Need help choosing mic & pre-amp for radio work.

[Sonic Nomad]

Hi all

I'm new. Have been checking out the forums and think that some of you may be able to give me some good advice.

Firstly I'm in Namibia, for those of you (prob. most) who don't know where Namibia is ... it's just North West of South Africa.

I have a small project studio at the back of my house where a lot of the local Radio Adverts, Jingles, ID Tunes, song production, Re-Mixes and other "turd polishing" duties take place. The latter reffering to the fact we can't turn all work away and at times have to put up with untalented types.

I am very unhappy with quality of the recording that I'm getting and would like do something about it.

Of recent the local ad agencies have begun to make more use of our services and they have even stopped sending the jobs to the bigger South African Production Facilities. Having won awards within the local Ad. industry for the last two years has also helped bring the work.
All the stuff I know I have learnt from reading mags and the net.

Now to my request.....

I currently have the following gear....

Mackie HR824
RPG Aucoustics Kit - Panels & Bass Traps
Mackie 1402VLZ Pro
M-Audio Delta 66 -- Crappy Convertors
Fostex D-5
Roland D-50 Keyboard
Roland XV-3080
EMU Proteus 2000
Waldorf Microwave 2
Studio Project C1 - Super Sibilant Microphone


As I do varied types of work I need to be geared toward this and also remain realistic with my budgets.
I may a Big Fish but this is a very small pond so budgets are limited.

My first plan of action is to get the following;

Focurite TwinTrak Pro2 - with ADC Option
or
VoiceMaster Pro

a U$ 1000.00 Mic - Valve? - Rode or Neumann or AKG C414
Needs to give decent results on both spoken ad sung vox.

Emu Emulator X Studio - would like the sampler
or
Lynx Two Card

As I can't afford to go Pro Tools with all the lovely plugs, I've been thinking of going for the UAD-1 and the PowerCore for my mixing & mastering duties. Any comments on these products

I may not go for a new sound card as the TrakMaster's Digital I/O may do the job for now.....


Any recomendations . ... sorry for the long post....
Your help in this matter is greatly appreciated!!

Thanks

David

[Dave Martin]

In your position, I would look at one of the 'industry standard' voiceover microphones - a Shure SM7, an Electrovoice RE-20, or (I've seen this in some radio stations) a Sennheiser 421. All can be used with success on singers as well as voiceover work. And all are a lot less and $1000. In fact, if you are lucky, you could buy all three on the used market for less than $1000. I would not spend any money on the Platinum series Focusrite; the VLZ preamps are arguable as good (or as bad) as those do.

The Lynx card seems like a good idea, assuming that you're doing all of your work in the computer. Do you need multi-track capability? If not, you could perhaps find a used LynxOne card, which has stereo I/O and surprisingly good converters.

[Sonic Nomad]

Thanks Dave