I finally have some money.

[Brent Holder]

Well this is kind of a general question but I thought I would get a few peoples opinions. Basically I own no recording equipment...

BUT! I finally saved up to a point of where I would like to start purchasing a few things to get me started. My actual question really is if you had 500-600$ to spend, and you were a complete newbie (though I have been spending quite a while on the computer reading and watching tutorials for the past year) what would be the first things you would purchase?

I was thinking this Akai Pro EIE and get some ATH-M50 headphones. I like the fact that it has 4 inputs, it comes with Cubase, and the reviews I have seen say it has zero latency but I haven't seen that many reviews so I don't know for sure if it really is a good audio interface. And I also can't tell for sure if it has 48v phantom power.

As for the ATH-M50 headphones I'm pretty sure those are the ones I want to get.

I plan to start off by making some really lame metal songs (lame because playing music isn't my strong suit but I am alright at bass and my brother plays guitar) So I would need some drum software, such as EZ Drummer or Superior Drummer. And he doesn't have the best equipment in the world so I may need a few amp simulators and stuff.

but those are just my ideas so far, like I said what would you do if you were in my situation?

 

[Studdy]

One piece of advice I can give you is when buying a low cost interface to create and write music on stability is everything. Don't get too wrapped up in specs. If you need to track more than 2 tracks at a time your options will be different than a basic 2 channel converter.

Interface (Focusrite Scarlett 2i2?, never tried it but its cheap and I imagine its fairly stable, higher cost maybe an RME or Apogee?)
1 x SM57 (You will never get rid of it, i played the low cost condenser game, i've sold all of them; best value condenser i have that I like is the AT4040)
Decent Pair Of Headphones (I prefer the shure over the audio technica, i found them a little more "honest" in the low end.) But the AT do sound great for low cost)
Decent Low Cost Monitors (Yamaha etc.)

Example

-Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 $150
-SM57 $100
-Monitors $400
-Headphones $100

= $750

A million options, just trying to help \m/

 

[botus99]

Don't go for the commercial amp simulators (unless you look at S-Gear down the road, which is the only good commercial one IMO). Get your amps from Onquel, LePou, Nick Crow, Ignite, and AXP. Then grab the quadra-trilla-doh-decca-billions of free impulses out there. You'll have more tonal possibilities than you know what to do with and won't have to spend a dime!

 

[Brent Holder]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! I do have a couple of questions though. When you say stable do you just mean like get one that will not break on me really easily?

and this may be a stupid question, but I've never really had the experience with this so I haven't learned much about it yet, but what exactly is an impulse?

From what I read it sounds like... samples... of things like reverb but I'm not quite sure.

 

[Studdy]

Stability meaning working flawlessly with your computer. Good drivers and compatibility. Nothing worse than dropouts, pops n clicks, errors. All the information you are after is available all over this forum. Just search.

 

[Trevoire520]

Dont go for Focusrite. Their low end interfaces have problems clipping with humbucker equipped guitars.

For drum software you could try the free Kontakt instrument that Sennheiser brought out.

As said there's free amp sims all over the place that sound better tha many of the paid ones. Impulses are eq sweeps of guitar cabinets, so they act as a cabinet simulation after the amp sim to give a fairly authentic mic'd sound.

Monitors aren't necessarily essential, the ATH M50's will do until you get more money for monitors and acoustic treatment.

 

[Sethis]

Dont go for Focusrite. Their low end interfaces have problems clipping with humbucker equipped guitars.

Never heard of that again. Which model had the problem?

 

[Brent Holder]

Alrighty then, I'm going to go ahead and start looking into buying some stuff (hardware stuff first) Thanks for all the help! I was thinking now would be a great time since Musicians Friend is doing 2 coupon codes (one for labor day and one for a sweepstakes I participated in) but it seems like every brand I can think of is not covered by the coupon...

Well, just in case, does any one know a good place to look besides, GC or Musicians Friend?

I found some bhphotovideo website but don't know how trusty it is.

 

[Sloan]

Save money, buy used. Watch craigslist and ebay etc...

 

[neptunian]

Go for a nicer USB audio interface since it's the core of your recording system. Something in the $200-$400 range. The budget ones cut corners that may frustrate you in the long run. For example, the Presonus Audiobox I once had lacked the power to drive the ATH-M50 so there was no bass. And as Trev said, the lower Focusrite clips with high output guitar pickups.

