Recording setup advice...?

TheAlex · 23 Oct 2006 at 18:38

I don't have much of an idea when it comes to setting up a PC for sound recording, basically I want to record keyboards, guitar, vocals and have midi too...I'll be using software to create drums.

I've had a trawl through the forums here and from what I can gather M-audio wouldn't be a bad choice for a soundcard, I have a friend who's recommended the M-audio 2496. As I'm a complete beginner to this I've no idea whether I can manage with just a soundcard or whether I'll need a mixer too. I've just upgraded my PC to an Athlon 64 X2 4200 with 2gb of RAM and my remaining budget for the sound setup is about £150...

Thanks for any suggestions.

TheAlex · 23 Oct 2006 at 23:37

It'll mainly be electric guitar.

We'll never be recording vocals at the same time as anything else, but if it's easier not to do anything at the same time it doesn't matter too much. I already have a mic that cost £20, so hopefully that'll be good enough for now.

Those mixers look pretty good for the price and as for cables, any help you can give at all is much appreciated.

TheAlex · 24 Oct 2006 at 01:18

We don't have any effects pedals for the guitar and the mic does have a detachable cable with three pins.

The keyboard has all sorts of line-outs, including MIDI and 5mm (I think) jacks. I use it for gigs and in proper recording studios if that makes any difference, I'll try and get a photo of the back tomorrow. It's a Yamaha PSR 9000 and I can't find any pics of the back on t' Internet.

You've already been 100 times more helpful than a few hours trawling the Internet, thanks again!

TheAlex · 24 Oct 2006 at 13:59

Dr.EM said:
I see the specs on the PSR 9000. It does have master outs, but it didn't say if it was via phono or jack connection, so the photo would clear that up

They're definitely jack connections. The microphone is a Shure C606, it has a 3-pin connection on the microphone itself but the lead it came with just has a jack connection at the other end, so it looks like I'll need an XLR3 cable then.

For double the price, do you think it's worth getting an M-Audio Delta 66 over the 2496? I do need a PCI soundcard anyway and as that PreSonus and others don't seem to deal with MIDI perhaps it's the best way for me to go...

I've looked up both of those pre's, but as I'm a complete beginner in this, apart from the lack of MIDI inputs I don't really understand what the pro's, cons or differences would be in getting one of those or a mixer?

TheAlex · 25 Oct 2006 at 14:24

Thanks folks, you've both been a great help. I've bookmarked this thread for future reference and ordered the M-Audio 2496 & Soundcraft mixer for £115 which seemed like an ocake deal.

I'd already used Wikipedia to look up things like S/PDIF, so yeah...that's about how knowledgeable I was two days ago.

I have all expectations that the recordings I'm doing are going to sound crap, so anything better than that I'll be pleased with, we've never really been completely pleased with anything we've done in a studio and I already know from that that paying more money for a studio gives us a better sound...to start with it's just so I can have a mess-around anyway and eventually get some of those 'light-bulb' moments.