Beginner Recording Equipment

beany_22

Member
Hey Hey

After just under a year of practicing and gigging with my band, I'm looking to start recording my drums. I have little to no knowledge about this at all, only small pieces i've researched that i've probably misunderstood along the way.

So from what i gather, i have my kit and my macbook with garageband software, now i need a mixer? an interface and a set of drum mics? (all for as cheap as possible hopefully)

Is this all?

I have a PDP 805 kit and will be using 1 bass drum, 1 rack tom, 1 floor tom and 1 snare.
I then have 2 crashes, a ride, a china, hats, and my zil-bell.

Which mixer would be best for me?
Which interface would be best for me?
Which drum mic's would be best for me?

Any information you can give me would really help me out.

Thanks in advance.

Tom.
 
Hey Hey

After just under a year of practicing and gigging with my band, I'm looking to start recording my drums. I have little to no knowledge about this at all, only small pieces i've researched that i've probably misunderstood along the way.

So from what i gather, i have my kit and my macbook with garageband software, now i need a mixer? an interface and a set of drum mics? (all for as cheap as possible hopefully)

Is this all?

I have a PDP 805 kit and will be using 1 bass drum, 1 rack tom, 1 floor tom and 1 snare.
I then have 2 crashes, a ride, a china, hats, and my zil-bell.

Which mixer would be best for me?
Which interface would be best for me?
Which drum mic's would be best for me?

Any information you can give me would really help me out.

Thanks in advance.

Tom.

without a budget, we can't really steer you as to what would be "best". If best = cheap as possible, then you can skip the mixer, just get a 1 or 2 channel usb interface and just 1 or 2 mics with cable(s), a usb cable, a couple cheap studio monitors and you're in business.
 
Thanks for the response man,

I'm in the UK, and I'm gonna have roughly £600 to play around with.

So just under $1000 dollars if I'm correct.

At the moment I'm thinking of getting:

A Shure SM57 for the snare.
A Shure Beta 52 for the bass.
And 2 AKG C1000's.

I was then thinking about getting the Behringer XENYX 1222FX and a pair of Direct Sound Extreme Isolation headphones.

Would this be okay for recording? As i said previously, i really have no idea about this stuff.

Would there be something better in this price range for me?

Will i be able to get my drums sounding good with this? (i know it will take a lot of practice, i mean in the long run)


I was also looking at the Presonus Firestudio, would this be more suitable for me?


Thanks again,

Tom.
 
If your xenyx is going to do double duty as a live mixer, it should work fine. If you're buying for recording only, you should get an interface only, with an appropriate number of inputs. The presonus will have better preamps and probably a better A/D converter and would be better for recording.
 
i'll get looking at the Firestudio a bit more as i won't be using anything live, it will all be simply for recording purposes.

This may make me sound incredibly stupid right now, but..

My mic's will be set up around my kit, they will then be connected via XLR cable to the Firestudio, which will then be connected via firewire to the macbook. Is that correct? Is there anything else involved other than that?

Sorry, i just need to get stuff worked out in my head.
 
I can vouch for the C1000's, my college has them for recording and they're pretty good for the price.

For the bass drum, try to find a AKG D112. They're good for recording bass instruments in general, so have look at them. They're good for the cash you pay for them.

For £600, I don't think you'd get a lot that's reasonably OK. I'd save up to £1000, or buy half a set up now and then more later. A half decent snare mic, bass drum, 2 overheads and maybe 2 tom mics will be all your £600, and then you have no money for a mixer (not expensive, but still) and interface.
 
I can get the mic's i've named for approximately £400 with lots of shopping around.
And while i've been researching, people have said that their pretty top mic's.

I'm also not buying tom mic's now, they will come later.

The £600 is also rough, its not strict, it's how much i'd like to pay in a perfect world, if it rolls over it rolls over.
 
i'll get looking at the Firestudio a bit more as i won't be using anything live, it will all be simply for recording purposes.

This may make me sound incredibly stupid right now, but..

My mic's will be set up around my kit, they will then be connected via XLR cable to the Firestudio, which will then be connected via firewire to the macbook. Is that correct? Is there anything else involved other than that?

Sorry, i just need to get stuff worked out in my head.

yes, either studio headphones or powered monitors or an amp+ studio monitors. Everything else can be PLUG-INS or virtual rack gear (software). But that is the basics for getting started.
 
Thanks for the response man,

I'm in the UK, and I'm gonna have roughly £600 to play around with.

So just under $1000 dollars if I'm correct.

At the moment I'm thinking of getting:

A Shure SM57 for the snare.
A Shure Beta 52 for the bass.
And 2 AKG C1000's.

I was then thinking about getting the Behringer XENYX 1222FX and a pair of Direct Sound Extreme Isolation headphones.

Would this be okay for recording? As i said previously, i really have no idea about this stuff.

Would there be something better in this price range for me?

Will i be able to get my drums sounding good with this? (i know it will take a lot of practice, i mean in the long run)


I was also looking at the Presonus Firestudio, would this be more suitable for me?


Thanks again,

Tom.

I have that same mixer, I also have samson drum mics they are cheap but they work well. I also use mixcraft4 recording software its not very good. I am saving up to get a mac P.Cs don't seem to cut it for audio stuff. The mixer also has a usb interface.
 
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Sorry for bringing this back again but..

Are there any slightly cheaper alternatives to the Presonus Firestudio?

i've looked at the Behringer ADA8000 and it has some really terrible reviews.

Thanks in advance.
 
Sorry for bringing this back again but..

Are there any slightly cheaper alternatives to the Presonus Firestudio?

i've looked at the Behringer ADA8000 and it has some really terrible reviews.

Thanks in advance.

TASCAM US-1641 USB 2.0 Audio/MIDI Computer Interface
PRESONUS Firepod FP-10 firewire interface
 
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