Xann Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 For a cheap USB maybe look at Blue Snowballs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 If you are looking for good quality cheap microphones, check out superlux, they are exceptional for the price you can pick them up. Worth investing in an audio interface with xlr inputs and phantom power, but if you prefer usb 'blue' make some decent ones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 (edited) For a cheap USB maybe look at Blue Snowballs. My son has a blue snowball, only really uses it for convenience when he just wants to get a few ideas recorded so he doesn't forget or lose them, but we found latency to be a problem if he wanted to monitor in real time as he recorded. so he tends to stick to his Rode NT1a (he wishes he has bought a matched pair) which a very nice mic or his Rode M1 depending on circumstances. Not sure if anyone is producing USB 3 mics and I'm not sure if they could improve the latency problems experienced with USB2 mics you can pick up a perfectly usable, used USB audio interface for about £50 and something like the Edirol FA66 which is firewire for about £10-£20 more but obviously not much use if you don't have a firewire input, but apparently they work very well with laptops which historically can be problematic with Audio interfaces. You can pick up a superlux pro 248s for about £30, I've seen articles that rate these as good or better than many microphones at triple the price. EDIT: the blue yeti is a usb 3 microphone and is about £70 and has received some favorable reviews Edited February 19, 2014 by mockingbird_franklin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 If I had an audio interface and was buying one mic, it would be an SM57. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leemond2008 Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 **** phone I just typed out a massive reply and my phone has deleted it. Anyway I'll probably take a look at them snowball ones, it's only going to be used as a practice aid so I only want to spend £30/40 on it. Also I'm seriously considering gutting my spare room and chucking all of my instruments in there, I've currently got 3 guitars and a banjo in my bedroom and 2 guitars 1 banjo and a keyboard in my living room. It's just being arsed to get rid of the shit that is in there first though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 If I had an audio interface and was buying one mic, it would be an SM57. Can't argue with that, It's a workhorse of a mic with great versatility. So for one mic only if you are recording lots of different sources,i.e. voice and acoustic instruments and also want a mic that can be used for live performance, it would be a great choice at a reasonable price (£90-£100). but if you have a good room and don't need isolation from your mic, as you would in a live stage environment I'd always buy a good condenser mic over a good dynamic mic, (unless your vocalist wants to hold the mic of course) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PompeyVillan Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 That's my Fender Baja Telecaster. Absolutely beautiful, chunky frets and quite heavy. The bridge pickup is decent, but I may upgrade it at some point, the neck pickup is as creamy as anything, but with plenty of twang. Position 2, offers both pickups in parallel, classic tele sound. Position 4 has both pickups in series, kinda like a humbucker, and both position 2 and 4 can be played out of phase, by pushing the volume knob down. To be honest, the extra sounds are interesting but I don't use them that often. Position 4 out of phase gives you a sort of 'Money for nothing' sound. I love it, it's my favourite guitar I've owned. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 (edited) **** phone I just typed out a massive reply and my phone has deleted it. Anyway I'll probably take a look at them snowball ones, it's only going to be used as a practice aid so I only want to spend £30/40 on it. Also I'm seriously considering gutting my spare room and chucking all of my instruments in there, I've currently got 3 guitars and a banjo in my bedroom and 2 guitars 1 banjo and a keyboard in my living room. It's just being arsed to get rid of the shit that is in there first though Worth the effort, few pictures of my son's set up (please excuse the carpet, but we needed something sound absorbing on the floor and it was free) and yes we need to treat the walls to some panels. imagen screenshot app Edited February 19, 2014 by mockingbird_franklin 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PompeyVillan Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 (edited) I have this at home for recording my acoustic guitar Behringer C -1 £37 Because it's a condenser mic you need an audio interface with phantom power. I have Line 6 POD UX2 £160 on amazon to plug it into. I got it because of the software, and that it has 2 mic and 2 instrument inputs. It comes with some cool guitar software, with loads of virtual effects for your guitar and vocals. Hundreds of presets and lots of virtual amps/setups, which are great fun and would work with your banjo as well. It comes with Reason Limited, which is easy to use. However, you needn't get something as fancy, just an audio interface with mic input, and phantom power. Most audio interfaces come with a basic DAW as well. I keep mine plugged in all the time and rum my speakers and headphones from it, because the sound quality is much better. Edited February 19, 2014 by PompeyVillan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 (edited) On the subject of guitars, missed out on one of these a few weeks ago, went for £250 screencapture Edited February 19, 2014 by