Recording questions/advice from the experts needed

[LesPaulCustom]

<font color="yellow">Hey...I am new to recording and need some advice from those who do it often (Diablo, Pete(Twisteramps) and several others).

Here is what I currently have for equipment, what I want to get, and questions on how to get what I want.

Here is what I have:
Sony digital Minidisk 4 track recorder
Alesis Quadraverb 2
BBE Sonic Maximiser
Boss DR550 drum machine
Aiwa minidisk recorder (to dump tracks from recorder to)
Line-6 POD

Here is what I want:
Mixer to route everything through to simplify connections
studio reference monitors
good recording michrophone for direct recording

I kinda want to have a simplified system to get everything into the recorder with minimal reconnection. This is primarily a permanent desk set up.

I also want to be able to have my CD player/digital slow motion machine running through the board and also have my guitar mixed to figure stuff out, play along with recordings etc.

What are some good ideas for mixers?? I have checked out Mackie and (don't kill me [img]/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img])Carvin boards...they are economical and have similar specs. What do you recommend and why?

Ideas on monitors? Should I get powered speakers or just get a power amp to do the work?? Suggesions??

Any thoughts, ideas, pointers for me??

I'm kinda new to this and need some advice, which I know some of you out here have.

Thanks for the responses in advance.

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[skidd]

Re: Recording questions/advice from the experts needed

I can say this get a shure sm57 mic, that will cover all your needs there.
I would go with powerd speakers for now.

I would get a cheap Berherger (spelling?) mixer. A 8 channel should be more then enough.

Also get a real good set of headphones.

Hope that helps.

[Newc]

Re: Recording questions/advice from the experts needed

I'm not familiar with the Sony unit, but it should be able to pull double duty as a mixer.

4 tracks is fairly limited as far as connection options, but if you've got 4 inputs (one for each track) I'd run it like this:
Track 1 - Main Rhythm (Guitar&gt;POD&gt;BBE)
Track 2 - Second Rhythm or Bass track (Same setup as Track 1)
Track 3 - Leads (Same setup as 1 and 2)
Track 4 - DR-550

Run the Quadraverb through the Sony's FX loop and assign it to whatever track during mixdown (so if you don't like how it meshes with the full mix you don't have to re-cut it).

With a POD you probably won't need a miked cab, but if you want to do it that way, go for it.

4 track units require a little more work than an 8 or 12 track, since if you want to lay down more than 4 tracks, you have to do 3 then bounce down (Mix) to one, then you have three tracks left to add more stuff. I'm sure the Beatles didn't mind because that's all that was available [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Anyhoo, regarding the easy reconnections and such, if you're not too eager to spend more money on a larger recorder, a patchbay might do the trick rather than having 4 or 5 different desktop units all over the place.

Newc