Help me piece together my audio setup...

gUEv

Senior member
Oct 11, 2000
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i will be recording a demo cd next month using my computer (ghettofied...but im broke).

Currently all i have is an sound blaster mp3+

I dont really keep up with computer hardware anymore, but i seem to remember that sound cards dont grow by leaps and bounds like video cards do. Am I alright to keep this card?

If i got a high quality computer microphone and just plugged it into the card would sound quality be that bad? (assuming good acoustics, btw i am only recording vocals, no instruments). I dont have money shooting out of my ... but i want good quality.

I am looking for reccomendations on a few things, since i have been out of the loop for a year or two.


1). Sound card (if i need to upgrade at all)
2). Speakers (Back when i was hip to this stuff kiplish was running things...still true?)
3). Good microphone
4). External device (Like an extigy or that live drive, do i even need one?)
5. Some good headphones.

Also, can anyone with experience in this area reccomend some good audio programs? Capturing vocals, cleaning them up, adding effects, mating them to a wav etc.


Sorry if I sound like a newbie again :(

Any help appreciated, thanks all!


:)

 

yellowperil

Diamond Member
Jan 17, 2000
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What's your budget? The SB Live has a lower SNR (signal-to-noise) ratio than some of the newer cards (meaning there's more background noise) but it shouldn't be too bad for starting out. I would put my money into getting a decent mic and mic preamp. The soundcard mic pre is not that good quality and while you might be able to get by using it, it is much better to buy a preamp that you can plug into your Line In. I would recommend a Midiman (M-Audio) Audio Buddy for $70-80. For a good vocal mic the Shure SM58 ($99) can't be beat, if you want to save some cash the SM57 is almost the same without a pop filter/windscreen. The CAD mic you mentioned looks excellent for vocals (better than the Shure in fact) but its performance would be limited by your other components. Also the CAD runs on phantom power which the Extigy doesn't supply (the Audio Buddy does).

For speakers most people recommend studio monitors, but a basic decent pair starts at $400 and I don't have that kind of money either. For programs n-Track is pretty good and easy to use. It's probably also the cheapest (~$40). For cleaning up vocals and .wav editing, either Cool Edit 2000 or Sound Forge XP should work. Both are around $70 I think.
 

gUEv

Senior member
Oct 11, 2000
882
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thanks for the replies everyone! i am looking into all of these suggestions...keep them coming! :)

edit: i think i am leaning towards the shure mic and audio buddy, as well as the audiophile sound card. I looked at the M-Audio Monitors and unfortunatley they are out of my price range, at least for the time being :(

I was looking at the Cambridge SoundWorks Megaworks 510D package. Are these worth purchasing, or should i wait until i can afford some monitors?

 

cmdrdredd

Lifer
Dec 12, 2001
27,052
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You probably don't want what i have...Dolby Surround THX certified Pioneer headphones :p
 

gUEv

Senior member
Oct 11, 2000
882
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also...where are you finding these prices on the mic and audio buddy? When i looked around i saw much higher prices...

thx
 
Jan 9, 2002
5,232
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1.) As long as you have a Live! card you'll get good sound.
2.) Klipsch are still great speakers- probably best suited for your use. I like Monsoon too.
3.) Not sure of a good mic... take suggestions from the other posts! :)
4.) Not sure
5.) Grado Labs SR60 cans ($70) simply can't be beat in their class. Period.
 

yellowperil

Diamond Member
Jan 17, 2000
4,598
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You can get the Audio Buddy at jandr.com for $69.88. The cheapest price on the Audiophile 2496 is at Guitar Center B&M ($150), but the cheapest price online is at the MIDI Store (search at shop.yahoo.com) for $160. The Shure mics are pretty much standard price everywhere, some good stores are musiciansfriend.com, zzounds.com, and music123.com. Musician's Friend carries all of the above items, and they seem to have the most open pricematching policy, so if you can get them to pricematch the above you can save on shipping. Also they have a pretty good deal on mic cables (20' for $4.99, search for 338001) and mic stands.
 

pennylane

Diamond Member
Apr 28, 2002
6,077
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as for headphones, sennheiser hd280 pros are nice. they're very detailed and accurate, easily driven, and could be had for $77 at buy.com. from what i know they're very good for monitoring
 

Goi

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
6,766
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While the Live! is a cheap and decent card, it was never meant for recording/professional, or even amateur usage. An M-Audio Audiophile 2496, or even a Santa Cruz, will blow it out of the water in terms of SNR, frequency response and THD.

The Audiophile 2496 is a fine card, but if you wanna scrimp somemore, you can go for the Delta 48KHz version, if you don't need the 96KHz sampling rate. Anyway, you'll be recording onto CD, which is 44.1KHz. The 2496 will however obviously sound better, but it depends on whether you can hear the difference, and whether the rest of your setup(mic/speakers) are revealing enough.

If you wanna scrimp somemore, connect your computer to your hifi and you can save on the speakers. Depending on what hifi you have it might even sound better than most computer/multimedia speakers.
 

gUEv

Senior member
Oct 11, 2000
882
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First of all i would like to thank everyone for their input and help in this topic =]

I have decided to go with the cad m177, audio buddy preamp as well as the audiophile 2496 card.

This might sound silly, but i want to make sure i will have all the right cables when i order this stuff.

By what cable/s does the audio buddy hook up to the sound card? What kind of cord do i need for the mic to the pre amp, a phantom cable?

thx :)