An upgrade to a basic home recording setup

Creed_Clicks · July 2022

I have a basic headphone setup I have been using for donkey's years and now thinking of stepping it up a little bit. I am thinking the expense here might be in microphones more than anything else.
I will leave the mixing and mastering to someone else. I am just looking to get good quality acoustic and/or guitar stuff down-

Here is what I have at the moment:

behringer usb midi umc204 (bog standard 2 in / 2 out audio interface, with outputs if I ever wanted to reamp). I also have a focusrite scarlett, the basic 2 channel one.
element em 89d (bog standard dynamic mic)
A good few plugins, synths and the likes to mess around with.

Forget about my guitar pedals and keyboards, vst plugins etc. Here are my questions.

I will record electric guitar using pedals, straight in, so will use amp sims etc. Not sure if the Nux is the same as the Strymon Iridium in this case, if I were to buy something like that.

To record a decent acoustic guitar? Any suggestions on a mic that won't cost me the world? (A Rode and a Shure just for the difference?)

Some semi decent neutral headphones? (Beyerdynamic dt 770 for example?)

I have no problem using krk rokits as monitors.

Should I upgrade my usb audio interface. I have seen a dedicated guitar interface/DI from IK Multimedia?

For anything acoustic, rather than just micing it, and going straight into audio interface, should I look at a small 4 channel mixing desk?

For drums, I am only going to record a snare and cymbal, with brushes/rods/mallet, anything else will be electronic stuff.

Could I use the same mic I would use for an acoustic or vocals for this, or should I look at another. e.g. If I had 2 decent mics, it would be a luxury to have the choice of trying them out in different ways...

Should I look at a compressor of some sort? Would a VST be enough in this case, or should I look at a physical product?

Essentially, I am looking to upgrade mic (or 2), neutral monitor style headphone for now, and monitors to follow, possibly an Iridium or similar, and a mixing desk if needed.

Thanks in advance for any feedback here!

personalnadir · July 2022

I'd set up an eBay alert on some iLoud Micro Monitors and an interface with more physical inputs. Don't know enough about microphones to comment. Advantage of a rack sized audio interface is that you can stack stuff on it (or put in a rack). In small spaces that can make a huge difference, you can then mix on your computer and buy some midi faders.

I've been using an Arturia 8Pre, which does everything I need. You may also need a midi interface if you want to have synths hooked up at the same time.

I have hardware pedal compressor and a Fatman Fat-1 compressor. I've always used software compressors once stuff is in the DAW

Winny_Pooh · July 2022

The scarlett will be fine to keep using.

NUX do make a modeler as like the Iridium, I assume it's a amp modeller you are referencing, not just a pedal sim.

A physical mixer will only be useful for combining many inputs into monitors/headphones: eg synths, guitar modeller, interface audio outs, so that you dont continually need to repatch or switch on the pc to practice. But it doesn't add any extra quality to recordings so always plug mics etc direct into the interface.

For electric amps & snare get an audix i5 (it's also cool for acoustics)
For acoustic guitars & vocals a decent large diaphragm condenser, a Rode, SE or Aston at the higher end.

I personally like the ATH-M50x for closed back headphones but tastes vary lot!

You don't need a hardware comp if it's just you (I only use one to tame singing if it's really just about to clip the interface inputs)

Creed_Clicks · August 2022

@Winny_Pooh yep, I meant the Nux studio (Iridium knockoff), so guitar > pedals > iridium > audio interface, bob's yer uncle.

I probably do not need a mixer then either on reflection. Two mic inputs into the audio interface would allow me to record an acoustic and experiment with mic placements. e.g. could I combine a Rode NT1 for example, with an SM57.

The problem I have had with recording a snare is the end result comes out really sharp/top end sounding, even with brushes and with a towel over the snare. Granted I was just trying to get down rough ideas at the time with a bog standard Shure mic acting as an overhead, but it always sounded very shrill.

My thinking is to record and to have nothing to do with the mixing stage bar a rough idea of what I would like. I will leave that to the experts, and in my experience, it's an art form in itself!

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An upgrade to a basic home recording setup

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