Top home vocal set up!!!

[vocalman]

Hi guys.....

Im a vocalist and i want to get a HOME SET UP capable of recording TOP AUDIO that i can mix down in the big studio!!

What should i get with a budget of around £2,000!! (excluding COMPUTER as i already have a MAC but NO SOFTWARE)

I was thinking a Universal Audio pre amp... £1000 - (6176 Channel Strip)

NT2-A - Rhodes mic - £300 (said to be the best one can buy unless paying more than £1000!!!

Mbox Mini 2 (£300 with protools) - Does this allow gud audio? Is it worth having a TOP PRE AMP going through a lil MBOX??? Or is there a better alternative.....


What do you recommend for creating the best accustics in my flat???

Any advise, experience, opinions PLEASE let me know....

I would like to get my system ASAP so please talk to me now!!
lol

VOCALMAN

[(DC)]

Sounds like a plan, but I would go with the SM7B or RE20 for vocals. Personal preference....

[Kiwiburger]

I have the Rode NT2A, NT2000 and NTK - and I can assure you that the NT2A is a cheap, harsh sounding mic. The NT2000 is much better, and the NTK has that tubey goodness vibe. They are all bright mics that will be a problem for sibilant vocals. Many times I have opted for a Shure SM57 or SM58 or beta thereof. So for that reason I bought an SM7B, which is a choice dynamic vocal mic which served Michael Jackson very well, not to mention Chilli Peppers and numerous other well known vocal tracks.

It all depends on your voice, and your room. The SM7 rejects a lot of room noise, which gives an upfront dry vocal - but maybe that's not what you want. There are so many artistic choices to be made - don't let anyone who doesn't know you tell you what mic suits your voice.

Seriously - book an hour at a well equiped studio, and try every mic and preamp in the place. (Offer to pay for an hour - don't alienate your local studio, because you might need them).

I would recommend you get an excellent external A/D converter so you aren't relying on your soundcard for anything but the digital input. Something with peak meters is very useful for vocals. It allows you to get the noisy computer well away from your mic. Lucid AD9624 is an affordable entry level that will blow away most firewire toys.

Don't forget acoustic treatment, AC power conditioning (e.g. sinewave UPS) and high quality cables.

Do it once, do it right - since you only need one channel you can go straight to the top shelf and save yourself years of heartache.

[warhead]

Vocals?

Front End:

Safe Sound Audio P1 channel strip (decent robust pre, excellent clean compressor / limiter / expander that leaves vocals sounding the same only with a smaller dynamic range)

Mics:

ADK Hamburg
CAD M179
Joemeek JM37DP
Audix i5
APEX 210

That would give you 5 completely different flavors of mics to match just about any voice you could find. They all excel in their (quite low) price range.

War