212M uses the same converters and everything, it just doesn't have as much I/O or the preamps. The 1212M is $150 and the 1616M is $450. If we buy the 1212M cards, we will have a spare $600 between us to dedicate to a preamp.
Which road shall thou take?
Also, what's a reasonable mic/preamp combination if we do take that route? I was personally thinking to get a Studio Projects B1 AND an SM57 rather than say... one NT1a. Just so we have a bit of flexibility?
I guess what I am really asking, what equivalent dollar value can be put on inbuilt preamps if I were to buy one seperately? Ie. "The E-MU 1616m preamps are about as good as a $200 preamp".
Thanks! |
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| kitphillips |
Well, if you go for a pre amp and two cheaper interfaces, then you may be able to bypass the A/D on your interface completely by inputting SPDIF or similar. If you got a focusrite liquid chanel for example, I think that that has digital out. In which case your interface is completely irrelevant as no sound is being processed there. But you probably already knew this.
In terms of mics, a SM57 will most likely not do anything for you... you really want condensers and the 57 is made for stage use anyway, and on guitar amps at that. You would want an SM58 for vocals, but its still dynamic and a condenser is preferable, I have a MXL 990 and its good, there was a thread around here on mics a couple of days ago too...
I guess what I'm saying is: If you don't need hardly any IO, grab a pre amp that will let you bypass the D/A on you interface and a cheaper interface. Also get a condenser mic, it works better on guitars and vocals. That said, I do think that sometimes a 58 by itself can sound great for vocals, it has a great cut through in the mix, so listen to what I have to say, then disregard it and do what you like. |
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