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i really like the Apogee Duet 2. i think it has the least feature for what i need and is potentially the most bang for the buck in my prioce range of around 600 - 800 as long as it isn't loaded with crap I'm never ever gona use, i sing, and play acoustic, and do multitrackin, on the fly i wouldnt want more than 2 or 3 inputs. dont need any crazy features.

as far as mic i like the sterling st69. do i need to go tube though is the question, I'm willing to spend a litle more on the mic if i go Apogeewhich is 600 clams.

i also am interested in the RODE ntk beccause it has less features, no cardioid changing features and stuff.
PLEASE HELP ME.

i got the voice, now i just need the gear, i made an allessis palm track sound frigin awsome, the odd time when the room and mic placement was just right, if i practicied extremely hard and drank lots of warm water... took years... juts found it was hard to get my rainsong jm1000 quiet enough without a capo, even though my voice cuts hard even when its quiet.

Comments

moonbaby Fri, 02/17/2012 - 07:44

I would ditch the Sterling. They are no longer manufactured, and when they were it was for GC stores, through a deal with Groove Tubes. Any more of them on the market are NOS surplus, little or no service.
For your vocals, and this has been said too many times here ( and many other sites, as well), a large diaphragm condenser is not your buddy, unless the recording space is PRIMO. This means properly treated, not because it has a Tempurpedic and a poster of a swimsuit model on the wall.
For the guitar, it's hard to beat a Shure SM81, a Rode NT55, or an A-T 4041. Any of these are around $300-350 new, maybe a deal can be found online for a little less.
Voice? Shure SM58. Even if you pick one up off a bar room floor, it will work better than 95% of the LDC's on the market that are priced under $600. Screw the tube, unless you're popping 2K+ on the thing, cheap tube condensers are all hype.
With a dedicated vocal mic like the 58, you'll get a better representation of your voice, with better rejection of the room's "signature". Which is probably in crayon unless there has been a serious investment in acoustical treatment.

BobRogers Fri, 02/17/2012 - 09:09

I'm with moonbaby 100% on this. Good choices for the SDC for guitar. Buy the SM58 now for vocals and save up to do some serious comparison shopping for a condenser that fits your voice. When you say your voice "cuts hard even when it's quiet" that makes me really leary of any inexpensive condensers and it makes me think that even if you have a condenser that works most of the time you will want a dynamic like the 58 for some songs. So get the 58 now even if you know that it will end up as a second or third mic down the road. You will keep it. Cheap condensers (evern pretty good ones) get sold off when people buy better equipment, but most people keep the 58's in the locker. They come in handy.

pip3586 Fri, 02/17/2012 - 09:25

dynamic for sure?

the onyl purpose ill ever use for this is recording with my apogee,

i dont really care about the soundn of the guitar i can make it sound good.

i have been leaning far more towards not going for a tube mic at all as the only one that i really liked other than the sterling was 1500.

i was looking at the shure smb7, but really i was using an mxl 4000 befour as well as a samsung usb, and a shure sm 57. with a tascam us-122 and 144.

im really hopeing to get a mic thats ahead of an mxl4000 by quite a bit.

and i am only getting one mic, for now, i have an old beringer instrument mic.

i want something pretty hot for 400 - 750 kinda. is an shure sm 58 gona cut it?

as i am a very highly skilled vocalist looking to capture something somewhat special.

ive read through alot of reviews and heard alot of mics. its a tough thing, thank you guys very much for yoru input, im making the purchase very soon.

pip3586 Fri, 02/17/2012 - 09:42

ready to roll... almost

are you saying i could pay more for a recording device and go for an sm58 and be satisfied?

i just really want my album to sound as good as it can for that price, only really care about how my vocals sound.

i was lookign at a shure sm7b as someone recommedned it to me from another forum

i can ajust my voice to room size and mic placement, my crib is a big of a palance as well, but, its actually very difficult to do this if your vocally diverse in your recordings wich can be the case when you record for hours on end.

i find it helpfull to jump from room to room, to get a feel for how to control your voice in reguards to volume, tone, reverb.

