Looking to upgrade the weakest link

[Texxas_Boy]

I was wondering what would be the best place to start on an upgrade. I already have my mind made up with making at least 20 bass traps and a building a CPU. On top of that i bought a Voxgaurd to place around the Mic..Not sure what to consider next. I only record one person at a time and i make ALL my music itb. No instruments.

The entry level gear i have:
Fast Track Pro
Behringer T1953
DBX 266XL
Kawai EQ-8
KRK Rokit 5 (1st gen)
Rode NT1-a

If i have to go a piece at a time and wait..then im willing to do that. But i dont want to buy any gear that i will regret.

[D_T_Music]

Originally Posted by Texxas_Boy

I was wondering what would be the best place to start on an upgrade. I already have my mind made up with making at least 20 bass traps and a building a CPU. On top of that i bought a Voxgaurd to place around the Mic..Not sure what to consider next. I only record one person at a time and i make ALL my music itb. No instruments.

The entry level gear i have:
Fast Track Pro
Behringer T1953
DBX 266XL
Kawai EQ-8
KRK Rokit 5 (1st gen)
Rode NT1-a

If i have to go a piece at a time and wait..then im willing to do that. But i dont want to buy any gear that i will regret.

If you're treating your room, I'd say then next logical step would be to upgrade your monitors. The more accurate your playback is, the better you'll be able to identify any other weaknesses.

[Texxas_Boy]

some suggestions please

[FilmNMusicman]

I'd also agree and say monitors should be first...Though, I don't think the Rokit 5 are bad monitors. Maybe if you're making dance music with lots of low end you might want larger woofers to reproduce the lows better...

Next I'd say get a better microphone...I like the Nt1a, but not unless its modded...so that's a thought too...I'd say mod yours for cheap, I got mine modded...its amazing.

Then converter quality so that your speakers and mic will reproduce what you're recording and playing back more acurately.

[Jan1973]

Before updating the monitors, I'd buy a good versatile preamp. The UA Twinfinity comes to mind.

[Texxas_Boy]

I make rap and r&B only. I really dont know if i can get a good mix on these speaker or not because ive never heard them in a good room. Another thing i forgot to mention. I use VSTs to make my beats. I have an MPK, which im fine with, and use ableton. I was looking into switching out the fast track for a USB 2.0 interface with good pres and A/Doriginally. But after reading thousands of forum pages i couldnt decide. Seems like the ones everybody though stood up well to higher end gear were overkill for me. I dont need 4- 8 pres like the Stienberg..Maybe two a the max. I was looking at the Babyface but the price pretty much meant i would have to reconsider how much room treatment i could afford and how much love i could put into the CPU. So i got to reading more and seen that the Native Instruments Komplete 6 might have been the next best thing....after all that i said to hell with it, made an account here and decided to pick yalls brain.

[firefly419]

Originally Posted by Texxas_Boy

I was wondering what would be the best place to start on an upgrade. I already have my mind made up with making at least 20 bass traps and a building a CPU. On top of that i bought a Voxgaurd to place around the Mic..Not sure what to consider next. I only record one person at a time and i make ALL my music itb. No instruments.

The entry level gear i have:
Fast Track Pro
Behringer T1953
DBX 266XL
Kawai EQ-8
KRK Rokit 5 (1st gen)
Rode NT1-a

If i have to go a piece at a time and wait..then im willing to do that. But i dont want to buy any gear that i will regret.

Look, I understand that monitors are quite important, but how about upgrading that fast track pro? Without decent conversion, nothing will come out right.... I don't care what monitors you have...

[CXP]

Originally Posted by Texxas_Boy

I was wondering what would be the best place to start on an upgrade. I already have my mind made up with making at least 20 bass traps and a building a CPU. On top of that i bought a Voxgaurd to place around the Mic..Not sure what to consider next. I only record one person at a time and i make ALL my music itb. No instruments.

The entry level gear i have:
Fast Track Pro
Behringer T1953
DBX 266XL
Kawai EQ-8
KRK Rokit 5 (1st gen)
Rode NT1-a

If i have to go a piece at a time and wait..then im willing to do that. But i dont want to buy any gear that i will regret.

What DAW are you using? If you do all ITB I would recomend Sonar X1 Producer Expanded with the upgraded Softube mods. The Rokits are fine for getting a good mix. You just need to learn how they translate (takes time). You need to grab some decent headphones for you and your vocalist. HD 280's are a great value and pretty standard fare in most studios. Take the 1953 out of your chain, you are only adding noise. Grab a GAP-73 or BLA mic pre. The Fast Track has pretty good converters. If you want to do an upgrade that will last forever, save for a UAD Apollo flexi. The NT-1 is not bad but I would suggest the mod. A good entry level tube mic like the NTK or (if you can find one) a CL TS-2 will add a few points to your tone.

Your current set-up can actually make some pretty good mixes (minus the behringer). You may also want to add a BCF-2000 controller for workflow purposes.

I hope this helps!

[Texxas_Boy]

I use Reaper. Years ago i used Protools but the limited track count and bad midi sent me packing. So i use Ableton to make my tracks, which suits my work flow. This T1953 preamp gets some terrible reviews but i will say this...the pres on the Fast Track Pro are much much worse. I can get to about 45-50 dB before hearing the noise floor on the T1953. Fast Track the noise floor is always there.

Other than that i got a pair of AKG K240 studio's with nice velour pads on them. I will look up this Mic Mod.

So far Im getting that the KRKs are a mixed bag.. Nobody pointed out the DBX so i guess thats not on the top of the list (i use very little comp tracking). The EQ was not pointed out.

The mic, Pre, Monitors and Interface seem like the ones to go. I would like to narrow this down myself and get an interface with decent pres so i can save up for one of those 800-1000 dollar pres

[brianellefson]

You'll get a million different responses on here about your gear. I'll be the weird guy and point out something totally different. Keep in mind, this is just what I'D do if I were you.

If you haven't already done so before, I'd really consider looking into studios in your area that give courses. The best money I ever spent on music was taking an eight-week class at a local studio and learning all of the details on mic placement, compression, mixing, etc. Using what I learned made all of my gear at that time sound better. Honestly. And my time at the studio was 100% spent on gear, mixing, mixing, etc. ... real world stuff. I think I paid four or five hundred, can't remember.

I know it's not cool because you don't end up with a new piece of gear, but for me at least it really helped me to identify where my weaknesses were in my own work. I write and record my own music and use a studio to mix down, but rough track at my house. Learning that stuff helped me get better results out of everything. Since then, yeah, I've done some upgrading, but none of that stuff has given me the results that an education did.

Anyway, just my point of view.

[Texxas_Boy]

Preciate the reply Brian. Im actually have done what youve said and it has helped plenty along with plenty of money on books as well. When it comes to the art of it im actually pretty good. Im prett y well versed in gain staging, compression, eq and all that. I sit around and play with all the million dollar equipment at school too. Im pretty good on the "Art" side, where im not well versed is the "Tech" side. Once you start getting into whats inside of the equipment like "What converters are the best?" and "This unit sounds good because it has transformers on the input and output." Thats when it all becomes alien to me.

[brianellefson]

Everyone has to go through that. I know what you're saying. I'm probably not that far ahead of you. The thing is, I would like to STAY primarily a musician. The idea of spending anymore time on tech stuff than I have to is bad to me. I just wanna turn stuff on and get good quality recordings with as little work as possible. So I figure the better the gear and my abilities - the less time I'll have to spend finagling on the tech side. I love the gear, but sometimes I find myself spending more time on it than making music. Blech.

Good luck man.

[Jose]

Buy good monitors, at least you'll be able to listen what the hell is happening.