embarassing monitoring system using computer speakers and headphones

....... that's where you should start ......... :lol:

Start on your room.This will make the MOST difference before you improve your gear.Kill all the flutter echos,all the primary standing waves..Do yourself a favor and rent a high-end analizer and mic setup..any decent pa speaker with a decent cd player can be used to amplify a signal in your rooms...run the volume up to where it would normally be in your tracking area and likewise in your control area.The analizer will show you what you need to do to the acoustics in order to bring them into a usable response.Study the acoustics books and ask on our forum here about materials and types of construction you'll be able to do to achieve your goal.This will initially cost as much as your equipment upgrade, BUT in the long run it will be the one thing that will make your future equipment upgrades a much more valuable asset.When you can clearly hear what you're recording and have control over it, you will make much better choices in gear...

What he said.

i cant afford good monitors for editing, so i just use my stereo. The stereo works as as the amp(you put it on aux) and all you need is to send from the output of your computer to the stereo inputs on your stereo. Ive been editing pretty well with these speakers. Try that. Also, if you are using cool edit, compress every track, then compress the mix down, and then give the mixdown a final eq. Thats what i do for my little "mastering"

Start on your room.This will make the MOST difference before you improve your gear.Kill all the flutter echos,all the primary standing waves..Do yourself a favor and rent a high-end analizer and mic setup..any decent pa speaker with a decent cd player can be used to amplify a signal in your rooms...run the volume up to where it would normally be in your tracking area and likewise in your control area.The analizer will show you what you need to do to the acoustics in order to bring them into a usable response.Study the acoustics books and ask on our forum here about materials and types of construction you'll be able to do to achieve your goal.This will initially cost as much as your equipment upgrade, BUT in the long run it will be the one thing that will make your future equipment upgrades a much more valuable asset.When you can clearly hear what you're recording and have control over it, you will make much better choices in gear...

I'm gonna have to disagree in this case. My vote goes for the new preamp or mixing board. Let's face it, fancy acoustic analyzation is not going to improve the sound of the Nady by much. Functionality before perfection. Next I would split any remaining funds betwixt some acoustic treatment and some decent little monitors.

Sorry!

Its amazing how good crap equipment sounds in a good balanced room...............................really. Its also amazing how perfectly average very good equipment sounds in a bad room and how much WORK it is to make it sound good. Recording quality STARTS with the environment its recorded in.Its the backwards forwards principle and its true every time. Room>Mic>Preamp>Processing>Recorder. Why would anyone want to spend thousands of dollars on a monitor system that the environment its placed in completely negates its ability to perform. Disagree all you want but this is not my idea... its simply facts as they are.
Obviously by the original posters post, he needs a preamp of some kind to even record at all.His question was what is the most improvement on sound for the dollar I can get. It will always be the room unless youre sitting in a complete well designed studio, then I'd say mics.Then pres.then an ear.

I honestly do appreciate all the feedback!! You guys rule.

However, I was more intrested in obtaining information on upgrading the gear I currently DO have. More to the point: what specific kinds of mics, preamps or mixers could make a leap in difference, assuming I was using a perfectly tuned room. ;) This Nady would still suck balls, imo... Heck channel 6 doesnt even WORK anymore. No amount of auralex gonna help that!!! :D

I dunno if you guys have heard "Chesire Cat" or "Bleach", but they are some pretty weak sounding albums!! ;) I am hoping that in the past 10-15 years, technology has come far enough that I can reproduce something similar to these albums in my bedroom. Maybe it's not possible.

Although I am NOT using a perfect sounding room, I honestly and thankfully appreciate how much importance you all have placed on it. I have now jumped in to learning more about it, scouring this forum for information and links abound from it. I plan on making significant room improvements soon. I even have a friend that knows a bit on the subject and has told me the wonders of bookshelves, mattresses and Pergo flooring. What fun! :)

But disregarding my room, and disregarding the monitoring situation (pretending they are both acceptable); where can I make the biggest bang on quality improvement? I have a Delta 10/10 which accepts 8 Inputs at once, which is my goal. Right now I am seeing that a Mackie VLZ 1604 is equipt with what I am looking for - but some people on this forum, seem to doubt it's audio quality and knock its preamps. Is there something else in this price range that would considerably blow away the Mackie?

I certainly am not neglecting the importance of a quality tracking and monitoring environment. Those things will get taken care of in another post at another time! :)

Thanks again to everyone for your time and pointing me in the right direction on certain issues!!!

Nah man, doubtful anything will "blow it away" in a similar price range. In fact, the Mackie may not blow away the Nady! But it will be much more functional, which sounds like what you need. 8-) The newer Mackie Onyx might be better, and they have a stripped down version that is just the preamps if you don't require
the busing and junk (you probably do that in the box anyway).

BTW Davedog - I am new here (except my months of lurking) so I don't want you to get the wrong idea about me. I am in no way advocating that he overlook acoustic treatment; but come on, a barely working Nady? That's where I point the finger. :)

I should post some pics up here of my crazy moveable acoustic panels I made to tame the flutter echos and such in my vault-ceiling drum tracking room (aka living room). I took 6 panels of 8' x 4' x 1 1/2" pink insulation board and stuck some 2" and 4" charcoal-color wedge foam on them. I know it isn't feet and feet of fluffy fiberglass insulation coupled with rigid fiberglass insul., but it does help; especially since I can't go tearing up my rental house. :D

room

I'm with Davedog on this one. Room first. Good monitors will really show how good your room, mic, preamps, converters, etc, are however so they are a really high priority in my book. Dave's logic holds true in that a good room sound will help tremendously on your final mix even if you don't realise it on a poor monitoring situation. First and formost of course is a good musician who knows how to get a great tone out of his instrument.

SuperChester wrote: I honestly do appreciate all the feedback!! You guys rule.

However, I was more intrested in obtaining information on upgrading the gear I currently DO have. More to the point: what specific kinds of mics, preamps or mixers could make a leap in difference, assuming I was using a perfectly tuned room. ;) This Nady would still suck balls, imo... Heck channel 6 doesnt even WORK anymore. No amount of auralex gonna help that!!! :D

I dunno if you guys have heard "Chesire Cat" or "Bleach", but they are some pretty weak sounding albums!! ;) I am hoping that in the past 10-15 years, technology has come far enough that I can reproduce something similar to these albums in my bedroom. Maybe it's not possible.

Although I am NOT using a perfect sounding room, I honestly and thankfully appreciate how much importance you all have placed on it. I have now jumped in to learning more about it, scouring this forum for information and links abound from it. I plan on making significant room improvements soon. I even have a friend that knows a bit on the subject and has told me the wonders of bookshelves, mattresses and Pergo flooring. What fun! :)

But disregarding my room, and disregarding the monitoring situation (pretending they are both acceptable); where can I make the biggest bang on quality improvement? I have a Delta 10/10 which accepts 8 Inputs at once, which is my goal. Right now I am seeing that a Mackie VLZ 1604 is equipt with what I am looking for - but some people on this forum, seem to doubt it's audio quality and knock its preamps. Is there something else in this price range that would considerably blow away the Mackie?

I certainly am not neglecting the importance of a quality tracking and monitoring environment. Those things will get taken care of in another post at another time! :)

Thanks again to everyone for your time and pointing me in the right direction on certain issues!!!

Pay attention. Room and monitoring chain.

Thank you. :)

This one thread has pointed me in a lot of directions to look in, thank you all who were involved. =)

- Dave, a.k.a. _NW_CHAOS_