I need help to start my new home studio!!!!

[formusicians]

Hello everybody,

I need to start my new home studio. I have a little money but not enough.

I have a PC Computer (Windows), Cool Edit Pro, an acoustic guitar, a SURE Microphone (SM58)...I think i have to buy a good sound card....

Any recommendation about a cheap sound card??

thanks a lot!!

Felix J. Arbelo
Co-Founder http://www.forMusicians.net

[Kolstad]

I think you should try to get a Presonus Firebox or an Edirol UA card or similar on ebay, if your budget allows. Those are quite versatile, have decent audio/digital converters, and will get you a long way. When on a tight budget, you'll get way more mileage out of used gear.

Make sure you spend more than half your budget on good monitors and useful software, about a third on preamps/soundcard (external soundcards have preamps in them), and about a third on a good mic. As you have a fine dynamic mic, I'd suggest you'd get a condenser mic as well. If you go really cheap, you can get away with a Behringer C1, but preferably a Studio Projects B1 or up.

Monitors are really important, because you need to be able to trust the representation of your recordings, in order to learn how to mix and make the right decisions. These days you can also get really good software for little money, so make sure you have something fun to play with there too. I'd suggest a guitar vst and some kind of synth. Sometimes you can find really good free stuff, that can make you interested in more useful things.

[bagnall]

I would recommend looking at the Native instruments sound interfaces. I have a Audio kontrol 1 from them. cost around £200 - £250 or so on ebay. comes with Midi input in case you would want to later expand and get a cheap keyboard to input midi / play. and you get two nice vouchers for native products 1 for $200 or $300 voucher (cant remember) but its to use for 1 of their software instruments and another for getting an amount off a bank of extra sounds (works out around half price off on some) . which will save on buying some virtual instruments. comes with some other programs too like cubase 4 LE and LE versions of some native instrument stuff like guitar rig. which means it would be cheaper to upgrade the software later on from LE to pro version too.

of course If I was you I would shop around to see whats best for money and what you personally need at the time. everyone has their likes and way of doing things. But I think you should definitely check native instruments stuff out for starters you get alot of stuff for the price when starting out.
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Out of curiosity is your acoustic guitar fully acoustic or acoustic/electric. could be worth while getting a acoustic pick up you can clip them over the acoustic hole. their cheap - ish and could be something new to play around with while getting used to software.