Setup ?'s

Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 4:23 am

Hello! I'm sorry if these seem like horrible questions:

1) I'm going to start recording music and I think I have some idea of a proper chain:

Source -> Instrument(s) -> Mixer -> Interface -> PC

Is this correct?

2) I'll ask after I get an answer to 1 :]

To give a little bit of information: I'm looking to record acoustic guitar and vocals, but want to leave some flexibility in case I decide to add a drum machine or something in the future. I have a Behringer PMP2000 Mixer and that's about it. I'm in the market for an interface and microphones now. I'm looking for a USB or Firewire interface because I'm running on a laptop for the time being. Am I correct in thinking I need a very minimal amount of inputs on the interface because I have a mixer and can just put everything into that?

I kinda got carried away and rambled a bit in this post, but hopefully I covered almost everything.

Thank you for your time and any replies I receive!

Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 4:56 am

This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but it might give you a good start

http://recording.org/ftopict-46416-.html

Other than that, we might want to put together or find a good "Recording 101" kind of deal as far as absolute basics go, this is the second one that's come up in the past couple of days.

Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 5:15 am

Thank you very much for the help! I read that post and I pretty much have the information I need and answered question 1.

Question 2 will probably seem very stupid, but here it goes haha:

To put my mixer to an interface, I would just hook it up to the two line-ins, correct?

As another side question: could anybody recommend an interface? I was thinking about using the Lexicon Alpha. Has anyone had any experiences with this one or had experiences with something they think is fantastic? I'm looking to go pretty cheap. The Alpha is $99 and the absolute most I'd spend would probably be around $150-high 100's.

Again, thanks for any replies!

Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:25 am

This topic should really be in the Budget Gear forum.

I would get a digitizing interface and by-pass the B* mixer. One of the dual-channel M-Audio units would come within your budget and give you reasonable results to get you started. If your money has to stretch to a microphone as well, get a Shure SM57 - it will work for both guitar and vocals (with a foam windshield) when recorded separately. Don't forget you will need a mic stand and cable.

Assuming you have no cash left for software, download the free Audacity if you have a Windows-based PC, or use Garageband if you have a MAC.

Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 1:51 pm

Thanks for the reply! I think I'm actually just gonna go with the Alpha. I'll try it out and if I'm not satisfied, I can always upgrade. Thanks a lot for the help guys!

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