home recording gear.....should i?

[ex-250]

ok so i really cant think of any guitar-related stuff i really need at the moment, other than some recording stuff. and even then i dont need it, but itd be fun to mess around with. the thing thats really bugging me is- is it worth all the goddamn money its gonna cost me to just have stuff to mess around with?

what im thinking of getting is a shure SM57 ($90), a presonus mic pre ($100), and then the assorted cables and mic stand stuff. heres some links

http://www.music123.com/Shure-SM57-i63813.music?t=4#tab
http://www.music123.com/Presonus-TubePre-i94201.music?t=4#tab


so in the end its gonna cost me around $250. now what i wanna know is....do you guys think its worth it? i really cant decide

 

[FELIX57]

Re: home recording gear.....should i?

a sm57 mic is always good to have from vocals micing cabs drums and ive even heard bass cabs using it i got a couple of bucks off mine i went to zz sounds that has everything for @ 5 cents less and when i ordered from musicians friends i sed zz sounds has it for less took off a couple of bucks and i got a 2 year warranty for a few bucks more and it doesnt use phantom power which makes it more convenient i dont really know anything about the preamp but ill keep checking in cause now u got me interested in it

 

[ex-250]

Re: home recording gear.....should i?

yeah, i wouldve immediately went for the SM57, but then a friend of mine said i more or less need the preamp, so that kinda put me off cause its a whole nother $100 i didnt account for

 

[seafoamer]

Re: home recording gear.....should i?

I own some hella expensive mics & pre, but have opted to use that same combo (57 going into the tubepre) on the vocals of the last 2 tunes I recorded.

If you want to hear the results, go to my myspace (in sig) & listen to the vocals on "in my shoes" & "she's only sayin".

The tubepre is cool if you use your ear to know how much you want to work that tube. Too little will be weak & too much & it becomes overly distorted. Awesome for the $100, IMO.

 

[ex-250]

Re: home recording gear.....should i?

i never do any serious vocal recording, just me and a friend singing awful renditions of priest and maiden songs and things like that over stuff i record with my v-amp. i mainly would want a good amp-recording capability outta this kinda stuff. but thanks, its good to know the extra money is worth it (cause id imagine the same is true with instrument recording as is vocals with the tube pre)

 

[seafoamer]

Re: home recording gear.....should i?

I've never used the TubePre on guitars. I've always opted for my Avalon pre for that. If ur just messin around, the TubePre should be fine. But from the playing around I've done with it on vocals, I've found you really need to use ur ears & tweak, in order to find it's sweet spot. There seems to be a fine line between: not enough volume, & pushin' the tube too hard. Either way, it's prolly good practice for ur ears, & still worth the $ IMO.

 

[seafoamer]

Re: home recording gear.....should i?

Oh, & everyone needs a 57.

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: home recording gear.....should i?

get that SM-57 and a Tascam US144. Great recording piece, goes direct to USB and acts as a mixer/pre for the mic.

http://www.music123.com/Tascam-US122-Audio-MIDI-Interface-i97813.music

 

[Guitarist]

Re: home recording gear.....should i?

That's actually the exact same gear I first bought when I got into home recording. Works fine and you know it's worth it if you plan on expanding with it in the future. The SM57 will last you a lifetime. The TubePre from PreSonus is about as good as it gets when it comes to dirt cheap mic preamps.

 

[ericmeyer4]

Re: home recording gear.....should i?

i use the sm57 and a m-audio mobilepre usb so i can advoide latence. all my recording are a fender vibrochamp through the sm57. next few songs im going to mix in some straight in tones. but the sm57 has been awesome! it is set 1 inch from the grill and and at a 30 degree angle. the spot it is aimed at is between the middle of the speaker and half way to the edge.

you can here it at myspace.com/emradio

the link is in my sig.

 

[ex-250]

Re: home recording gear.....should i?

Tascam US144. Great recording piece, goes direct to USB and acts as a mixer/pre for the mic.

http://www.music123.com/Tascam-US122-Audio-MIDI-Interface-i97813.music

if im uneasy about buying a $100 thing, im sure as hell not gonna get a $200 thing

 

[ericmeyer4]

Re: home recording gear.....should i?

if im uneasy about buying a $100 thing, im sure as hell not gonna get a $200 thing

what about just purchasing a program and runing the mic right into the computer? i also believe tascam makes a cheaper version too or maybe a 4 track recorder.

 

[ex-250]

Re: home recording gear.....should i?

i have n-track. what difference does that make though? the mic pre improves the overall tone and lets you control the volume levels, etc. so what difference does having a recording program make?

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: home recording gear.....should i?

i have n-track. what difference does that make though? the mic pre improves the overall tone and lets you control the volume levels, etc. so what difference does having a recording program make?

A lot. Of all the gear you will be getting to do home recording, the software is definitely the most critical. There are a lot of products with lots of different features, and the difference between them is very big.

If you are recording "just for fun", or to make demos not for public consumption, you don't need anything fancy. If you have a Mac, GarageBand will be more than you need. For the PC, I recommend one of the home versions of Cakewalk. Both work very well, and come with pretty much all the features you will want (import/export, a few effects, 8 tracks of audio, etc).

Also, unless you don't give a crap about sound quality, your computer's built-in sound card isn't gonna cut it, no matter what sort of mic pre you have in front of it. Plugging a Presonus mic pre into a computer sound card is like plugging a Gibson Les Paul Custom into a Peavey Rage practice amp. Your sound is only as good as the weakest point in the signal chain.

If I were you, I would get the SM57 and forget about the mic pre. Get the Tascam US-122 instead. It comes with two very good mic pre's with phantom power, direct inputs, it's self-powered, and it hooks into any computer with a USB port. It also comes with a good version of Cubase, which is a very good piece of recording software. Altogether you are still keeping the cost down, and you'll have a great set-up.

Good luck!

 

[ex-250]

Re: home recording gear.....should i?

im about to say screw it and abandon the whole thing, cause this is just too much damn money.