Put the music sounds into the computer box?

[jm]

So dudes, I have been thinking for a while about moving from writing in Logic with MIDI and prerecorded sounds to actually recording sounds into Logic. But as you know, I am simple and don't understand what all I'd need to make that happen. I imagine this requires a) a microphone (duh), and b) a magic box that sits between the microphone and the computer. 

So a) what kind of microphones to people recommend (let's say I'm looking to record at least vocals, but probably also acoustic instruments and various other sounds. Not drums)?, and b) what kind of magic box do I need? Do I need more than one kind of magic box? What kinds of magic should this/these box/boxes be able to perform?

[alistarr*]

The simple set up is thus:

Instrument > Microphone > Microphone cable (probably XLR) > magic box > cable to computer (probably USB) > computer > Logic configured to "see" that input

So you need to buy at least one microphone, a cable for it and the magic box (which will probably come with its cable).

For recommendations it'd be helpful to know your budget, unless you're planning to build your budget around the advice you get which I guess might work. With music boxes then it's probably better to see what you want and then make sure you can afford it, but with microphones then you kind of need at least a ballpark figure in your head because they go from $5 to $50000.

The magic box you need is essentially a fancy schmancy sound card for your PC which will probably sit externally and connect via USB (if you were asking three years ago then you might also end up looking at ones that connect via Firewire, but I think most manufacturers of both computer boxes and music boxes are moving away from that). There are a bunch of them and what you want will depend on how many tracks you want to record simultaneously, what kind of inputs you want, what kind of quality you need, etc etc (this is a  long, deep and winding rabbit hole we're staring into).

I'll grab some links to examples and be back later.

[alistarr*]

Soundcards/magic boxes:

You can do it different ways but you only really need one box.

When I first started recording to computer I got a Focusrite Saffire with two mic preamps, and I connected that to cubase and I used one Shure SM57 microphone to record. That worked okay, and once I got a little bit more into things and had a bit of money I bought a second microphone (se2200a from SE electronics) and I had two microphones I could use simultaneously.

Then when I wanted to start recording drums and more people I was basically stuck because I'd bought an interface with only two mic pre-amps, so I ended up having to do some massively convoluted stuff to get more inputs into the thing. Which brings me to my point which is that it's good to consider what your needs actually are and what they're going to be.

You could conceivably get something like this:

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/42201-focusrite-saffire-6-usb.html#sterling_uk

and add a mic of your choice and you'd be up and running, but then in a year when you decided you really needed more than two microphones at once then you'd have to work out what to do about that. Whereas if you'd got something like this:

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/38913-focusrite-saffire-pro-40-firewire-audio-interface.html#sterling_uk

then you'd have spent more than twice as much but you'd basically be set for life because you'd have 8 fantastic preamps sitting waiting for you to build up a microphone collection around them. However, maybe you don't need more than 2 mics at once - maybe you're only recording samples or what have you and two inputs is actually more than enough, in which case it would be daft to buy the huge machine. It's about understanding your needs.

The other thing is that if you're recording using microphones then pre-amps are important, and they are not all as good as each other. With careful listening while I'm mastering then I can tell the difference between stuff recorded through my Focusrite preamps and my Yamaha ones - not necessarily a bad difference, but different nonetheless. So if you buy some lame thing because it's super cheap it might well end up disappointing in the long run. Read reviews of any interfaces. I only talk about Focusrite because that's what I know about, and I know I'm happy with it, but there are loads out there.

-----------------

Microphones:

I started with an SM57 and if you're on a tight-ish budget then that's the kind of thing I'd be inclined to recommend for starting out - it will do the job of getting sound into your computer without said sound being crappy. However, different microphones are good for different things and the SM57 is really just a does-everything-okay-but-nothing-awesomely kind of microphone. What I would say is that I think it gets a bit of a bad rap from people because everyone likes to feel like an expert, and if you know (as I do) that you're not an expert then it's actually a really good and low-price all-purpose microphone. I still use it for kick drum and snare when I'm recording drums, and for close-mic-ing guitar speakers. But then again I am not an expert. They run about £100 I think.

So I have two SM57s and I have two by SE electronics - an se3300a and an SE2200a. They were about £400 and £200 respectively. They're both much better for placing further away from stuff - instantly my vocal recordings and any acoustic instruments sounded a lot better when I got the 2200, and better again with the 3300. At this point I'm basically putting my foot down and deciding that given how bad I am at the actual music-making part of things then it would be madness to spend any more money on my recording setup, but the gains were remarkable each time I upgraded. I'd happily recommend either of those mics for your acoustic instrument recording and vocals, if you're after something not-cheap-but-not-ridiculously-expensive. But I think really it depends on your budget. And ideally you'd go test some mics somewhere and see what suits you, but that's never been possible for me.

[alistarr*]

Sorry, I know that's an awful lot of prose to dig through in search of the actual information, but that's apparently how I'm rolling today. If you're shopping around and want to ask about anything in particular or you have any general technical questions I can try and answer them.

Someone like Maaik who actually has real knowledge will probably come along at some point anyway!

[jebreject]

Get a good goddamn condenser mic

[jm]

I was sort of figuring on a SM57 anyway: they're budget-friendly and come recommended as good-enough-for-any-non-pro, so that's cool.

The Focusrite Saffire you were talking about (different models) seem to be within my budget, so that's cool, too.  All of this is great information!

(I had a bunch more stuff typed out earlier, but Tapatalk doesn't seem to want me to post to the thread I created within Tapatalk)