Entry level recording equipment

[txbluesboy]

This is exactly what I'm trying to do!!
The Prosonus Firepod is probably more
than I need, but I would probably wish
I had more features later. Maybe better
to spend a little more now and not have to
upgrade later. The part about "READ THE
INSTRUCTIONS" always trips me up.
Thanks everyone

[selloutrr]

if you don't read the manuals, you might not have the gear balanced properly and have all sorts of issues. i.e. +4db / -10db balanced / unbalanced. mic / line. some gear has the hot+ on pin 3 others pin 2. consumer gear is all over the place. seriously if you can't focus enough to read up on what you have a studio might not be the way to go. Recording is about kowing every in and out of your equipment so you can make the most out of it. Just turning knobs and getting lucky is just asking for a headache. if you are trying to build a small studio to make some $ on the side. monitors and a tuned room are almost the most important. The most important is knowing your room! so when you turn the knob you know exactly what you are doing and how that effects the over all sound out in the real world. you can mix in the box so forget the console. don't waste your money on anything you can buy in a catalog.. they are all shit! save up buy a used protools mix24 TDM system with mac G4 dual 1gb or better. they are awesome the plugins are hacked so they are free, and session can be mixed on an HD rig. you just can't open an HD session on a TDM. buy a Control 24 DAW surface it'll give you 16 decent focusrite preamps and get you going. if you want to get started, budget $30,000 for gear. and plan on spending a lot more before you are making radio quality albums.
I'm not 100% sure what you are trying to do, and i'm not sure you are, Think it over and see what you come up with. If you are looking to make recording your career, honestly give up. it's a dead end, napster and filing sharing ruined the record industry and only a handful of studios are still in business. unless you are ready to jump in and buy nothing but top end gear it's a waste of money you would make more betting it all on Red. the $30,000 i suggested you budget to get started, next year will be worth $17,000, the year after, $10,000... digital holds no value as we want bigger better faster more. what that $30,000 buys you now, new would have cost you $200,000 4 years ago. BTW all digital gear - it's a must to read the manual if you ever want it to sound better then the factory presets which 9 out of 10 times suck!

[surfsup]

@SurfsUp Agree with most of your step-by-step above, but I think it is important to create the original dry track while playing through the amp... you get the amp dynamics, etc. and the benefit of the touch/sensitivity feedback for the player. Then you can re-amp.

The only drawback to this is if you are trying to modify the feel/dynamics! But for straight tone tweaking this has worked very well for me.

I agree, and already mentioned in an earlier post to do that (its what I do), to route this way:

Guitar -> in to presonus -> DAW -> hardware out to presonus -> out to reamp -> amp

Mic in front of amp -> into presonus -> DAW

This way he can record dry while listening to the amp play to ensure a good first track, then double track for each amp mod he makes.

In Reaper this is easy, arm track for record, pick your input, set an i/o hardware out (I use harware 5), plug a cable into the back of presonus at 5 position, run it to reamp, run another cable to amp.

You need three 1/4" cables (long enough to allow all to reach)
You need one amp with separate speaker cab
You need a reamp or DI that will convert the signal
You have the SM57
You need a mic stand
You need a mic cable
You need a preamp interface (presonus, etc)

You already have the guitar mic and PC.

[daydreamer]

Recently did an upgrade and found the best thing of all to have...a BUDGET!!!

+1 on the room being most important. Go sing in the bathroom, then the lounge, then out side...environment is everything. Even crap equipment can go OK if the room sounds good.

I use Harrison Mixbus as a DAW which comes with the DSP from their consoles. Real cheap ($100) but sounds great. Comes with compressors, EQ and tape saturation on every channel and analog summing algorithms on 4 busses which really work to get that classic charm... only works on a Mac though.