My First Setup

[rsnuk]

Originally Posted by Monarch

Another vote for Samplitude. Their FX offerings are some of the best found anywhere.

I'll give it a good go when i have time.

Originally Posted by Khazul

As for what laymen may perceive - well while they cant tell you whats wrong, but they could get turned off from a perfectly good tune because there may be lots of little things that were sibliminally irrating about it that all contributed to the end result basically being fatiguing to listen to, or lacking in appropriate sense of energy, clarity etc, or just plan sounded fine on a hifi/home theatre but utterly like **** on an iPod with a pair of cheap ear buds.

By the same token, you shouldn''t only produce and monitor on high end studio gear - for eg, my 'extra'' monitoring collection consists of stuffing it through a pioneer DJ mixer and mixing it with other stuff as it might be in a DJ set, dumping to mp3 and listening on my ipod and in car. Also plumbed into my main studio monitor switcher is this thing:

This is what i was thinking, thanks.

Now this buying entry thing didn't work out so well.

The Maya card would not work on my system, so i have ordered an M-audio 24/192, should do all the things i need.

I've been thinking more about mics and preamps.

I have tested out the vtb-1 and b1 mic, there is terrible static however, which i will attribute to the sound card until i can test them out on another.

My voice seems to translate as very, what i guess could be called thin, I'm not sure whether it's the mic or something else, but what I'm hearing on a record doesn't sound as rich or phat" as my voice.

I guess this could be for a number of reasons, but regardless I'm going to try a couple microphones out.

I have thought about an Sm-58, but i would like to know what pre amp would be best suited.

I am thinking about buying a 200-300 pound mic, if the b1 does not sound right with my new sound card, or may be just in any case.

Thanks as always

[terminal3]

Try an SM7b first of all...

The SM58, as far as voices go, is better suited to live applications.

There are a handful of people that can use them to good effect in a studio, though, if they know how to work 'em.

They are rewarded by a good pre, as well. A lousy pre + SM58 will stand out a mile.

But the SM7(b) is another league entirely. Needs a lot of gain - make sure your pre can run hot. The reward is that is can be superb on male vox.

[rsnuk]

Originally Posted by terminal3

Try an SM7b first of all...

The SM58, as far as voices go, is better suited to live applications.

There are a handful of people that can use them to good effect in a studio, though, if they know how to work 'em.

They are rewarded by a good pre, as well. A lousy pre + SM58 will stand out a mile.

But the SM7(b) is another league entirely. Needs a lot of gain - make sure your pre can run hot. The reward is that is can be superb on male vox.

Hmm...

This confuses me a little, i was under the impression that condenser = better for vocals.

And the sm7b, is a dynamic.

Could you please explain why the sm7b is such a good microphone and also explain how i have gone wrong in thinking condensers are better.

I was thinking of getting a SM58, as a kind of bench mark of vocal ability, seeing as so many people use it live.

I may well try out the SM7B, i guess i could return it if it doesn't work out for me.

[ecc83]

Mics:

If I might have a stab, then Trev' can get the Uzi out!

The SM7B is nearly 4dB LESS sensitive than the '58, so if you need a good pre for the latter you need a great one for the former!

The 7 has a flatter response curve and more extension in the LF region, generally just a "classier" mic and this is reflected in the price.

In terms of pre amp gain (58) I think if you are within a foot of the thing and reasonable gutsy, most modest mixer pre's would cope, sadly many AI's will struggle and for anything at all "intimate" or,say, acoustic guitar, forget it.

Capacitors are more forgiving in terms of gain requirements but we have an LDC and lovely tho' it is it is rather room sensitive (and my room is crap!). When funds allow I am going to buy a pair of small D caps as we do mostly acoustic guitar recording but they are said to be ok(ish) for vocals. The Sontronics LDC btw does sterling service 50mm from a Celestion Vintage 12" capturing jazz git.

Dave.

[rsnuk]

Okay thankyou Dave.

Let's say i go with a range of mics.

I'd like to have a good pre-amp to run them all off of.

If someone could recommend a preamp under 200 under 300 and under 400.

I'd also appreciate more mic suggestions under 200 under 300 and under 400.

[rsnuk]

The Audiophile 192 fixed whatever the problem was and i love the mics i got.

I got a NT1A and B1 right now, but can't really tell the differance.

It's like my voice was 1 or 2 dimensional when recording with the soundblaster, now it's like 3 or 4th dimensional haha..

No static, no thinness or coldness in vocal recording and everything sounds better.

[rsnuk]

Thought i would update you guys on my Daw choice.

For now i have decided to use Reaper.

I am still drawn to a few others, I like Pro Tools 8 and could get the M-powered version to work with my 192, also drawn to Logic Pro 8.

I demoed most of the Daw's out there, i do feel they all do esentially the same thing in different ways, different Das's are going to be suited to different people.

As for differences in functionality, i'm probably not at an advanced enough level of understanding to see that there is much, or maybe there isn't much.

For now, i find reaper works for what i am doing.

As soon as i opened the program, it just felt easy to use, there were options, buttons and icons for everything you might want them, in the places you would somehow expect them to be.

I like the way Reaper handles plugins and routing, i found it very easy to try varieties of vst/dx i's on different presents with varieties with plugins configured in different ways , much more rapidly than in other Das's.

I really the way repear looks and the fact you can edit the colour scheme, the shape of individual features and the layout.

The only Interfaces i think look better are Protools 8 and Logic Pro 8.

I may still purchase Pro Tool 8 M-Powered and Logic Pro 8.

I have worked out that, it is much more cost effective to buy a PC and run a Mac OS out of an emulator, than to buy a Mac, you will end up with better performance than you get with a Mac for less money.

Here's the reaper skin i use:



I've been having a bit of fun with the infamous autotune, now that i've heard how it sounds at various levels of intensity, it's clear to me how frequently it is used in modern music of all genres, it adds a very distintive tone to the voice, even if used very very lightly for pitch, correction, i think this is due to the removal of what is called vocal "modulation" and vibrato, ofcourse when used more extremely you get the cher/t-pain effect.

I've also been playing with melodyne, which i find does not significanltly affect the tone for minor adjustments, more of a tool than effect, that saves alot of time and vocal strain.

I really want to try everything out there for sufficient time before i commit to spend thousands of pounds.

I still need a pair of studio monitors, i have been thinking about the KRK RP5's

http://www.dv247.com/invt/51948/

They would match my creative Gigaworks T40's lol:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Gig...9080864&sr=1-1

The Gigaworks already put out more volume than i can get away with using without my neighbours complaining.

For the moment,i'm just spending some time every now and then experimenting with synths, and vst/dx i's, writing lyrics and thinking up melodies.

Thanks again for the help, i'm going to post some more specifics questions up in other sections of the forum from now on.

rsn