Need purchase advice for audio recording

[yellowperil]

Hi there

I'm trying to decide which would be better for audio recording: either getting an SB Live Platinum w/Live! Drive IR (mwave for $96 shipped) or this mixer. I would be using the mixer with a Vortex2 Superquad.

Mainly I want to record one track at a time in Cakewalk Home Studio 9, from mics and guitar amps. The MIDI interface on the Live! Drive is nice but I have a MIDI gameport adapter that (I think) will work with Cakewalk. I have no experience with recording so I appreciate your suggestions. My budget is limited so unforunately I can't get both the Live Drive and a digital mixer. Thanks

 

[thomsbrain]

Get the mixer. A mic preamp (which the mixer will have) will be the most important thing in getting your sound into the computer. You can run the mixer into the line-in of whatever card you have now, and it shouldn't be too hissy because you're not using its crappy built-in mic preamp. You could record two channels at once (left and right) which you could mix anyway you want within Cakewalk. (By the way, you'll probably do most of your mixing in Cakewalk, not on the console). Skip the Sound Blaster entirely. Either get a dedicated recording card or don't waste your money on anything better than a SB16.

 

[Nutdotnet]

Get the mixer. It sucks, but for $70 it ain't bad. I have one myslef that I use strictly for a headphone amp.

What I would really do if I were you? I would get an M-Audio Audio Buddy. I think there are about $80 and a much better mic-pre. You can do all that mixing crap in Cakewalk.

Yeah, DO NOT GET AN SBLIVE! Save up some dough and get a real soundcard.

 

[yellowperil]

Thanks for the advice. I think I'm going to get the Audio Buddy and a Shure SM57 mic. The pre-amp on the Audio Buddy looks much better than the one on the Behringer, the downside is that it doesn't have an EQ. Is there an EQ in Cakewalk? Also, is it worth upgrading my Superquad to a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz for recording purposes? TIA