mockingbird_franklin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 There is one of these going on ebay, free image hosting but at a starting bid of £375, not so sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PompeyVillan Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 Buying a guitar is like making love to a beautiful woman. You need to know what she feels like.You need to hold her, touch her, run your hands over her curves. You need to strum her gently, and then hard, flick her switches and make sure her G string is supple before you make the decision to buy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 (edited) Buying a guitar is like making love to a beautiful woman. You need to know what she feels like.You need to hold her, touch her, run your hands over her curves. You need to strum her gently, and then hard, flick her switches and make sure her G string is supple before you make the decision to buy. lol, yeah, I have played Maverick's before and own an X1, but I know buying unseen is a good way to experience disappointment, saying that though I'm a pretty shit guitarist Edit. Actually I'm an Ugly shit guitarist Edited February 19, 2014 by mockingbird_franklin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 I have this at home for recording my acoustic guitar Behringer C -1 £37 Because it's a condenser mic you need an audio interface with phantom power. I have Line 6 POD UX2 £160 on amazon to plug it into. I got it because of the software, and that it has 2 mic and 2 instrument inputs. It comes with some cool guitar software, with loads of virtual effects for your guitar and vocals. Hundreds of presets and lots of virtual amps/setups, which are great fun and would work with your banjo as well. It comes with Reason Limited, which is easy to use. However, you needn't get something as fancy, just an audio interface with mic input, and phantom power. Most audio interfaces come with a basic DAW as well. I keep mine plugged in all the time and rum my speakers and headphones from it, because the sound quality is much better. Have to admit, the Line 6 pod is one of the more aesthetically pleasing audio interfaces, makes the Focusrite saffire pro 24 DSP we use seem dull as dishwater, but the two headphone sockets have been invaluable. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted February 20, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted February 20, 2014 I have that same Behringer C-1, love it. Don't need the interface as my 24-track has channels with phantom power. Funnily enough, I've also inherited one of those UX2 boxes from a friend who was going to chuck it out, but I don't have the software. Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 The UX2 drivers are easy to get hold of, I imagine it should contain the suitable Asio Driver http://uk.line6.com/software/index.html In terms of other software DAWS, Vst's Plug-ins, there are quite a few open source or free programs floating about, and some pretty decent ones at under £70, We Use Cubase 7.5, but only because my son got it as an educational package at version 6.5 with a free upgrade to ver7 which also gave a license conversion to full commercial, then it was very cheap to upgrade again, So we don't have much experience of other cheaper DAWs, we do however have a few other DAWS that came with various bits of equipment and other software, think we have a version of Reason and Cubase AI 6 that we have never installed. On the free stuff, heard good stuff about LMMS, Traverso is another I've heard people be complimentary about. Reaper is $60 but the Demo mode never expires, you just get a nag screen on start up, I have played around with Acoustica Mixcraft 5 which was sort of alright (think I've been spoiled by cubase 7.5), It's currently it's on version 6 which is supposed to be a much improved product, I've seen it for sale for under £40, plenty of advice on cheap/free software and VST's available on line, Other cheap options, cubase elements 7 is about £40-£50, Steinberg sequel 3 is about a tenner more, cakewalk music creator 6 is about the same price as previously mentioned products. If you have a Mac, there is nothing wrong with Garage band though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted February 20, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted February 20, 2014 The UX2 drivers are easy to get hold of, I imagine it should contain the suitable Asio Driver http://uk.line6.com/software/index.html Haven't tried it yet, but I think that site is a bit strict on having the product registration key, which of course I don't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 (edited) The UX2 drivers are easy to get hold of, I imagine it should contain the suitable Asio Driver http://uk.line6.com/software/index.html Haven't tried it yet, but I think that site is a bit strict on having the product registration key, which of course I don't. Not for the drivers, after all they would be pretty useless without a suitable line 6 product, Effectively you are just installing a very high grade audio card (albeit an external one). You do need to create a user account to download however (just successfully downloaded to see if you could). Obviously it's unlikely you'd be able to download any of the other software (DAW VSTi's etc) that came with the retail product. Manual available to download here http://uk.line6.com/support/manuals/podstudioux2 though the site does have a free version of POD farm available. Edited February 20, 2014 by mockingbird_franklin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted February 20, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted February 20, 2014 Ah, OK, thanks, I'll check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts