Hi there,

I want to improve my home recording.

currently I have a PC, a good one.
Cubase 3.
My guitar- Jackson Kelly
some standalone effects
and a cheap 15w marshall.

I would like to improve my home recording...
I have about 250$-450$.
what's my best option?


I was thinking about going with direct recording since I don't have an acoustic room and a good amp.

I want to record mainly my guitar, but also some keyboards, some singing(Maybe I'll get an OK microphone) and some electronic drums maybe.

So I probably need a good sound card... what do you suggest?

thx in advance!

get a GOOD microphone...you dont want that to be your limiting factor since its not too much more to get a good one.
I dont know how much good a new sound card would do, if your sound card can play anything better than mp3 quality, then I dont think youll need to change it.

Your welcome, in advance.








_________________
Im an optimist, so naturally I like to think my head is half FULL.

hmm, you would need an interface to run a mic... unless you get the usb snowball mic which isn't a bad mic. as for drums and getting a mic, those can eat up your money very quickly.

I would get an audio interface. (unless youve already got one)
We use an M-Audio firewire 410, its a great box, no problems with it.

for the money you want to spend I would say get an M-Audio FireWire Solo, its aprox $150 on google products, spec here http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FireWireSolo-main.html
or the Fast Track Pro wich is USB whith is a similar price.

p.s. that firewire box only does one chanel recording at a time, if you want stereo/two chanels then your should look at a different model

so prety much just saying get an audio interface with near zero latency, watch out though I bought a cheap one originanly, a bad idea, you get what you pay for.








_________________
Monkeyboy ... a.k.a Steve
Shamooli Dawn

Epiphone SG 'Les Paul' Custom > Korg AX1500G > Marshall G30RCD

i dont know much about the computer recording stuff...my pal handles that stuff , but as far as a great mic....i love my Sennheiser E906.
it is designed for mic'ing guitar cabs.








_________________
"That is not dead which can eternal lie
.... Yet with strange aeons even death may die"


proud member of G.A.U.P , and C.G.A.A

Nutter wrote:

get a GOOD microphone...you dont want that to be your limiting factor since its not too much more to get a good one.
I dont know how much good a new sound card would do, if your sound card can play anything better than mp3 quality, then I dont think youll need to change it.

Your welcome, in advance.

BZZZZZZZZTTTTT! WRONG! The better your sound card, the more audio clairity and less audio LAG you will get. Lag is a big issue with the lower-end sound cards. As a simple rule, your greatest chain will only be as strong as your weakest link.

Fortunately, you can get a decent sound card for around $150 to $200, and a decent mic for around $100 and up. Sounds like it's well within your budget.








_________________
P.S. - Calli is an A-hole. But I can't help but love her.

Sorry, I was just guessing lol...What is audio lag by the way?








_________________
Im an optimist, so naturally I like to think my head is half FULL.

lag is the processing latency of the audio.

ie, lets say your recordsing some guitar into the computer, your also listening to it on headphones,
the lag is the delay between you playing a note, it being recorded and then actually hearing it in your ears.

its measured in milliseconds and heres a quick guide?
0-5ms then thats great,
upto 10ms is just about bearable,
but anything more just is not realy usable.








_________________
Monkeyboy ... a.k.a Steve
Shamooli Dawn

Epiphone SG 'Les Paul' Custom > Korg AX1500G > Marshall G30RCD

if you get a good interface, your computers internal soundcard wont matter as the interface becomes and acts like your soundcard while you're recording

I'd suggest a good soundcard would be a place to start. I use the M-Audio Delta with 8 live inputs into SONAR to record our band live, works great! If you just want to lay down guitar tracks, it might be simpler to get a Zoom or a POD kind of thing with a computer output.

monkeyboy wrote:

lag is the processing latency of the audio.

ie, lets say your recordsing some guitar into the computer, your also listening to it on headphones,
the lag is the delay between you playing a note, it being recorded and then actually hearing it in your ears.

its measured in milliseconds and heres a quick guide?
0-5ms then thats great,
upto 10ms is just about bearable,
but anything more just is not realy usable.

Wow. Those are some pretty high standards you have! If you want to get really technical, however, the human ear cannot distinguish two notes played within less than 30ms of each other (I'm talking about the same pitch, mind you), so having up to 25ms of lag or so is still perfectly acceptable. Personally, my lag with my little M-Audio Delta 1010LT is at around 30 - 40ms...so it ain't that great, but I live with it.








