Low Budget Mic Pre Suggestions Requested

[nickbatzdorf]

Ah, sorry about that Greg.The A/D (analog-to-digital) converter takes the analog signal coming out the preamp and digitizes it. There are stand-alone A/D converters, but most of the time they're built into a sound card or other form of audio interface that passes the digital signal into a computer to be stored (recorded). (The Boss machine is actually a computer disguised as a stand-alone production unit.)Usually stand-alone converters - and there are D/As as well as A/D - are very high-end. But there are also quite a few excellent sounding audio interfaces on the market, so it's not like you're automatically a pervert if you don't have stand-alone tweak converters.Many if not most engineers like to use an analog outboard compressor to fit the instrument (including voice) into the dynamic range of the recording device. But not all of them use them, and it's not like you need to run out and buy one or your recordings will suck; you just have to lower your levels enough so the loudest notes don't go over the limit and distort. These days many of the software compressors are very good - something that wasn't always the case.What are you using to record on?

[sgs4u]

Greg, are you looking for new equipment? What do you not like about what you have? What limitations are you actually dealing with?Your music on your myspace & broadjam pages,sounds really good to me. Do you to need to spend more money on gear? I have a buddy that uses a Boss, like yours. If it ain't broke...

[gongchime]

I like what I have. Perhaps my biggest limitation is that I don't know that much about gear. These days, I don't use the BR1180 for recording purposes. Just the mic preamp. I have Cubasis with Wave Lab Lite and Patch Mix DSP as well as Finale 2006. I made all my own samples on those recordings with just a SM57 close miked. Mostly, it would be the right choice anyway. Hitting metal with a bone hammer needs a mic like that. Some things were sequenced and some weren't. I recently got the Audio Technica 4050 mic, a very short gold mogami cable and AKG K271 headphones on my last trip to Seoul Korea. None of which I've used yet. My Korean digital music professor gave me a CD of software when I was studying for my masters degree in music composition. Among other things it came with Cubase SX3 and the full version of Wave Lab. I don't use the former. I like the latter very much because it allows me to change pitch, stretch the length, change the gain etc... I seem to remember Cubasis coming with a load of guitar, bass, drum and synth samples. I can't find them now. There's just a few different kinds of bass and guitar vst instruments. Not so many that are useful for what I'd like to do now except one excellent bass guitar sound. There's never any good clean electric guitar samples or saxaphone samples anyway. It's just the nature of sequencing. Some good free samples of standard guitar/amp configurations, bass configurations, good saxophones etc... would be nice to pick through though. But I suspect I'll have to record the guitar the old fashioned way...by actually playing it. Maybe I even still remember how.

[hazineju]

Wow, thanks for all the responses. i've been busily looking up all your suggestions and really appreciate it. you've given me lots to think about. gongchime, thanks for asking all those questions, i was confused about it too. Mark, Mojo, and Nick, i have to say that i thought all i needed was a mic pre. but it turns out i need a sound card/interface with a digital connection as well as a pre-amp. i was plugging the mic into the art, the art into the tascam, and the tascam's line out directly into the built in jack on my mac. i was using a Rode NT1-A condenser in an untreated room, and there was lots of hissing covering up the vocal, as well as some muddiness in the lower range. so i switched to a beta 58 (if bjork uses it, so can i!) and tried the pre and the tascam individually. -no distortion, but mud on the pre-amp and some hiss on the tascam (though much less than with the condenser). one way frodo put it is, "the sound is being degraded." so i guess everything between the mic and the computer is the issue- the whole sound card, interface, pre-amp, a/d conversion thing is the lacking (or non-existent!) factor in my recording. i'm looking at all the models you all mentioned, and i've also had a few more outside suggestions that i thought i would run by you recording buffs to see if you knew anything about, too:Line 6 Toneport UX2http://www.zzounds.com/item--LINTPUX2 and E-Mu Tracker Prehttp://www.zzounds.com/item--EMUTRCK

[sgs4u]

Aug 11, 2008, 7:33am, hazineju wrote: so i guess everything between the mic and the computer is the issue- the whole sound card, interface, pre-amp, a/d conversion thing is the lacking (or non-existent!) factor in my recording. Buying new gear doesn't always solve every problem, tho. It's just as important to find out if your audio levels are correct between each piece in the chain, before you decide that a new link is necessary. Sometimes the weak link in the chain isn't the gear, it's how it's being used. (the dreaded user error) Hitting one unit too hard, makes the whole chain sound like crap. Hitting too soft can introduce lots of noise. If you can find a good engineer to sit with you for an hour, a lot of sounds get better quickly. Faster than if you just buy new gear.

[mazz]

Yeah, what Steve said!!If you're getting hiss from your preamp and you're recording vocals from a few inches away with a condenser mic, then your levels are all messed up. Why are you going to the Tascam after the ART? Why not go from the ART straight to the computer?But, all that being said, the Analog to Digital converter built in to your Mac is not pro quality by any stretch of the imagination. Even an inexpensive interface like the ones you are considering will provide much better conversion to the computer. Those built-in jacks are OK for web conferencing and voice dictation but for any music work, you need a better interface.My wife has been using an M-Audio Firewire Solo and it's worked out really great for her. Her vocals sound just fine recorded with that. Of course, I had to coach her on setting the levels correctly, all the gear in the world won't compensate for lack of chops, engineering or otherwise.As Steve said, get an engineer to help you set up your gain staging, no matter what system you end up with. You'd be surprised how good even your current setup could sound if you had the gains set right throughout the chain.Good Luck!!Mazz

[hazineju]

Very good point, Steve and Mazz. Anyone know any engineers here in st lucia? Actually i know i was having issues with the levels, because that is the first thing that frodo went over with me. of course he is in norway and i'm in st lucia but thru email he described to me how to set the gain levels on the pre to match up with the levels showing in the computer. he suggested to watch the meter and don't let it get much hotter than -10db in the ART. to be honest i didn't even really know what "gain staging" was 2 weeks ago. i had been recording with the levels way too high on the computer in comparison to the pre. so i'm pretty sure i got them to a good and balanced place when i sent him the vocals used with the dynamic. and at that point i DID try going from the ART straight to the built in jack in the computer but didn't like the sound at all. Mazz, you also confirmed what frodo has told me, that Aug 11, 2008, 10:22am, mazz wrote:Even an inexpensive interface like the ones you are considering will provide much better conversion to the computer. Those built-in jacks are OK for web conferencing and voice dictation but for any music work, you need a better interface.Mazzso right now i'm going back to researching the models, and any more tips and suggestions are appreciated!

[sgs4u]

Aug 11, 2008, 11:17am, hazineju wrote:Very good point, Steve and Mazz. Anyone know any engineers here in st lucia? I don't, but Google always knows - http://www.socafreak.com/st-lucia-recor ... lucia.html

[mazz]

Here's the one I was talking about: http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/F ... ain.htmlIt only has one mic pre but I bet the street price is in your budget. Take care and good luck!Mazz

[mojobone]

Ah! You have an analog portastudio? If that's the case, I'd suggest the Emu. And if you play keys or trigger samples in some way, consider getting the sampler along with it. Yeah, sounds to me like a combination of cheap pre/room tone is your culprit.+1 to Steve, mazz and Frodo. HTH, good luck.