Hi trojanso9,

To better recomend equipment to you it would be a good idea for you to include information like:
1. What your buget is

2. What type of music you'll be recording

3. What the overall sound you are you going for

In general, the information you gave is not sufficient.

ok. i am kind of broke right but i will be buying everything as time goes on. of course the more important stuff first though.

1.budget i am looking at would probably under 700 but as time goes on i will keep getting more money to spend to start off we will say under 700 or 700.

2. The msuic i will mainly be recording is pop-punk, or like indie or alternative. mainly upbeat poppy stuff though, so i want to have really crisp sounding vocals and guitars

3. the overall sound i want to have is the sound my band has from the studio we went to you can hear it hear. i really want crisp guitars, clear vocals that blend in well and good sounding drums.
take a listen here http://www.myspace.com/hudson

trojanso9 wrote: 3. the overall sound i want to have is the sound my band has from the studio we went to you can hear it hear. i really want crisp guitars, clear vocals that blend in well and good sounding drums.
take a listen here http://www.myspace.com/hudson

The problem with getting the overall sound of a professional studio, assuming you recorded at one, is the fact that you won't have the talent the guy at the studio had. You can get all the best equipment in the world but until you have it down, which takes years, you'll never get that pro studio sound. I'm not trying to discourage you but I'm also not fond of the "well if this guy can make us sound like this why can't we do it ourselves?" mentality. Now I haven't had a chance to listen to the song because I'm on dial up and I will listen when I get home but assuming the recording is up to some kind of pro quality then you may be dissatisfied with what you produce. If you just want to have a recording platform to get ideas down on then what you've mentioned is a good start. I'd just get a 8/10 channel mixer and cheap drum mics and just run the mixer into the 2 ins on the mbox. You'll be stuck with a stereo recording of the drums but if you tweak it on the board right it should be passable. So this is probably all confusing because it confuses me but what I'm basically trying to say is that if you like the way the pro studio sounded then continue to give them your business, it keeps this music thing going, and you can still get the mbox setup and lay down acceptable tracks to get your ideas down. Just don't go into this thing thinking the software and equipment is going to do it all for you. All that being said, an mbox, yamaha mg12/4, cheap audix drum mics and you're on your way. At this point I wouldn't worry about good preamps and good mics. Do what you can with what you have, once your equipment starts to limit you then upgrade.

for the drums i was thinking about using the mics that i just bought which is an MXL 990 and 991 and i was thinking of getting a few sm-57's also.

when i track drums would it sound better pluging the mixer into the mic preamp that i buy? or is that out of the question?

the pre-amp i was thinking about getting so the ART TPS II cause it is pretty cheap and people say they like it alot.

im not trying to get the same sound that is in those recordings, if i knew what i was doing then that sound is definetly what i want. I just have trouble tracking guitar. Yesterday i tried recording guitar with the 990 and then with the 991 and it is hard to get a descent sound. you cant really hear what is being played even with the volume turned down as well as the gain. any tips on getting a sound you can hear well? ha. i tried using compressors and i used AMPlitube plugin to see if i can make the sound more recognizable but it is hard.

thanks alot for all your help so far!

You shouldn't be having problems with a condensor and volume unless you don't have your phantom power switched on. And IMO the mbox preamps are pretty much the same thing as the art.