_________________
P.S. - Calli is an A-hole. But I can't help but love her.

Puddleglum wrote:

monkeyboy wrote:

lag is the processing latency of the audio.

ie, lets say your recordsing some guitar into the computer, your also listening to it on headphones,
the lag is the delay between you playing a note, it being recorded and then actually hearing it in your ears.

its measured in milliseconds and heres a quick guide?
0-5ms then thats great,
upto 10ms is just about bearable,
but anything more just is not realy usable.

Wow. Those are some pretty high standards you have! If you want to get really technical, however, the human ear cannot distinguish two notes played within less than 30ms of each other (I'm talking about the same pitch, mind you), so having up to 25ms of lag or so is still perfectly acceptable. Personally, my lag with my little M-Audio Delta 1010LT is at around 30 - 40ms...so it ain't that great, but I live with it.

Absolutly not....
I use A presonus firepod with some other rack stuff in my studio.
I run Cubase sx3 , and some Waves plugins..
with a dell inspironE1505...
and I get right over 4 ms of lag..and even my drummer can notice it sometimes..4 ms is awesome and doesn't bother anyone,, but when you monitor the straight inputs ,,and whats going through and back out the computer at the same time it sounds doubled.. even because of only 4 ms..
maybe we're not human...
check out some of my mixes .. I just got started in the computer recording world ..
the first song is not finished by far..

www.myspace.com/studiomojo








_________________
www.myspace.com/studiomojo
www.myspace.com/laststrikekaty
www.gsmmusic.com

None of these "opinions" are representative of Great Southern Music.
They are my personal opinions.

Txguitarbuilder wrote:

Puddleglum wrote:

monkeyboy wrote:

lag is the processing latency of the audio.

ie, lets say your recordsing some guitar into the computer, your also listening to it on headphones,
the lag is the delay between you playing a note, it being recorded and then actually hearing it in your ears.

its measured in milliseconds and heres a quick guide?
0-5ms then thats great,
upto 10ms is just about bearable,
but anything more just is not realy usable.

Wow. Those are some pretty high standards you have! If you want to get really technical, however, the human ear cannot distinguish two notes played within less than 30ms of each other (I'm talking about the same pitch, mind you), so having up to 25ms of lag or so is still perfectly acceptable. Personally, my lag with my little M-Audio Delta 1010LT is at around 30 - 40ms...so it ain't that great, but I live with it.

Absolutly not....
I use A presonus firepod with some other rack stuff in my studio.
I run Cubase sx3 , and some Waves plugins..
with a dell inspironE1505...
and I get right over 4 ms of lag..and even my drummer can notice it sometimes..4 ms is awesome and doesn't bother anyone,, but when you monitor the straight inputs ,,and whats going through and back out the computer at the same time it sounds doubled.. even because of only 4 ms..
maybe we're not human...
check out some of my mixes .. I just got started in the computer recording world ..
the first song is not finished by far..

www.myspace.com/studiomojo

I'm not saying you won't HEAR it, I'm saying it won't throw you off when you play. As a matter of fact, a simple technique that I learned from a book I read, is that to fatten up a bass or something you want to stand out in the mix, you can add a delay with low feedback (like 5%) and set the delay time at less than 30ms. You won't hear a delay, but your bassline will sound "bigger".

If you say you are at only 4ms of lag and you can hear a delay, I'd suggest double checking that you are accurately determining your latency...either that, or you ARE superhuman.








_________________
P.S. - Calli is an A-hole. But I can't help but love her.

anything over 10ms (started out with 20ms on the original i/o card) you can hear it like an echo off a wall or something, its very offputting whin youi are not using a backline and just hearing the computer output.

We all seam to think a good audio interface would be the right choice.

I would split your funds like this
$200 on a nice audio interface/sound card
$200 on a mic (and a pre-amp if required)








_________________
Monkeyboy ... a.k.a Steve
Shamooli Dawn

Epiphone SG 'Les Paul' Custom > Korg AX1500G > Marshall G30RCD

that's what i did. i got a KILLER mic for about 130... they usually run about 200 so i got a good steal. you just need to watch ebay man. it works. lol