Upgrade on the Cheap

[nyjm]

So, the everybody calm down reviews are starting to become the "this is my recording set-up" thread and i thought we could start a list of suggestions for aardwolves (and anyone else) for inexpensive upgrades:

recording software:
i mostly use Kreative's Kristal
but many swear by Audacity
and still others like Goldwave

drivers:
having a properly-working ASIO driver is pretty important

microphones:
from the beginning, i've been using a Telex M-540 and a Trust mic

guitars:
i'm pretty impressed by Rondo Guitars - good quality for low price

off course, there's a whole thread dedicated to just watching this page

[Spud]

The MXL 990 has been the mic of choice of several SongFight! bands since it came on the scene. You can hear the difference that a large-diaphragm condenser makes over an admittedly non-pro dynamic mic by listening to our Everybody Calm Down (MXL 990) vs. our Paper Thin (Shure PG58).

Of course, you can't plug that right into your laptop, you need a pre-amp of some sort and phantom power. A mixer built-in pres and phantom power can be very versatile. It lets us plug in a keyboard, drum machine, or whatever else might be laying around as well, and have multiple outputs as well. You can jump right of that into your laptop. The Yamaha MG102C has a nice clean sound, compared to our old Behringer, and includes compression, which is great for vocals. In case some of you are saying "Spud, you have compression on your mixer, why don't you use it?", we have the prior model, which did not have that feature.

Can't forget a Pop Filter either, once you get your mic up to speed and you can actually hear everything, there are few things you want to get rid of. And I'm not talking about your vocalist. Again, if you're wondering about why we didn't use ours on our last song, it was stolen, OK?

For completeness sake, not that I can necessarily recommend it (due to lack of experience with other software), but we use NTrack Studio and love it.

SPUD

[fluffy]

I actually use the MXLV63M more than the 990 these days. I like the 990 for micing amps, and the 63M for vocals and acoustic intruments. I realize this is pretty much the opposite of how each respective microphone is supposed to be used, but there you go.

Oh, and interface-wise I use a Yamaha mixer with phantom power and a built-in USB recording interface. It only does two-channel recording but I only ever have to record two channels at once anyway. For portable stuff I have a PreSonus Inspire 1394 which works well enough, and does proper four-channel recording. A few of the fluffy-era # tracks (Glutton, Dude and Catastrophe) were recorded with that, although it was going through a Behringer mixer and Spud was insistent on turning everything up way further than necessary so don't judge it on that sound quality. (All of my Seattle-era Sockpuppet and <3 tracks were also recorded on it.)

[Spud]

If this is the new "this is my recording setup" thread, shouldn't we change the name?



This is pretty much how we do it. If there are live drums, we three-mic them in place of the vocals, keys, and guitar, and record them first, along with bass. The rest is tracked. Aside from mixing the drums, the mixer serves as mic pre-amps. The main reason I bought my first mixer was so that I could keep everything hooked up at the same time, and it still works for that, sort of. We still plug and unplug quite a bit to accomplish different things. I have been thinking about getting a separate mixer for the drums, so that we can mix it independently, bring it in through a single stereo track, and record more live stuff a the same time. Of course, I really should just break down and get a Firepod and have the best of both worlds.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

This is pretty much how we do it.

Where's the beer in that signal path?

[Spud]

This is pretty much how we do it.

Where's the beer in that signal path?

Everywhere.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

Silly me, I saw Mad Dog's hands empty and assumed the worst...

[Spud]

He dropped it, per usual.

[Reist]

If this is the new "this is my recording setup" thread, shouldn't we change the name?

Word.