PRIMO studio..? do you mean room size and such? : moonbaby.

i really know how to get the most out of any mic, volume is tough to do, even with years of live experiance, if if you got killer tone on your voice its tough to keep up using a handhelp allesis palm track but boy do you ever hear the difference when you get the maximum out of it.
just has to be the right day anyway.

where im from dont have no microphones, for a long long time.

i heard alot of people say that dynamic mics work well for recording, and there seems to be oodle of controvery in some aspects to a certain degree.

but i am looking to, and prepared to throw down alot more, if i need to..

will an sm58 really give me the clasrity and crispness i need??

might be my last chane to showcase my voice, befour kids and marriage and kids thing, im trying to go as big as i can on this one, so i will always have the recordings when im a

RemyRAD Sat, 02/18/2012 - 19:14

How do you expect to make good recordings if your computer keyboard is broken? If your command of language prevents you from assembling sentences that are coherent? If you didn't complete high school? I think you should plug your Apogee into a PC which will make it sound better. They never sound good when you plug them into a Macintosh. They get all sticky that way especially if you have peeled them. Or perhaps you should stop picking your nose while trying to type?

Look at that! That's a nice big one!
Mx. Remy Ann David

RemyRAD Sun, 02/19/2012 - 14:13

Well all beginners at this are a little clueless. That doesn't mean you are stupid. That means you are trying to figure out what you need to do. Some of us have been doing this for so long, people like myself get a bit cynical. That's because we have read everything we could get our hands on throughout our careers. The need for knowledge requires a lot of in-depth investigations from everyone. I used to find at NBC-TV that the older engineers all seemed rather cynical. At 40 years in on a career, you'll get cynical also. So while you might be shocked by some peculiar responses, there is much to learn from this. I'm only trying to get you to think. To understand why some choices are good and some choices make no sense. We've all made our own mistakes through the years. I've been yelled at by other engineers in my younger days trying to get a message across to me. Sometimes, it makes you think about what was said and how to evaluate that. We are not here to approve all of your mistakes. We are here to help you not make them again in the future. But perhaps you don't have the mettle to deal with this arts oriented engineering side of the business? I didn't call you any names. I'm only saying goofy stuff that I would've hoped would make you laugh? I'm sure you must have a sense of humor don't you? This is a peculiar business. People with no talent have become famous because of software. People with lots of talent have never become famous and they don't need any software. C'est la vie

My people skills need work more than my engineering does
Mx. Remy Ann David

pip3586 Sun, 02/19/2012 - 15:32

ok

im what they might call, the sensitive type..

sorry if i ofended anyone, i know its a pain to deal with noobs sometimes, but it is also what makes thign go round.

im like alot of other people, have a certain budget, have a really busy life. i dont have that much time to deal with technical aspects. but certainly very far from useless.
I HATE FEELIGN USELESS.

THANKS YOU. moonbaby,

im going for the babyface interface.. its exactly what i need, and its A hellofa pain look for items to suit your specific needs. i talked to a few techies at my shop and they drew blanks on the topic by time.
thought they certainly have a differnce of opinion with reguard to what mics should i use.

i dont tend to care where people work, or even how much talent they have, its about having fun.

but i guess learning comes with conflict,. i did feel this feeling of stress to be terrible. but i saw the goodness of it, its makes the world go round as well.

its just as fruscating to sit at the computer shopping for gear as it is to mix tracks in your basement for years on end.

thanks for your posts evryone.

im very excited, i got my new mac setup, and ive already ordered the 4gb ram to go with it.

i got a 3rd job now as well, so i might even be able to go with a mic that has a litle more balls, if i clearly see there being a point.

but yea, sorry for the ramble, the babyface is quite a bit better choice for me