Personally I'd recommend the Roland Quad Capture for its rock solid system stability. Since you're using programmed drums, you probably won't need more than 2 primary channels anyway. Use the money saved from extra features toward extra quality instead.

The ATH-M50 are good. Though they have a mild hump in the 800-2000 Hz range, so my mixes came out a bit scooped until I got studio monitors. So once you get your interface, headphones, and mic start saving up again for the monitors and acoustic treatment. The Equator D5 monitors are awesome for their price.

If you're going direct with your guitars, then you won't need an SM57 just yet. For vocals, some will recommend an SM7B but first check that your interface has 60dB of available preamp gain before getting it. Otherwise a condenser mic will give better results: Shure AT4040, Se2200A, ADK Odin come to mind.

Other than GC (check their used section) and Musiciansfriend, there's also ProAudiostar (can get some great deals there) and BHPhoto (just look up their return policy before you buy) and also Sweetwater (who have insanely over the top customer service).

 

[sjcortese]

Dont go for Focusrite. Their low end interfaces have problems clipping with humbucker equipped guitars.

The Focusrite 2i2 has issues with clipping with some pickups, mostly actives from what I have read. It has no pad on the input so I wouldn't recommend it.

Having said that, I would recommend the Focusrite 2i4. Great unit, it's available for under $200 and has a -10db pad so clipping should not be an issue. I haven't had any issues with mine, no clipping at all.

~scott

 

[Brent Holder]

Well I think that's about all my questions! Thanks a lot guys!

 

[7string]

NI has a free Guitar Rig 5 offer for a couple more days.

http://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/komplete-audio-6-guitar-rig-offer/

I have one of these and its pretty solid. Reamps good. The GR5 effects would be useful with the Lepou, TSE, Ignite stuff.

 

[Brent Holder]

Oh man thanks for the link! Hard choice though... I had my eye on a Focusrite 2i4 and ATH-M50 combination... Going to have to try to decide before the offer is up.

This may also be a stupid question but how many times can you download sowftware, like if I buy a plug-in, and download it on my computer, if I get a new computer will I still be able to download it on that computer? Does it work like that?

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I don't think you should go with the interface (the original one you posted) you listed for this one BIG reason alone:

USB audio interface with up to 16-bit recording resolution

Fuck that shit.

 

[Brent Holder]

Haha yeah I'm definitely not going to get that one anymore, I didn't really realize at the time that it was bad.

 

[DanLights]

Oh man thanks for the link! Hard choice though... I had my eye on a Focusrite 2i4 and ATH-M50 combination... Going to have to try to decide before the offer is up.

I'd say that's a great start, go for it!

Later on, think of some basic acoustic treatment and monitors.

 

[jackbraglia]

I found some bhphotovideo website but don't know how trusty it is.

B&H is incredibly trustworthy. It's a massive pro audio/video store here in new york run by a bunch of orthodox jews. they've been around since the 70's. great deals on used gear too.

oh and I'd say skip the headphones for now and get monitors. you'll have a tough time getting mixes to translate if you're mixing on headphones

 

[DanLights]

B&H is incredibly trustworthy. It's a massive pro audio/video store here in new york run by a bunch of orthodox jews. they've been around since the 70's. great deals on used gear too.

oh and I'd say skip the headphones for now and get monitors. you'll have a tough time getting mixes to translate if you're mixing on headphones

Debatable. Although I don't disagree. Getting monitor mixes will also be hard to translate if there's no acoustic treatment, my advice would be to mix mainly on headphones (good ones) and check in as many systems as you can (home stereo, car stereo, cheap headphones, etc.). But I'm not saying you're wrong, using monitors can work too, but I would still check in other systems to make sure.

 

[Brent Holder]

Thanks for all the advice guys I think I finally decided to get the NI Komplete Audio Package, I felt like all the software that came with it would be really helpful for me to start off with, it came with a lite version of Cubase which is the DAW I've wanted to try, and from what I've heard the interface is pretty good. I think I'm just going to get the ATH-M50 seperately, for about 130$. All in all I should have plenty of Vsts, an audio interface, headphones, and a DAW for about 360$.