Best soundcard etc for shure sm58

S

Stormz

Guest
Hi all, am working on a tight budget and am interested in trying to record on to my XP pc.

We normally record in a studio, but I`d like to try and record some acoustic tracks (to start with) at home.... ie
- lay down the acoustic guitar on a track.
- lay down vocals on another track, while listening back to the guiotar through headphones.

i`ve done countless searches, and have learned alot, but still not enough.

atm my soundcard is a Hercules Muse XL... basically a gamers card with full duplex (it says).

I`d need to get the signal from my Shure SM58 to the pc, so it seems I`d either need a phantom-powered mixer (which some have said I`d need a 1204 or something just to monitor the guitar while recording vocals), or are those -12v powered inputs on some soundcards (like the EMU or GINA) ok?

Basically, what`s the cheapest decent option for me to record guitar and vocals seperately... do I need a better soundcard? Do I need a mixer? What s/w is best to record with?

i`ve been scouring ebay for weeks, but haven`t bid on anything as I don`t want to make a mistake.

< confused.....
 
I guess no-one has any opinion about the best soundcard from that list then?
 
i dont think you need phantom power for the sm58, its a live mic used for live purposes(or a dynamic mic)so your alrite with that, id say go for any m audio card and try to stay away from a usb based card, i never used one but thats cause all i hear is that usb isnt very useful for recording, the whole latency thing, and it is naturally slower than pci, firewire is alrite on that subject, also try the sm57 for recording acoustic guitar, it actually sounds really sweet and its under 100
 
Yeah I think pci would be best too.

atm I think it`s between the audiophile 24/96 and the Gina.

The Gina is 20bit but I don`t think I`ll be doing 24bit recording anyway, and it has a breakout box.

I wonder which is better, and which has the better drivers for XP?

I do need power (pre-amp) for the mic to boost the signal... normally I would need alot more than -12v though (is it -48v?? can`t remember)... but I will prob get a small mixer for that anyway.
 
i was in the boat, i went with the m-audio firewire 410.i dont regret a thing,but the last post is right i also record with 58's and i never use the phantom power on the m-audio 410,although its a nice option to have.you also might want to think about the other upsides,4 ins,10 outs,s/pdif and optical ins and outs.also 2 headphone jacks(pretty cool) and midi. it sounds great too most bang for the buck i think
 
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