Home recording questions
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Posted on Nov 30, 2004 01:21 pm
SicklySweet
Member Since: Nov 30, 2004
I know stuff like this has been posted before, but I've only been able to find pieces of answers.
My friends and I are planning on doing some recording, just acoustic instruments/vocals.
My setup:
-P4 2.6GHz Hyper-threading
-512 MB RAM
-SoundBlaster Live 5.1
-Cubase VST/32 5.0
Just going to borrow some of my friend's mics and I'm just looking for the most cost-effective way to do this. Do I need something like the M-Audio Firewire interface or Audio Buddy? Are there cheaper options?
Also I'm getting latency of 46ms...is that low enough not to matter too much?
Thanks for any help you can give me...
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vdalehubbardLost for words with all to say.Contributor
Since: Sep 12, 2003
Nov 30, 2004 01:24 pm From my experience and others here, Soundblaster just gives you problems when recording. Great for gaming but not for recording. Look under the "Studio Equipment" section on this site for brands like M-Audio and there stuff since you are only doing acoustic with vocals. Others here do more of that and will be better help also.
WELCOME to HRC!
Nov 30, 2004 01:25 pm Welcome to HRC
Thats a bit high of a latency, but what type of sound card you would want kind depends on a few things. How many tracks do you want to record at any one time? Do you have a mixer for preamping?
Nov 30, 2004 01:38 pm Thanks for the warm welcome.
I don't have a mixer/preamp. There would most likely only be a need for four tracks at once while recording: two guitars, vocals, and percussion. I think setting up stereo recording of the instruments would be too expensive (with additional mics) when we're all playing together, so 4 tracks I suppose would be the max.
Nov 30, 2004 01:46 pm You will then need either a mixer with 4 subouts, or a 4-channel preamp or a sound card with 4 inputs with preamps on each.
Regardless, you would need a 4 input sound card. Your SoundDisaster...oops, I mean SoundBlaster, is not that.
There are many to choose from no matter which way you go, but first you need to decide that. Personally, I would get a mixer with 4 subout (and it will have preamps) and a 4 channel sound card such as the ESI 192 reviewed right now on our front page or an M-Audio Delta 44.
Nov 30, 2004 02:16 pm Or you could invest in a digital multitracker and do your editing through Cubase. Personally, the more I use my PC for recording, the more I like it. However, I only record one track at a time. This allows for a small mixer and a soundcard with less in/outs. This end up being more cost effective. Also, mic'ing a drum kit with one mic will produce (IMHO of course) a far less desirable sound. I use a shareware program called Leafdrums. This allows me to write each drum to a separate track and add effects separately to each.
If you dig the idea of one track at a time recording, you'd need a less expensive sound card and a small mixer with preamps. I'd suggest a small Behringer. They are quite cost effective and very nice IMO.
Nov 30, 2004 02:43 pm Hmm, I think I might look at the Delta 44. So with that recording into cubase, if I was using 4 inputs, would it record onto the first 4 tracks on my cubase mixer?
I might also see what kind of preamp/mixer my friend has. For a more cost-effective approach, I might borrow that....indefinitely...
Nov 30, 2004 05:37 pm ehh turns out what he said was a preamp/mixer was actually an Audigy 2 NX
Nov 30, 2004 07:38 pm another thing I was wondering is: Can't I buy some sort of MIDI interface cable that has multiple inputs to work with my SB Live card? Either coming in as multiple channels or at least improving my input options.
