Help with starting a recording setup?

[waffle_house_jam]

I've been thinking about selling some of the gear I have now in order to buy some nice recording equipment. The problem is, I don't know what I will need to get really good quality recordings. I've picked up that I need a condenser mic, and some sort of preamp thing. I was also wondering if I need a better sound card from my computer (it's a dell inspiron 1150).
Right now I have a peavey escort 2000 PA system thing that came with a microphone, I've been running that through the mic jack in my notebook. Any recommendations? Thanks for the help..

[mattinbeloit]

First of all give us a budget because that will really help. What do you plan on recording because i need to know how many inputs and whatnot you need. Right off the top of my ass I'm going to say, as always, to look at an MBox by digidesign, I am very impressed with it. It is an external sound card in a way and it runs off ur computers power so if you have a decent computer with around 500 mb of ram you will be more then fine. The MBox has 2 XLR inputs (to plug a mic into) and a few 1/4 inputs (like if you have a preamp in ur guitar and you want to record it through that.). The XLR iputs offer 48v phantom power that most mics need so you are all set for that, and the MBox plugs into ur USB drive, very simple. It also comes with PROTOOLS which is a program used to record and is the standard in professional recording programs. It's can be a little hard to learn how to use protools if you have never done this sort of thing before bbut plenty of ppl., including myself, on here use it so we can help you out. Mboxes are running about $350-$400 right now but will probably be a litle cheaper since the Mbox 2 just came out. Let me know if u have any more questions, take a look at that and like I said, let us know some specifics.

[waffle_house_jam]

Thanks for the reply,
My budget would probably be around 300 dollars or so, if I sell the peavey PA I may be able to get that much at least.
My computer has 256 mb of RAM. Any other computer specs I need to take into account? I don't want to buy a bunch of good stuff that will sound crappy because of my computer.
I really won't need more than 1 or two inputs because the stuff I record is usually me layering guitars and maybe flute and simple drum stuff (not a big drum set, like bongos and the like).
I was wondering, would it be worth it to keep the PA and use it as the preamp sort of thing, and just buy a nice condenser mic to run through it? The microphone that came with the PA a pretty cheap one.

[mattinbeloit]

Whats the processor like in ur computer. $300 is not going to get you an MBox unless ou find a good deal on ebay or something, look around at some of the M-Audio stuff, they have some good setups for cheaper and i hear good things about them. If i where you scrap the Peavy, its not going to do much for you.

[waffle_house_jam]

Reading from the control panel thing, apparently I have a 2.66 GHz processor. Just looking at all the stuff I'll have to get, it doesn't look like I'll be able to get what I want on the current budget. Any suggestions for getting better sound out of my current setup? I'm using Audacity to record, and either the peavey deal or just a regular computer mic.

[CBalvarez]

As long you have a decent pickup in your guitar for starters. You shoul be able to make decent recordings. IF you have that PA, I would use the mixer and run it your computer with an adapter (from 1/4" to 1/8").

Then download a recording program like Cool Edit Pro from a P2P program and you should be set to go. It makes it harder when you can't record multiple tracks simultaneously, but if your willing to take the extra time, your recording will sound just fine.

It's how I record, through my Yamaha PA mixer.

[bngholio14]

Hmm. Well lets see:

Maudio Fasttrack USB
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=703606

MXL Condenser mic
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=273156

or
Studio Proejcts Condenser mic(Ive heard alot of good things about this mic)
http://www.zzounds.com/item--STUB1


Behringer Mixer(provides phantom power for the condenser mic, also more inputs incase you need them)
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=631238

So with the mxl mic, the behringer mixer and the maudio fastrack, youre looking at $220 total.
This should give you a fairly decent setup for your budget and the fact you have a laptop. The only thing youll have to do is get something like this
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=333034
so you can go from the tape outs on the mixer into the input on the maudio box. Or you can get a dual 1/4 cable to a stereo input and then go from the main-outs on the mixer to the input on the maudio box.


OR

You can get this

http://www.zzounds.com/item--MDOFTRACKPRO

along with the MXL Mic

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=273156

And youll be good to go, at a total of $270