Few pointers needed

[Alan Kilcoyne]

Hello, Im new to the forum, being playing guitar and dabbling in other areas for a number of years, Ive being attempting to record some songs in my garage at home with mixed results:

The gear currently using:

- Behringer PMP5000 mixer,
- Shure SM58 to mic guitar amps
- Singing seems to be biggest problem, tried cheap mic straight to laptop with limited results, SM58 through the PA slightly better, and recently got a CAD GLX2200 condenser mic which the jury is still out on,
-Software- been using cheap Acoustica Mixcraft which may be problem

- Just got Ableton live 6 which havnt used yet,
- Thinking about getting a RODE NT1A maybe if would improve vocals much?,

Here is basic track which is work in progress and experimentation,
Any feedback is appreciated and advice on gear etc,
Some of the playing in this demo is dodge but that can be fiixed easy enough,

Thanks,

Al


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Kilco

[brandondrury]

Are you using a real deal recording audio interface? This is going to solve your problems, I think.

The vocals are distorted and clipped. They have a cool vintage vibe, but I suspect this isn't exactly the sound you are looking for.

Check out the Home Recording Soundcard Wizard and then head here.

[Alan Kilcoyne]

Thanks for the feedback, this is a great site

The recording submitted was done using cheap mixcraft software(£80) and built in SigmaTel laptop soundcard,

Would it make much difference to overall quality to purchase audio interface such as M-Audio FireWire 410 or Edirol FA-66 6X6? I only really need to record one or two tracks at once, and prob do lot of overdubbing,

I have now got Ableton live 7 software so hopefully that will also allow improvement,

[brandondrury]

Would it make much difference to overall quality to purchase audio interface such as M-Audio FireWire 410 or Edirol FA-66 6X6?

Moving from an $2 soundcard that came with a computer to a real deal audio interface usually does make quite a bit of difference. Upgrading from a cheap, real deal audio interface to an extremely expensive audio interface usually ends up hitting a point of diminishing return.

Brandon

[Alan Kilcoyne]

Hi Brandon, just a quick question,

Im looking into buying an audio interface, Given that I already have a mixer ( about 16 channel) is it possible to use the preamps from this and then connect to audio interface (such as firebox) and on to laptop,

Basically is the main difference between interfaces such as firebox and firepod the number of preamps etc ( which I wont use) or is there also difference in quality of soundcard?

Im still tryin to figure this stuff out so bear with me,

Thanks,

[DT Chris]

All the parts are there, for sure. The vocals are clipping a lot though, and distorting.

If you don't have an audio interface, get one. It'll be a good first step and allow you to pan all your tracks you now have in the stereo field a bit better.

Interesting song. Like I said, you have all the parts and the song is good, now you just have to find a way to record and mix it better

[brandondrury]

Im looking into buying an audio interface, Given that I already have a mixer ( about 16 channel) is it possible to use the preamps from this and then connect to audio interface (such as firebox) and on to laptop,

Definitely! With that in mind, most audio interfaces with laptop connections (Firewwire, USB 2.0, or USB 1.1) are going to typically have built in preamps anyways. Keep that in mind.

Basically is the main difference between interfaces such as firebox and firepod the number of preamps etc ( which I wont use) or is there also difference in quality of soundcard?

I'm convinced that all soundcards pretty much sound the same. It's just an issue of quantity and features.

Brandon