SM57, Yamaha MG mixer, Delta 44... How good is this setup ?

[thebells]

Originally Posted by mikeon

Hi everyone,, this is my 1st post here in this great community.Feels great to be a part of it.

Well, A SM57 into a yamaha mg mixer with its onboard preamps into a delta 44 sound card. Is this a good setup for a beginner like me ?I need this setup mostly for vocals and maybe sometimes an acoustic/electric guitar.Question is how good are the pre's on the mixer ? Will they give me a good enough sound? What about the delta 44 ?Well I can't do anything bout the card as I already purchased it, but Will it work well enough for my purpose? The mic and mixer I have not yet purchased so suggestions would be valuable.

Mike

the delta 44 will definitely work well enough for your purposes.

[PoorGlory]

You are off to a good start. None of that gear is bad by any means. Those cheap Yamaha MG mixers are probably the best of the ultra-cheap variety. The pres should do you fine for a while. The SM57 will get you the versatility you need until you start building up the mic collection, and even then you will probably still use it regularly. The Delta is good for you at this point in time.

Learn the basics, learn to make the most out of what you have. That's what will help you be better when you gradually accumulate more and better gear. I started out with a Tascam cassette 4 track and a Radio Shack mic. I recorded on that thing non-stop for years, constantly trying to mimic what I was hearing on commercial recordings (which was pretty much impossible given my gear). I moved up to the Digidesign Toolbox (I think thats what it was called) with the Audiomedia 3 PCI card (dreadful sounding piece of shit), and took off from there. Now I have more gear that I can shake a stick at, more microphones that I will ever need, and a console with more channels than I can make use of. Ridiculous? Maybe. But goddam it feels good.

[mistermarvel]

I have a very similar setup and it does great for learning. The only bad part is that if I understand you right you may want to get a second mic and record simultaneous guitar/singing in different channels, and the Yamaha mixers are a pain for getting those recordings to sound right. I pay a lot of attention to space and EQ when i'm listening and even after tampering tons with it it frustrated me. I ended up wanting to multitrack and just process ITB.

[mikeon]

Any suggestions on the mixer front ? The MG series is supposed to be the best in its class right ? I was wondering if the preamps on it are as good as Yamaha claim, I know its all marketing but, they say the price of the preamp if sold separately would be equal to the price of the mixer itself ! Any truth in it ? What is the latency using the delta 44?

[Jonboy79]

Originally Posted by mikeon

Any suggestions on the mixer front ? The MG series is supposed to be the best in its class right ? I was wondering if the preamps on it are as good as Yamaha claim, I know its all marketing but, they say the price of the preamp if sold separately would be equal to the price of the mixer itself ! Any truth in it ? What is the latency using the delta 44?

The preamps aren't great but they won't prevent you from making a decent recording. I'd not worry so much about the quality of your gear, just the quality of your music.

[Shadow_7]

Any particular reason you need a mixer as the mic preamp? I have the Delta 44 and am very happy with it. And I have a DMP3 which is two channels of preamp for input into the Delta 44. I only have one mic AT4033a at the moment. Which suits my needs for now.

[mikeon]

I was thinking of going the mixer route since the delta 44 has 4 inputs , i would at least be able to use all 4 one day if I had to, using the mixer right ?With a preamp in similar price range I would get only 2 inputs... but I won't be seeing an upgrade for quite some time now so....

[mikeon]

I was reading around the net and found out that the insert point can be used to as a direct out, to send individual output to the sound card, but the mixer I'm planning to buy the Yamaha MG 10/2 has only 2 insert points so ill be able to send only 2 individual output tracks, is that true ? Is there any way I can send 4 individual tracks which the delta 44 supports with this same model? Please let me know...

[mistermarvel]

That's the mixer I've been using and so far I haven't seen a way to do four different outs, which is the problem I was mentioning. Everything is bussed together before it comes out the outputs. I think there are a little bit more expensive MG mixers that will be able to do what you're talking about though.

[mikeon]

I have'nt yet bought the mixer so I was thinking about the MG 12/4 which has 4 inserts and 3/4 alt bus... I think this should work the way I want it too...

BTW has anyone tried the compressor on the newer Yamaha MG 'c' mixers ?

[mikeon]

One more question...

Are the insert points while being used as direct outs, balanced or unbalanced, they use TRS jacks so that means they are balancedc right? TS is unbalanced rite ?

Pardon my ignorance if I'm wrong...

[day-go]

an insert cable starts as trs on one end, but splits into two ts plugs--one to send to the effect, the other to return to the effected signal to the channel. here are some pictures of insert cables.

so i believe the signal you get from the inserts will be unbalanced. you will have to use a trs cable and only plug it in until the first "click" at the insert point in order to get a direct out (my explanation probably isn't very clear, but it's easy to do). don't get too caught up on the balanced/unbalanced hype though, an unbalanced signal can sound just fine.

i think you can get at least four independent outputs on that mg mixer. i used to have one of these, and if i remember right, you can pan one channel hard left and the other hard right, and then have each channel separate on the main outs. i think it is then possible to run the inserts directly out to your delta 44 without having them send to the main mix, giving you two more independent channels.

your setup sounds just fine for what you're doing. i think the mg series preamps are quite good for the money, and they blow away just about everything else in the price range.

[Jonboy79]

Originally Posted by mikeon

One more question...

Are the insert points while being used as direct outs, balanced or unbalanced, they use TRS jacks so that means they are balancedc right? TS is unbalanced rite ?

Pardon my ignorance if I'm wrong...

I'm not positive but I believe if you're using the jacks the way you're talking about you'll be going unbalanced. However if you keep you cables short enough it shouldn't really make a huge difference.

[LoudChris]

I've had a little MG 12/4 mixer for a couple of years. I don't use it for recording, but do use it as an all around utility mixer for headphones, jaming, sub groups, and I've rented it out, so It's been all the way to Russia and back on tours. I've also used them a ton in various clubs around on tour.

It sounds very clean, and get's the job done. It still works after all it's traveling, and being dropped quite a lot! Great little mixer for the money.

[Factory101]

I bought an MG16/6FX and never regretted it...it's a GREAT starter mixer IMO (reasonable sound, well-engineered, flexible, cheap, etc).

I also bought a Rode NT1-A mic and I would recommend this (with a good stand and popscreen) over the SM57...I don't own an SM57 but I do own an SM58.

Another option is to splash out on a Yamaha USB mixer if you're connecting to a computer...this would save on buying an interface; the down side of this is that separates are easier to upgrade.

I have an 01X now (another recommendation) but I still use the MG16/6 every day.